Health Informatics, B.S.

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Mission

The 2+2 concept allows students to begin coursework at the Associate level at a participating community college, transfer that coursework into a Bachelor’s in Health Informatics to GSU, and then ultimately apply that coursework toward a Master’s in Health Informatics. The 2+2 Bachelor of Science in Health Informatics (BSHI) program seeks to provide students at Governors State University (GSU) with a complete education in understanding the role of informatics (i.e. the application of technological devices, resources, methods/techniques) in transforming the healthcare delivery field. This program is designed to assist students in developing their academic and professional skills through their general education experiences at GSU or the local Community Colleges; through upper-division and undergraduate courses at GSU; and through opportunities to participate in civic engagement.

The Bachelor of Science in Health Informatics program is STEM designated.

The College of Health and Human Services undergraduate major in Health Informatics is a program devoted to understanding how information technology (IT) can be used to transform the way that healthcare is delivered. It influences patients, providers, payers, policy-makers, and technology vendors. The health informatics program’s central academic objectives are:

Academic Objective 1: To enable students to understand the inter-relationships between information technology and healthcare services delivery, and the ways in which they mutually influence and transform each other.

Academic Objective 2: To provide students with technical skills necessary to succeed in an entry-level health informatics role.

The curriculum is structured as follows:

Year 1 is heavily centered on the GSU themes related to the cohorts of civic engagement, global citizenship and sustainability. Students will choose appropriate courses based on their interests and input from their academic advisors. From the standpoint of the BSHI degree, during the first year students will take the healthcare terminologies course.

Year 2 entails more courses centered on the GSU themes and several health informatics courses including an introduction to health informatics, healthcare organization and administration, statistics, introduction to computer technology and a finance course. These courses chiefly address Academic Objectives 1 and 2.

Year 3 contains courses in healthcare operations management, health information technology / systems analysis and design, economics, clinical foundations, health IT standards, project management, healthcare ethics, statistics and healthcare information systems. These courses address Academic Objectives 1 and 2.

Year 4 contains courses in human-centered computing in healthcare, networks and database technology, health data analytics, computational methods, medical terminologies, implementation of electronic health records, information security, legal issues in technology and a capstone course. These courses address Academic Objectives 1 and 2.

In the GSU design a student can earn: 1) a Bachelor of Science in Health Informatics at the end of year 4, and then complete 2) a Master of Health Informatics at the end of year 5. A total of 120 credit hours are required for the BS in Health Informatics degree. For completion of the MS in Health Informatics degree a total of 153 credit hours are required (123 BS + 33 MS).

Admission Requirements

Persons may be eligible for admission as undergraduate degree seeking first year students if they:

Have earned a high school diploma or equivalent.
Provide an official high school transcript showing a minimum 2.5 GPA on a 4.0 scale. In absence of a high school diploma and/or high school GPA, the following admission requirements apply:
Junior standing: with 60 semester credit hours of acceptable pre-professional course work completed at an accredited college/university.
- Minimum GPA of 2.5 (on a 4.0 scale) Conditional admission will be determined on a case-by-case basis. Conditions may include, but are not limited to, successful completion of Early Start sessions.

Undergraduate transfer students may be entered into the program if they meet the requirements in the university’s standard admission policy. Students will be able to transfer credits up to the equivalent of the first 2 years of the program. Students with an AAS degree wishing to enter the BSHI program in year 3 will need to complete the core course requirements during year 3 and 4 of the program at GSU.

Program Outcomes

Upon completion of the program students are expected to:

Have knowledge to access health data, use it to describe current performance and apply it to healthcare organizations to forecast trends and patterns to improve operations.
Develop computational, analytical, and technical skills.
Explain the conceptual models of healthcare informatics and how they are used in healthcare organizations to transform care.
Demonstrate the capacity to make sound and ethical decisions related to healthcare informatics.
Gain insight into the resources needed to optimize the use of information technology in areas of healthcare research and clinical services delivery.
Be eligible for entry-level administrative / coordinator positions in healthcare delivery systems, consulting firms, governmental organizations and research organizations.

General Education Requirements (37 Hours)

All General Education courses must have a grade of “C” or better to count toward the degree program. Please know this program loooks for the following general education courses to be completed for the program:

Communication (9 hours): Written Composition I and II (IAI C1 900 and C1901) (6 semester hours) and Oral Communication (IAI C2 900) (3 semester hours);
Mathematics (3 hours): Statistics (IAI M1 902 or MATH-2100 ) (3 semester hours);
Physical and Life Science (7-8 hours): three to four courses (7 to 8 semester hours) with one course selected from the life sciences, one course from the physical sciences, and at least one laboratory course;
Humanities and Fine Arts (9 hours): Ethics (IAI H4 904, PHIL-1202 or PHIL-3333 ) (3 semester hours); one additional course in the fine arts (3 semester hours), and one course in the the humanities or fine arts (3 semester hours); and
Social and Behavioral Sciences (9 hours): Economics (IAI S3 901 or S3 902; ECON-2301 or ECON-2302 ) and two other Social and Behavioral Sciences courses (6 semester hours).

General Electives (15 Hours)

In addition to the general education requirements, students must complete 15 credits course to count toward General Elective requirements. General Electives are any courses that do not satisfy any specific course requirements of your program and which you have not previously taken.

Health Informatics Core Courses (59 Hours)

Electives (9 Hours)

Select 3 courses from the following: