Health Informatics, MS Clinical Informatics Specialization

The Clinical Informatics specialization is designed to prepare students to master the knowledge and skills reflected in the core content for clinical informatics approved by the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), which defines the boundaries of the discipline and informs the program requirements for fellowship education in clinical informatics. This specialization also prepares students for board certification in medical informatics, a designated medical subspecialty. 

Curriculum

Core Courses (5 units)

Course Title
MHI 401-DLAmerican Health Care System
MHI 403-DLFundamentals of Health Informatics
MHI 407-DLLegal, Ethical, and Social Issues
MSHA 480-DLHealth Analytics Leadership
MHI 498-DLCapstone Project
or MHI 590-0 Thesis Research

Specialization Courses (7 units)

Course Title
MHI 405-DLHIT Standards and Interoperability
MHI 406-DLDecision Support Systems and Health Care
MS_IDS 452-DLIntro to Data Collection and Analytics
CIS 413-DLTelecommunications and Computer Networks
Any three electives
Introduction to Clinical Thinking
Health Care Operations
Information System Acquisition & Lifecycle
Consumer Digital Health
Data Literacy and Analytics in Healthcare
Database Systems Design & Implementation
Statistical Analysis
Feature Engineering and Text Mining
Introduction to Techniques of Predictive Analytics
Data and Digital Platforms
Research Design for Data Science
Project Management
Models and Theories of User-Centered Design
Data Science, Management, and Business Strategy
Global Health Systems
Global Health and Technology

About the Final Project 

As a culminating experience, students will put into practice the knowledge and skills they have learned during their coursework through a Capstone Project. Students will have the opportunity to develop and implement a Health Informatics project with an industry or university partner or in their workplace. Alternatively, students can develop a culminating, two-part project. This alternative capstone project will leverage health informatics to provide an innovative, consultative response to a need or problem arising as part of a real-world case study. The project will challenge each student to conduct and integrate comprehensive research and to apply knowledge, skills, and competencies built through coursework they have completed in the MHI program.

In addition to each student’s individual research and project development, the course emphasizes collaboration with fellow students by using the Canvas discussion board to crowdsource strategies and approaches for their Capstone Project. Each student will work with the instructor to establish an “Advisory Committee” for their project which, ideally, will be comprised of a “Knowledge Expert” from the organization they are working with and a faculty advisor from the Northwestern University Health Informatics program.

Course Title
Choose one
Capstone Project
Thesis Research