Informatics Your Career

Employment of medical and health services managers is projected to grow 32 percent from 2020 to 2030, much faster than the average for all occupations. — US Department of Labor Occupational Outlook Handbook (July 2022)

Informatics Work Environments

The technical and analytical informatics skill set is applicable and transferable to a number of exciting careers across a broad range of industries. The program aims to help students build on their bachelor’s degree and learn a variety of technology skills that can be applied in a variety of environments to create user friendly systems. The Informatics degree focuses on the user and teaches you how to:

• implement web applications
• understand network security
• manage large-scale data sets
• design effective human-computer interaction systems
• manage projects
• build and manage digital assets management systems

A very important area with projected job growth is health. According to the AHIMA, health informatics is “a science that defines how health information is technically captured, transmitted and utilized … (and) applied to the continuum of health care delivery.”

Possible careers include

Salaries and Job Outlook 

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the median annual wage for information security analysts was $102,600 in 2021. In addition, medical and health services managers earned a median pay of $101,340 in 2021.

Informatics jobs are on the rise as regulatory and business requirements make gathering, managing, and drawing conclusions from specific types of data a strategic imperative. This is especially the case in medical and healthcare fields where informatics is being used to improve patient access to their online medical information. The projected job percent change in employment from 2020 to 2030 for medical and health services managers is 32%, much faster than than average. Learn more about a career in informatics.

What’s the Difference between Data Analytics and Informatics?

Data analytics is: The analysis of data using quantitative and qualitative techniques to look for trends and patterns in the data.

Informatics is: A collaborative activity that involves people, processes, and technologies to apply trusted data in a useful and understandable way.

Data analytics specialists must understand:

• Statistics
• Database management
• Database query languages
• Computer programming

Informatics specialists must:

• Meet the needs of those using systems
• Know informatics standards
• Be able to manage information technology projects and programs
• Have strong communication skills
• Be able to develop systems that work together
• Know how to protect information

Informatics specialists focus on:

• Designing and developing secure user-centered knowledge structures for the Web environment using design thinking, prototyping, and human computer interaction tools.
• Setting up secure digital assets management systems (DAM) working with metadata, workflow, taxonomy, data security, governance, and preservation of digital assets
• Defining identifying, controlling, managing, securing, and preserving electronic records and information
• Managing projects: people, timelines, resources, goals and outcomes

Informatics is:

• Less technical and less theoretical than data analytics
• Much less math based
• More focused on end users and tailoring systems to satisfy the needs of end users within a specific discipline, such as health
• Focused on design thinking skills that encourage a bias toward action and the notion that it is acceptable to make changes or corrections as new ideas and approaches come to fruition
• A collaborative field where informatics specialists work with peers to identify, frame and solve human computer interaction issues within the framework of a content discipline, such as health