Exploring Health Informatics Careers: Harnessing Data to Transform Healthcare

Big data holds the key to solving many of healthcare’s biggest challenges — from predicting disease outbreaks to improving patient care and reducing costs. Yet despite the immense volume of data generated daily, harnessing its full potential remains a challenge. That’s where health informatics professionals come in.

Health informatics blends healthcare, information sciences and technology to improve clinical and public health outcomes. It’s a rapidly growing field with diverse career opportunities for those who can interpret and act on complex health data.

What Is Health Informatics?

Health informatics is the science of collecting, analyzing and using data to enhance health outcomes, improve healthcare systems and support medical decision-making. Professionals in this field work at the intersection of technology and patient care to develop data-driven solutions.

Their work includes:

• Enhancing healthcare systems to improve decision-making
• Mining health data to uncover actionable insights
• Designing and improving health information systems across care settings

They pull information from a wide range of sources, including:

• Electronic health records (EHRs)
• Health insurance claims
• Public health data and federal databases (e.g., CDC, NIH)
• Clinical trials and lab results
• Wearable health devices and mobile apps

What sets health informaticists apart is their ability to synthesize this vast data into intuitive dashboards, reports, and systems that drive smarter decisions across healthcare organizations.

Why Is Health Informatics So Important?

Health informatics plays a critical role in achieving what healthcare experts refer to as the “Triple Aim”: improving patient experiences, advancing population health and reducing costs.

1. Improving the Patient Care Experience

EHRs give clinicians a comprehensive view of each patient’s history, enabling better diagnoses, continuity of care and fewer medical errors. Health informatics professionals help design and optimize these systems, ensuring data is both accessible and actionable.

2. Strengthening Health Across Populations

By aggregating and analyzing health data at the population level, informaticists can uncover trends related to chronic diseases, social determinants of health and care disparities. This supports targeted public health interventions and smarter resource allocation.

3. Reducing Healthcare Costs

The U.S. spends more on healthcare than any other nation — projected to reach $6.2 trillion by 2028, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Health informatics reduces waste and inefficiencies by improving workflows, minimizing duplicate testing and enabling early interventions that avoid costly hospitalizations.

Health Informatics vs. Health Information Management

While closely related, health informatics and health information management (HIM) differ in focus:

• Health information management professionals are primarily responsible for organizing, securing and maintaining patient health records.
• Health informatics specialists use data to improve systems, support clinical decision-making and drive innovations in care delivery.

Health informatics professionals often collaborate with:

• Public health officials
• Government agencies
• Insurance companies
• Epidemiologists and researchers

This collaboration is especially vital during public health crises. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, informaticists played a key role in building real-time dashboards and tracking vaccine distribution effectiveness.

Health Informatics Careers to Consider

An MS in Health Informatics opens doors to a wide variety of careers at the intersection of healthcare, data and technology. Here are a few common health informatics roles and their duties:

• Clinical informatics manager: Oversees the implementation and management of healthcare data systems. Works closely with clinical teams to improve workflows, optimize EHR platforms, ensure data accuracy and lead projects that enhance patient care through technology.
• Health information systems manager: Oversees the design, implementation and maintenance of health information systems within healthcare organizations. Ensures data security, system efficiency and regulatory compliance while managing IT staff and supporting clinical technology needs.
• Nursing informatics specialist: Combines nursing expertise with data analytics to improve patient care and clinical processes. Translates nursing needs into technology solutions, supports EHR optimization and trains staff to use data-driven tools for better patient outcomes.
• Healthcare informatics consultant: Advises healthcare organizations on how to leverage data and technology for strategic growth. Assesses current systems, recommends improvements, ensures regulatory compliance and guides data-driven decision-making to improve operations and care delivery.
• Clinical informatics analyst: Collects, manages and analyzes health data to support clinical and operational decisions. Designs user-friendly dashboards, identifies trends, ensures data integrity and helps healthcare teams turn complex data into actionable insights.

What Health Informatics Skills Are In Demand?

To succeed in the fast-evolving field of health informatics, professionals need a unique combination of technical expertise, analytical ability and healthcare knowledge. As the industry continues to embrace digital transformation, the following skills have become especially valuable for those seeking to lead data-driven change in healthcare settings:

• Data analytics: Ability to interpret and draw insights from complex health data to inform clinical or operational decisions.
• Electronic health record (EHR) management: Proficiency in using and optimizing EHR systems like Epic, Cerner or MEDITECH.
• Health IT systems knowledge: Understanding of how health information systems function, including interoperability, infrastructure and compliance.
• Project management: Skills in leading system implementations, upgrades or workflow improvements using tools like Agile, Scrum or PMP frameworks.
• Regulatory and compliance knowledge: Familiarity with healthcare laws and standards such as HIPAA, HITECH, and HL7 to ensure secure and compliant data handling.

Advance Your Career with a Master’s in Health Informatics

The online Master of Science in Health Informatics program at The University of Scranton is designed for professionals who want to make a meaningful impact in healthcare through data.

Taught by expert faculty and grounded in real-world application, the curriculum blends healthcare, data science, and IT to prepare graduates for leadership roles in hospitals, government agencies, insurance companies and health tech firms.

Whether you’re transitioning from a business, IT or clinical background, The University of Scranton can equip you with the tools and knowledge to succeed in this fast-growing field.

Learn more about the online MS in Health Informatics today!