Healthcare Informatics
STEPHEN C. BURROWS, DPM, MBA, CPHIMS, FHIMSS
Chair and Health Science & Leadership Program Director, Healthcare Informatics
Phone: 203-416-3948
Fax: 203-416-3951
E-mail: burrowss@sacredheart.edu
Program Rationale and Description
This interdisciplinary master’s degree program is designed to prepare individuals for successful careers in the complex and dynamic field of healthcare information technology (HIT). Graduates of this master’s program will be well versed in the technical and professional knowledge, concepts, and skills required to excel in today’s technologically oriented healthcare world.
This program is designed for healthcare professionals (nurses, physicians, physician assistants, pharmacists, technologists, and others) currently working in an HIT setting and information technology (IT) professionals. Students will gain the knowledge and skills to make an impact through the use of HIT.
Program Objectives
The Healthcare Informatics program will prepare its graduates to:
- Emerge as leaders of healthcare teams by utilizing leadership skills that prioritize, strategize, manage, and advocate for solutions tailored to organizational needs.
- Effectively advocate for the use of technology in all healthcare settings.
- Engineer innovative solutions with positive and lasting effects on the future of healthcare information technology.
- Create a vision for technology’s use and lead successful projects using best practice approaches.
- Have a positive impact on the quality and efficiency of healthcare delivery.
- Evaluate healthcare organizations’ technology needs and formulate solutions within clinical, operational, and financial constraints.
- Synthesize at leadership and managerial levels the privacy, security, legal, ethical, and social challenges inherent to the HIT industry.
- Act as mediator among clinical, information technology, research, and administrative stakeholders in healthcare settings.
- Acquire practical knowledge and skills.
- Gain an understanding of how information technology, people, health, and the healthcare system interrelate.
- Learn how to use information technology and information management concepts and methods in healthcare delivery.
- Develop the capacity to facilitate communication among healthcare practitioners, administrators, and IT professionals—and recognize the needs and constraints of all sides.
- Collaborate and exchange ideas with other students from a variety of professional backgrounds.
Admissions Requirements
Students will apply through the Graduate Admissions Office of the University and are admitted to the MSHI Program upon review and recommendation of the Admissions Committee based on the academic, course prerequisite, and professional requirements listed below.
Admission criteria include:
- A bachelor’s degree or its equivalent from an accredited institution with a minimum GPA of 3.0 and official transcripts from all institutions attended.
- A minimum of two years of experience in the field of either healthcare, healthcare information technology, or information technology. This requirement may be waived by the program director if other relevant professional or academic experience is demonstrated.
- A one-page personal statement describing career goals and reasons for interest in the program, two letters of recommendation, and a current curriculum vitae or résumé highlighting relevant experience.
- Personal interview.
- GRE scores are not required but may be submitted as additional evidence of admissions eligibility.