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Earn Your Health Informatics Online Certificate

Kent State University’s flexible, affordable graduate certificate in health informatics can help you rapidly reach your career goals in this dynamic discipline that’s modernizing healthcare.

Course Delivery
100% online
Total Credits
18
Approximate Cost per Credit
$725 in state
$735 out of state
Time to Completion
Graduate in as little as 1 year
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Transform your career with skills in modern healthcare management. Health informatics offers opportunities in several industries, and a 100% online graduate degree from Kent State University can help you chart a clear path to success.

Download our guide to learn more about:

  • Career Opportunities
  • Customizing Your Degree
  • The Student Experience
  • Admission Requirements
  • Tuition and Financial Aid

Certificate Program Overview

Your analytic skills and commitment to quality healthcare can earn you rich rewards in the fast-growing, well-paid field of health informatics (HI).

Gain essential interdisciplinary knowledge in this healthcare specialty that is revolutionizing all aspects of healthcare delivery with our targeted skills development courses. Make professional connections with the world-renowned Northeast Ohio healthcare system that will help you advance your career.

Our health informatics online certificate program:

  • Is open to people with bachelor’s degrees
  • Offers asynchronous online flexibility
  • Has a part-time workload with focused, 7-week courses

See the Courses

Earning your health informatics certificate online could be just the beginning of your professional education. You can transfer 12 credits from Kent State’s online certificate in health informatics to the Master of Health Informatics (MSHI) degree when you decide to continue.

Our admissions process focuses on your work and goals, not test scores. You only need to tell us about your education and your plans for the future. Then document your work with transcripts and references in our straightforward application process. An Admissions Advisor will be happy to help you with your application.

Kent State Is a Top-Ranked, Military Friendly® School

Kent State has been helping students realize their dreams since 1910, and we launched our first online course almost 20 years ago. We’re committed to helping you reach your goals, and that shows in our accreditation and rankings. We’re proud to rank in the top 7% of public universities and to be recognized with the Military Friendly® gold designation.1, 2

Military Friendly School ‘22-23 Gold

Make Time for Your Future

Between work and family obligations, making time for graduate-level classes can be challenging. We understand that and have designed our programs to accommodate you. Earn your online certificate in health informatics from Kent State in as little as one year. Our flexible, 100% online courses make it easy to schedule your studies around your life.

Professionally Connected Faculty

Professionally connected innovators and thought leaders, our health informatics online certificate faculty are widely published and have developed courses on a range of digital health and health informatics topics. Collectively, they have led research projects for hospitals, universities, businesses, non-profit organizations and the National Science Foundation. They’re active in industry associations, including:

  • Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)
  • Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine
  • Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI)
  • LeadingAge Center for Healthcare Technologies (CAST)
  • Human Factors and Ergonomic Society (HFES)
  • American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA
Nurse with tablet sitting at desk and typing

Integrating Disciplines

Our faculty integrate real-world experiences and case studies from the field, blending theory and practice within the program’s curriculum. The field of health informatics draws from several domains, including the social and behavioral sciences, healthcare, technology and information sciences. The courses in our curriculum reflect the diversity of influences.

Core courses for the health informatics online certificate synthesize information about diverse aspects of health information systems and informatics management, providing a solid conceptual grounding for further study on subjects tailored to your needs and professional interests.

Is a Health Informatics Certificate Worth It?

The graduate certificate in health informatics is a wise investment for many reasons. Because Kent State is a public research university, our low tuition rates make the health informatics certificate cost very affordable. The certificate carries the same prestige as a credential earned on campus while saving you time and money. You don’t have to relocate, commute or even attend classes at a set time. And you can apply most of your credits to a future Kent State master’s in health informatics. So if you want to be part of the evolution of healthcare management, the health informatics online certificate is definitely worth it.

What Can You Do With a Health Informatics Certificate?

Professionals with the right education and experience can earn very comfortable six-figure salaries in this field, where sustained robust job growth is expected through 2030. Here are some sample titles and average salaries from O*Net, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor.

