Health Informatics Program Offers In-Depth Training

Did you know that to attend Centennial College’s Health Informatics program all you need is at minimum at least an Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) or equivalent or be 19 years of age or older; compulsory English 12C or U or skills assessment, or equivalent and Math 11M or U, or 12C or U, or skills assessment, or equivalent as well as an interest in healthcare structure and health information systems? Additionally, qualified college or university graduates with a background in software gain direct admission into semester three of this three-year program and receive their Health Informatics program advanced diploma in four semesters.

This Health Informatics program, officially known as Health Informatics Technology, takes three years to complete and results in an Advanced Ontario College diploma. It also prepares students for a field concerned with information science, computer science, and health care but, more specifically, the resources, devices and methods required to optimize the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information in health and biomedicine.  Not only do health informatics tools include computers but also clinical guidelines, formal medical terminologies, and information and communication systems. As such, graduates of the Health Informatics program work in areas such as nursing, clinical care, dentistry, pharmacy, public health, occupational therapy, and biomedical research, in positions that include: applications developers, health data analysts, database developers, systems implementation specialists, record assistants and business/systems analysts.

But how does the Health Informatics program prepare students for such a wide range of careers? First and foremost during the three years they spend attending Health Informatics courses, students obtain knowledge of both information technology and healthcare systems and the skills they need to design, develop, modify and test software for healthcare applications. As such, students come to be confident through emphasis on object-oriented software design methodologies, user-oriented interface design, structure of healthcare information systems, telehealth, data security and privacy in healthcare systems. Additionally, Health Informatics courses cover technologies such as C#, Java, J2EE, Oracle, MS-SQL Server, Unix/ Linux, Microsoft’s .NET, HTML/ XML, Rational/ WebSphere, Data warehousing and Data mining, and BI tools in healthcare systems and more. Specific Health Informatics courses include: Web Interface Design, Functions and Number Systems, Software Engineering Fundamentals, Programming, Discrete Mathematics, Advanced Business Communications, Software Testing and Quality Assurance and more.

Prior to graduation from the Health Informatics program, students are able to apply what they have learned in their classes to two software development projects in the field of health informatics. These real world business applications require students to utilize all the technical, systems and business skills gained during their studies.

To graduate from the Health Informatics Courses, a Minimum C grade average is required.  Graduates have the ability to: able to analyze and model data, develop healthcare databases and apply different computer medical-imaging techniques. They are also able to use tools, algorithms and health informatics methods for hospitals, schools, healthcare agencies and public health departments.