Health Informatics centres on facilitating the planning, delivery and evaluation of high-quality, cost-effective healthcare.
Health informatics is an important part of New Zealand’s population-based approach to health, which endeavours to maximise the health outcomes from every dollar spent.
High-quality, cost-effective healthcare is achieved through analysing planning and delivery to find the best possible approach. It looks at how we spend on health, and how the information gathered can be used more effectively. This includes such things as identifying those likely to benefit from preventive care, monitoring the coverage of health services (eg, screening and vaccination programmes), and integrating care provided in various settings, including general practice, clinics and hospitals.
If you have strengths in strategic thinking and designing process and systems to achieve a desirable result, then Health Informatics could be the ideal subject for you.
Areas of study
Studying this subject will provide you with knowledge and understanding of the principles of health informatics, health knowledge management and healthcare decision support systems.
Where can Health Informatics take you?
There are many roles involved in running health organisations that require a Health Informatics skill set. With advances in technology, there is a growing need for people who can apply their computing, information management and telecommunication skills to support the design, development, implementation and evaluation of information and healthcare information systems.
Postgraduate study in Health Informatics
You can study Health informatics in a Postgraduate Certificate in Public Health, Postgraduate Diploma in Health Sciences, Master of Health Sciences or Master of Public Health.
In the Health Informatics specialisation, the core courses are:
- HLTHINFO 728 – Principles of Health Informatics
- HLTHINFO 723 – Health Knowledge Management
- HLTHINFO 730 – Healthcare Decision Support Systems
The topics covered include the design, implementation and re-engineering of information processes, diagnostic and intervention decision support, health information coding and classification, knowledge management, messaging standards and privacy and security.
Courses
Course information:
- Health Informatics
- Postgraduate Certificate in Health Sciences in Health Informatics
- Postgraduate Diploma in Health Sciences in Health informatics
Where can postgraduate study in Health Informatics take you?
Advances in technology, including electronic health records and information processes, mean there is now a wide variety of roles that require Health Informatics knowledge and skills.
There are many career opportunities for people with training and experience. Areas include the design and implementation of information privacy and security solutions, the development and use of standards for messaging, terminology and data coding, diagnostic and intervention decision support, and electronic healthcare records, as well as the ability to work effectively within multi-disciplinary teams.