Informatics Education for Health Administrators

Abstract

In the administrative and clinical functions of healthcare delivery organizations, integrated information technology systems are a relatively recent development. Over the past decade, spurred by a federal incentive program, the electronic health record and enterprise-wide information technology have been implemented in almost all hospitals, health systems and physician’s offices in the US. As a result, current and aspiring healthcare administrators have access to a wealth of data and information that was previously elusive. In order to gain maximum management benefit from data and analytics, those in administrative positions require competence in using the technology and in accessing the insight that data analytics delivers to their desks. To this end, undergraduate and graduate programs in healthcare administration across the country have rapidly adapted to curriculum changes that address the educational needs of their students who are on career paths to serve in healthcare management positions. The evolution of curriculum changes in the last decade began with integration of health IT content into various courses in non-IT disciplines (e.g. finance). Subsequently, programs developed dedicated courses in health IT and analytics, and more recently some have begun to offer advanced degree programs that concentrate on electronic information, data and analytics. Health IT systems have the potential to offer as yet untapped support for clinical and management advances. In the US, undergraduate and graduate programs in healthcare management face the same challenges and promise as the future holds for healthcare delivery systems and physicians and researchers. In response, higher education programs in healthcare administration can be expected to continue to evolve as the demands of the IT field evolve. This chapter describes the health IT resources and programs available to healthcare management programs.