A new opportunity has developed over the last few years for executive-level managers who have an interest in health informatics and a talent for working with computer systems. The position is: Health Informatics Director.
This relatively new position is being added at medical facilities across the country as more medical operations make the shift from paper to electronic medical records to comply with federal mandates.
Job Duties for Health Informatics Directors
As facilities implement electronic medical records, they are turning to health informatics professionals to oversee the implementation of the new systems, as well as the training of staff on how to manage the new system.
Some of these facilities list the title as Director of Medical Informatics or Medical Director of Health Informatics. A similar position is: Chief Medical Information Officer. Whatever the job title, the job generally involves such duties as:
- Championing the new system to doctors and other medical staff
- Addressing problems with the system raised by doctors and other medical staff
- Implementing processes that streamline reporting
- Continually reviewing the latest technology available for healthcare systems and recommending updates and changes as needed
Salary for Health Informatics Directors
The salary of a health informatics director will vary based on a number of factors such as physical location, education, the type of healthcare facility and the exact scope of the job, for example. As this is an emerging field, the U.S. Department of Labor has not yet published salary data for this profession.
According to the AHIMA U.S. Salary Survey Report, the annual average salary of director-level health information management professionals is $100,620. The survey was given to more than 3,000 health information management professionals by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), the foremost professional organization for the field of medical record management.
In cases like this, personal research in your local market for the most accurate, up-to-date and complete information should be done.*
Education Requirements for Health Informatics Directors
Some employers require the director of health informatics hold a medical degree (M.D.), doctor of osteopathic medicine (D.O.) or a doctoral degree in addition to a degree in health informatics. Both the M.D. and D.O. degrees require four years of medical school as well as health informatics certification. However, not all employers require a health informatics director to be a doctor.
For the health informatics degree, an associate’s degree and experience were typically all that was once needed to obtain a job in this growing field. However, that is no longer the case, and certainly not at the director level. For this type of position, employers will look for candidates who have earned a graduate certificate in the field, and most likely will want a master’s level education.
In response to this demand, universities are beginning to offer courses that prepare students for the health informatics field with bachelor and master’s degrees. Many of these degree and certificate programs, such as the Graduate Certificate in Health Informatics and the Master’s degree in Health Informatics from the University of South Florida, are available both on-campus and conveniently in an online format. Coursework typically includes medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, coding systems, insurance and government reimbursement systems and software systems.
*National long-term projections may not reflect local and/or short-term economic or job conditions and do not guarantee actual job growth. Information provided is not intended to represent a complete list of hiring companies or job titles, and degree program options do not guarantee career or salary outcomes. Students should conduct independent research on specific employment information.
