UNLV Informatics

Healthcare Informatics

Healthcare Informatics programs combine studies in the School of Informatics with courses in many areas of professional practice, including medicine, nursing, dentistry, public and community health, pharmacology, social work, life science, veterinary practice, and healthcare administration. Depending upon student interest in specific practice areas, Healthcare Informatics cognate programs are developed to meet individual needs and future plans. For example, a cognate for a student interested in nursing informatics is very different from one for a student focusing in pharmacogenomic informatics. Individual students work with an advisor to develop cognates that meet their own interests.

Some of the areas of application of healthcare informatics are listed below, and each of these can be developed into cognates for both undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

• Health Portals (such as WebMD, Google Health, Microsoft Health Vault, etc.)
   
• Electronic Medical Records (no more paper charts!)
   
• Clinical Decision Support Systems (helping doctors with the knowledge explosion)
   
• Personal Health Records (your own data, shared with those you trust, as you allow)
   
• Electronic Prescribing Systems (no more illegible hand-written prescriptions!)
   
• Biomedical Imaging Systems (MRI, CT, PET, X-ray, Ultrasound)
   
• Health Information Exchanges (legal and organizational issues in sharing health data)
   
• Healthcare Facility Management (application of wireless technologies such as RFID)
   
• Patient Care (assistive devices and technologies for aged and disabled persons)
   
• Veterinary Practice (e-records and charts for tracking your pets’ shots and health needs)
   
• Public and Community Health (informatics tools for bio-surveillance, Google Health Maps)
   
• Connected for Health (National Health Information Network, patient social groups)
   
• Healthcare for Seniors (user-friendly Medicare program comparison tools;  doctor finders)
   
• Legal Issues (HIPAA rules, privacy and security of protected health information)
   
• Healthcare Cost (data mining to determine efficacy of treatments)Healthcare Quality (avoiding medical errors and improving outcomes through informatics)

Undergraduate Cognate Possibilities

The following courses are typical of those that can be considered within undergraduate cognates:

Basic Nursing Informatics (NURS 220)
Nursing Research Methods (NURS 418)

Ethical Issues in Health Care (HSC 405)
Information Technology for the Health Sciences (HSC 420)

Multicultural Health (HED 200)
Public and Community Health (HED 320)

Anthropology of Aging across Cultures (ANTH 423)
Nutritional Anthropology (ANTH 466)

Sociology of Medicine (SOC 466)
Health Communication (COM 314)
Human Genetics (BIOL 208)
Biological Modeling (BIOL 480)

Epidemiological Concepts (HCA 202)
Health Care Finance (HCA 302)

Introduction to Medical Imaging (RAD 100)
Ultrasound Physics and Instrumentation (CMI 350)

Biomedical Signals and Systems (EE 482)
Biometrics (CpE 407)

Human-Computer Interaction (CS 420)
Database Management Systems (CS 457)

Computer Security (CS 448)
Internet Security (CS 445)

As noted above, undergraduate and graduate program cognates in healthcare informatics are developed individually with each student and his/her advisor.

Graduate Cognate Possibilities

The following courses are typical of those that can be considered within masters and ...

Healthcare Ethics (EPS 739)

Information Systems in Health Services Management (HCA 708)

Aging and Social Policy (SOC 780)

Bio-statistical Methods for the Health Sciences (EAB 703)

Survey of US Health Care System (HCA 701)
Digital Data Management (CMI 481)

Radiopharmaceuticals (NUC 320)

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health (EOH 760)

Biochemical Genetics (BIO 703)

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health (EOH 760)
Fundamentals of Public Health (HED 710)

Biochemical Genetics (BIO 703)
Bioinformatics (BIO 791)

Prosthetic Systems (EGG 748)

As noted above, undergraduate and graduate program cognates in healthcare informatics are developed individually with each student and his/her advisor.