$100,9103
Clinical Data Manager
$99,2704
Health Informatics Specialist
$100,1705
Administrative Manager

Skills You Will Develop

Our online certificate in health informatics can help you thrive professionally in patient care, services administration or systems design and implementation. In as little as one year, you’ll be ready to manage healthcare records, support clinical decisions, and conduct clinical analytics.

After completing the two core classes that give you a comprehensive introduction to the field, you can customize the coursework to focus on a range of topics, including:

  • Clinical decision support systems
  • Clinical analytics
  • Knowledge management
  • Semantic analysis
  • Information architecture
  • Project management
  • Business process management

You may also pursue individual investigation of health informatics subjects that interest you.

Opportunities in Many Sectors

Our health informatics online certificate can help you optimize digital healthcare technology and data management to improve health outcomes. Leverage your skill set at the individual, systems or population level across economic sectors, including:

  • Healthcare
  • Educational services
  • Scientific/other professional services
  • Technology
  • Government

Learn more about potential careers in health informatics.

Sample Job Titles

A few more typical health informatics job titles are:

  • Pharmacy Informatics Coordinator
  • Clinical Informatics Specialist
  • System Analyst
  • Medical And Health Services Manager
  • Information Systems Manager

Visit our community page for articles on different health informatics roles, among other topics.

Courses

Courses are each seven weeks long, and you can take two courses sequentially each semester. This curriculum design allows you to study part-time, focusing on each subject individually and complete the program in as little as one year.

Required Courses (6 Credits)

HI 60401 HEALTH INFORMATICS MANAGEMENT (3 CREDITS)

Covers the areas encompassing health informatics management including the planning, selection, deployment and management of electronic medical records (EMR), management decision-support and tracking systems (DSS), and other health information technologies (HIT).

HI 60403 HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEMS (3 CREDITS)

Prerequisite: HI 60401

Introduction to information systems and their applications in healthcare used for managerial and clinical support. Study the fundamentals of information systems, including electronic medical records (EMR), and information security. Understand the role of standardized codes, vocabularies and terminologies used in health information systems. Analyze management and enterprise systems, and identify the key elements to manage information resources effectively and the trends affecting the development of health information systems and networks.

Electives (12 Credits)

Choose 12 additional credits from the following courses:

HI 60402 LEGAL ISSUES IN HEALTH INFORMATICS (3 CREDITS)

Prerequisite: HI 60401

Introduction to the fundamentals of law for health informatics and information management. Elements of the course include general legal principles and healthcare; legal electronic medical records (EMR); Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy rules and security rules; access, requests and disclosure of health information; required reporting and mandatory disclosure laws; risk management and quality improvement; compliance; workforce overview; and related ethics and social issues.

HI 60410 HEALTH RECORDS MANAGEMENT (3 CREDITS)

Prerequisite: HI 60401

Conceptual foundations and practicum for health records management, including the planning, implementation and operation of electronic medical records (EMR); the management of EMR in management and enterprise systems; identifying, selecting and evaluating EMR and health information systems, applications and repositories; and issues of data quality, integrity, migration and interoperability.

HI 60411 CLINICAL ANALYTICS (3 CREDITS)

Prerequisite: HI 60401 or MIS 64936

The use of well-defined and well-integrated clinical analytics throughout the healthcare value chain can be transformative. Through careful implementation of health analytics, hospitals can transform unwieldy amalgamations of data into information that can improve patient outcomes, increase safety, enhance operational efficiency and support public health. Given the immense size of the data challenge, the distinctness and geographic spread of many healthcare-related activities, and the fact that so many healthcare activities are conducted by different entities which must interact with each other, there is really no other way to provide operations management tools necessary to deliver personalized medicine and to control spiraling costs. Since clinical analytics is an immature discipline, we carefully examine the practices of those institutions who are standard setters in the industry.

HI 60414 HUMAN FACTORS AND USABILITY IN HEALTH INFORMATICS (3 CREDITS)

Prerequisite: HI 60401, with a minimum grade of C

Provides students with the foundational principles of usability and human factors as applied to safety and quality in health informatics technology. Course readings and materials review the concepts of human factors, usability and the cognitive consequences of health information technology on clinical performance and decision making. Attention is given to the role of mobile computing in healthcare, as well as information visualization.

HI 60636 STANDARDIZED TERMINOLOGIES IN HEALTHCARE (3 CREDITS)

Introduce various types of standardized healthcare terminologies (controlled vocabularies) used in electronic health records (EHR) and the Health Information Exchange (HIE). Presents the benefits of using standardized terminologies, as well as the interoperability and meaningful use (MU) requirements and standards. Explain the purposes, structures, components and application of the most widely implemented standardized terminologies such as ICD, CPT, SNOMED CT, LOINC, RxNorm, ICNP and UMLS.

HI 60412 CLINICAL DECISION SUPPORT (3 CREDITS)

Prerequisite: HI 60401

Provides a practical survey of clinical decision support systems that collect clinical data and enable the transition to clinical knowledge in real world applications intended to improve quality and safety of patient care. Students become familiar with the basic requirements for clinical decision support systems and the challenges associated with the development and deployment of new applications within the healthcare setting.

HI 60413 CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN HEALTH INFORMATICS (3 CREDITS)

Prerequisite: HI 60401

Designed to cover the process of change management in large healthcare organizations in light of current trends. Topics related to technology requirements, technology implementations, risk assessment and buy-in are among those covered.

HI 60415 HEALTH INFORMATICS INQUIRY AND ASSESSMENT (3 CREDITS)

Prerequisite: HI 60401, with a minimum grade of C

Provides a foundation for understanding research in health informatics with a focus on user and experience design research. Through lectures, readings, discussions and assignments, students review user research methods, data collection techniques and communication strategies within the healthcare context. Students then apply this knowledge to creating a research plan for assessing health information technology and communicating results to key organizational stakeholders.

HI 60416 ETHICS, POLITICS AND POLICY IN HEALTH INFORMATICS (3 CREDITS)

This course uses a policy analysis lens to critically examine issues related to the use of information technology in healthcare from an ethical, political and regulatory perspective. The primary focus will be on the United States, but international approaches will also be discussed. Legislation affecting the health information technology area will be examined including the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, HITECH section; the Affordable Care Act; and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. Topics and issues related to health informatics including the structure of health administrative and delivery systems, the assessment of population health, models of health care delivery, access and quality of care will also be discussed.

HI 60417 PUBLIC HEALTH INFORMATICS (3 CREDITS)

Public health informatics (PHI) is an emergent, interdisciplinary field that focuses on the systematic management and dynamic application of information resources to enhance public health practice, education and research. As an emerging subset of health informatics, PHI is practiced by individuals, government agencies and nongovernmental organizations at the international, national, regional, state and local levels. PHI deals with the collection and analysis of vital statistics data through surveillance; information creation; information storage and retrieval; visualization and graphics; dissemination; and the use of information for policy, decision-making and trend tracking. The purpose of this course is to provide students with an introductory overview of the vast and dynamic field of PHI, including definitions, approaches, competencies, applications and informatics principles applied in public health settings.

HI 60418 CLINICAL ANALYTICS 2 (3 CREDITS)

As the volume and complexity of health data continues to grow, analysis of that data requires more advanced tools to transform it into meaningful information for clinical decisions. Not only is data from electronic medical records (EMRs) growing at a rapid pace, but new types of data, such as genomic data and patient-generated data, are available for analysis. These advanced analytic tools break down into three areas: new data warehousing techniques to manage big data, new analytic tools including cognitive computing and predictive analytics, and new ways to visualize the data. All of these techniques transform the raw data into use cases, such as, population health, precision medicine and clinical decision support using artificial intelligence and machine learning.

HI 60691 SEMINAR IN HEALTH INFORMATICS (3 CREDITS)

(Repeatable for credit) Advanced research by students who are qualified to examine problems of certain special areas related to concentrations of study in health informatics.

HI 60792 ELECTIVE INTERNSHIP IN HEALTH INFORMATICS (FOR STUDENTS WITH NO HEALTHCARE BACKGROUND) (2-3 CREDITS)

Supervised work experience in health informatics of a professional nature of not less than 100 clock hours (for 2 credit hours) or 150 clock hours (for 3 credit hours) with directed preparation of a reflection paper. In-progress (IP) mark permissible. Satisfactory/unsatisfactory (S/U) graded.

