Degree Offered
MS, Postbaccalaureate Certificate, MD/MS
https://www.graduate.umaryland.edu/ClinicalInformatics/
Program Description
Our curriculum focuses on biomedical data, clinical processes, and computational systems applied to the practice of medicine. The program also covers the latest data science tools, machine learning techniques, methods for big data processing, leadership, professionalism, and ethics. These skills are used to enhance health outcomes, improve patient care, and strengthen the clinician-patient relationship.
We offer a 12-credit Graduate Certificate and a 34-credit Master of Science in Clinical Informatics. All courses are presented in a hyflex environment, allowing students to complete all requirements online.
The program is a joint effort between the University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB) and the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). The core faculty are practicing physicians from the School of Medicine who are board certified in Clinical Informatics, assisted by other faculty with training in Computer Science, Data Science, and Epidemiology. Conferences and practicums take place through the through the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, with clinical opportunities provided through the University of Maryland Medical Center and the Baltimore VA Medical Center.
Program Objectives
Our students are trained by an interdisciplinary team of physicians, informaticians, computer scientists, and data scientists. They learn new ways to transform healthcare by applying data and technology to the practice of medicine.
Program Admission
Our programs are designed to serve a broad range of healthcare professionals, including physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, pharmacists, biologists, and computer scientists.
Degree Requirements
Clinical Informatics PBC Coursework (12 Credits)
INFO 601 - Foundations in Clinical and Health Informatics (3 Credits)
This course introduces biomedical and health informatics. It covers the fundamentals of informatics as it applies to healthcare and research, as well as the expanding role of information technology for the delivery of healthcare. The course underscores the application of these systems to the practice of medicine, to enhance health outcomes, improve patient care, and strengthen the clinician-patient relationship. The course also emphasizes the clinical informatics content, which includes fundamentals of clinical and biomedical informatics, clinical decision making and process improvement, health information systems, ethics, and management.
INFO 602 - Clinical Information Systems (3 credits)
This course covers the basic concepts surrounding clinical information systems as they apply to healthcare. The focus of the course will be on the socio-technical challenges specific to the selection and implementation of these systems, human factors, evidence-based medicine, information retrieval, and clinical research informatics. Additional topics include a survey of other areas of informatics including telemedicine, imaging informatics, nursing informatics, bioinformatics, public health informatics, and consumer health informatics.
INFO 603 - Computer Literacy and Programming for Healthcare Personnel (3 Credits)
This course introduces the foundations of computer science for healthcare professionals How to solve problems in the healthcare environment by writing computer programs. How and why computer programs work, with examples in the Python programming language. No prior computer programming experience is expected or required.
INFO 604 - Decision Support Systems in Healthcare (3 credits)
This course focuses on decision support systems that aim to improve healthcare, with an emphasis on clinical decision support (CDS). Through interactive web-based simulators, students will gain familiarity with the following: Common decision support tools used in electronic medical records, decision science and logic as used in CDS, examples of decision tools used at the individual, cohort, and population levels and sharable CDS artifacts using FHIR standards. Common governance, regulatory, legal considerations, and best practices for CDS implementation and evaluation will be discussed. Upon successful completion of this course, students will have the skills to contribute towards designing, implementing, governing, and evaluating decision support systems to improve healthcare.
UMBC Data Science PBC Coursework (12 Credits) - DATA 601, DATA 602, DATA 603 , DATA 604
This UMBC Data Science PBC is included in the curriculum for the MS Degree. Please visit the UMBC Graduate catalog for DATA course information.
Practical Coursework (10 Credits)
INFO 610 - Clinical Informatics Conference (1 Credit)
This course is a monthly conference in biomedical and health informatics. It will introduce students to experts in the field of biomedical informatics, exposing them to key experimental and theoretical literature in the discipline, and encouraging discussion and further in-depth exploration of topics in clinical informatics. The course emphasizes the application of informatics to the practice of medicine, to enhance health outcomes, improve patient care, and strengthen the clinician-patient relationship. The course expands on fundamental clinical informatics content, including clinical decision making, process improvement, health information systems, ethics, and management.
INFO 611 - Clinical Informatics Practicum (3 Credits)
This course will prepare students for engaging in the Clinical Informatics practicum. It will provide students with the tools and skills in the areas of project planning, literature reviews, data analysis, career planning, oral presentations, and technical writing. Students will select an area of interest in which to apply the knowledge and skills gained during the didactic courses, work with a mentor, develop a specific set of goals to be accomplished, engage in lectures, and participate in peer reviews.
INFO 612 - Advanced Clinical Informatics Practicum (3 Credits)
This course will give advancing students the ability to demonstrate substantive application of the knowledge and skills that have been acquired, with a focus on performing independent research. Students will be embedded in an informatics setting within the University of Maryland Medical System or an academic setting within the University of Maryland. As an alternative to embedding students on-site at the University of Maryland, distance-learning students can work online to develop a proposal and perform independent work under the supervision of an advisor.
Required Courses - PBC/MS
| INFO 601 | FOUNDATIONS IN CLINICAL AND HEALTH INFORMATICS | 3 |
| INFO 602 | CLINICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS | 3 |
| INFO 603 | COMPUTER LITERACY FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS | 3 |
| INFO 604 | DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS IN HEALTHCARE | 3 |
Practical Coursework - MS