Medicine & Health Sciences

You can enter the field from backgrounds in healthcare, IT, or life sciences, as long as you build both domain knowledge and technical expertise. 

Begin with a related course, BSc, MSc, or Diploma etc. in Health Informatics. 

Learn about the basics of healthcare systems, electronic health records, and analytics while gaining experience in healthcare IT through internships or entry-level jobs.

Overall, Health Informatics is a growing hybrid field that is very much part of the healthcare technology of the future.

There are multiple ways for you to work in hospitals, in IT firms, or as a consultant to firms that service healthcare, insurance, health research, and public health organizations.

Demand for health informatics professionals is only likely to grow with increasing digitization, telemedicine, and government health technology initiatives.

Certainly. With a CS background, you could potentially work in Health Informatics as a software developer, IT consultant, or a data analyst in the healthcare environment as it allows you to leverage your technical and healthcare capabilities.

Yes, BDS graduates can easily move from their clinical practice to Health Informatics roles that apply technology to hospitals, or technology to digital dental records, or public health with technology. Health Informatics creates multiple options for work other than just in clinical practice (e.g. research, administration). 

Yes, you should. Having a bachelor's degree combined with relevant graduate certificate may help you to get into and progress your career in Health Informatics, especially if it comes with relevant experience or skills in the space - like analytics, or experience in system design. 

More or less. Working in Health Informatics it's a combination of healthcare, technology and data. As such, you can help tackle real-world issues in an exciting and fast-paced area, ranging from EHR implementations, improving clinical workflows, or business intelligence with health data. 

Yes, it's a fantastic fit. MBBS graduates have a clinical background, and with Health Informatics they will be able to eventually lead the digital transformation of healthcare, develop and manage IT systems in hospitals, or work on health policies or AI research. 

Not quite. Data Science is a bigger umbrella that involves sophisticated analytics, while Health Informatics deals with applying data science, IT and clinical knowledge to very specific problems in the health domain. 

Medical coding is different. Medical coding specifically relates to assigning standardized codes to diagnoses and procedures, while Health Informatics works with health IT systems, data analytics and improving access to healthcare services through technology.

A basic understanding of coding (e.g. Python or SQL) is beneficial for Health Informatics, especially when working with data or customizing systems. However, most roles will be more involved with processes in healthcare, interpreting data, and coordinating IT infrastructure than coding.