HI 61095 SPECIAL TOPICS COURSES IN HEALTH INFORMATICS (3 CREDITS)

(Repeatable for credit). Offered irregularly as resources and/or opportunities permit. Topics could include current or emerging issues in health informatics. Specific topics are announced in the Schedule of Classes.

HI 61096 INDIVIDUAL INVESTIGATION IN HEALTH INFORMATICS (3 CREDITS)

(Repeatable for credit). Research or individual investigation in areas not covered by the existing curriculum for master's level students. A maximum of six credit hours may be applied to the Master of Science in Health Informatics degree. In-progress (IP) mark permissible.

Tuition and Financial Aid

The online Postbaccalaureate Certificate in Health Informatics consists of 18 credits.

Ohio ResidentsOut of State
Per Credit Hour$725$735
Approximate Program Cost$13,050$13,230

An additional distance learning fee for all students enrolled in a distance learning course is $15 per credit hour. Program tuition and costs are estimated and subject to change. For comprehensive tuition information, please refer to the tuition rates posted on the Bursar’s website.

We recognize that pursuing a graduate degree is a significant investment. Your Admissions Advisor can answer your questions on program costs, discuss how a Kent State degree compares to others and connect you with financial aid representatives when you are ready to discuss your financial options.

Please contact an Admissions Advisor for more information on tuition and fees either by email at onlinedegrees@kent.edu or toll-free at +1 844‑234‑4073.

Schedule a Call Download Application Checklist

Admissions Requirements

  • Completed online application
  • Complete bachelor’s degree, with a GPA of 2.75 or higher (on a 4.0 scale), from an accredited university
  • Three letters of recommendation from professors and/or employers
  • Application fee: $45
  • Official transcripts
  • Statement of purpose
  • Resume/CV
  • No GRE required for admission

The application process is simple and we’re here to guide you through it.

Our Admissions Advisors are happy to answer your questions regarding admissions requirements for the program. If you have questions, please email us at onlinedegrees@kent.edu or call us toll-free at +1 844-234-4073.

Schedule a Call Download Application Checklist

Important Dates

Jul
5
Priority Application Deadline
Fall 2023 Semester
Aug
7
Application Deadline
Fall 2023 Semester
Aug
21
First Day of Class
Fall 2023 Semester

Application Resources

Health informatics graduate program application checklist

Our step-by-step application checklist will help ensure the success of your application submission.

Download Checklist

Application FAQs

Create an account in the online application system to save your work and track the progress of materials submitted via the application system.

I am a U.S. citizen. Where should I send my application materials?

If you are a U.S. citizen or permanent U.S. resident, all required application materials should be sent to the Division of Graduate Studies at gradapps@kent.edu or by mail to:

Graduate Admissions
P.O. Box 5190
Kent, Ohio 44242

Please be sure to include your full name and Kent State ID (9-digit number starting with 8) on all submitted documents. For questions, contact Graduate Admissions at +1 330-672-2661 or gradapps@kent.edu.

I am not a U.S. citizen. Where should I send my application materials?

If you are not a U.S. citizen or permanent U.S. resident, all required documents should be submitted to the Office of Global Education at intladm@kent.edu or by mail to:

Office of Global Education
Kent State University
106 Van Campen Hall
625 Loop Rd.
Kent, OH 44242
USA

For questions, contact International Admissions at +1 330-672-7970 or intladm@kent.edu.

See How We Support Your Success

Our accomplished and caring faculty have designed a comprehensive program in a user-friendly online format to help you thrive in this dynamic field.

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Immersive Online Curriculum

Designed for busy working professionals and students seeking to expand their career options.
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Learn from Experts

Study with award-winning professors, with diverse professional backgrounds, who are authorities in their field.
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Health Informatics Career Potential

Gain expertise in creating data collection systems that operate at peak efficiency and effectiveness.
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Important Dates

Jul
5
Priority Application Deadline
Fall 2023 Semester
Aug
7
Application Deadline
Fall 2023 Semester
Aug
21
First Day of Class
Fall 2023 Semester

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Sources
  1. Retrieved on July 9, 2022, from premium.usnews.com/best-colleges/kent-state-university-3051/overall-rankings
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