By focusing as much on health IT and analytics skills as the traditional skills associated with health information management, the UW Health Information Management and Technology (HIMT) program prepares knowledgeable and skillful professionals to assume leadership positions in healthcare organizations both public and private. Within an organization, UW Health information Management and Technology graduates will be able to manage and administer health information technologies that span across divisions, departments, and businesses.
Concentrations
As part of the UW HIMT degree, you will earn a concentration in either Health Information Management or Health Information Technology.
Health Information Management
With an emphasis on organization and management, the Health Information Management program concentration provides a focus on human resources management, financial and resource management, and strategic planning and organizational development.
Human Resources Management
- Manage human resources to facilitate staff recruitment, retention, and supervision.
- Ensure compliance with employment laws.
- Develop and implement new staff orientation and training programs.
- Develop and implement continuing education programs.
- Develop productivity standards for health information functions.
- Monitor staffing levels and productivity, and provide feedback to staff regarding performance.
- Benchmark staff performance data.
- Develop, motivate, and support work teams.
Financial and Resource Management
- Demonstrate knowledge of financial management and accounting principles.
- Prepare and monitor budgets and contracts.
- Demonstrate and apply knowledge of cost-benefit analysis techniques to justify resource needs.
- Manage organization-wide coding and revenue cycle processes.
Strategic Planning and Organizational Development
- Develop strategic and operational plans for facility-wide information systems.
- Assess organization-wide information needs.
- Facilitate retrieval, interpretation, and presentation of data/information appropriate to user needs.
- Demonstrate and apply principles of organization behavior to facilitate team building, negotiation, and change management.
Health Information Technology
The Health Information Technology program concentration focuses on information technology and systems, preparing students to build and use software and hardware systems to manage, retrieve, and analyze data that will drive improvements in patient care.
Programming and Data Structures
- Apply fundamentals of object-oriented programming to application development.
- Utilize existing code libraries to implement the appropriate data structure to meet the needs of a specific application.
- Critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of various persistent file storage mechanisms: text files, binary files, serialization of objects, and XML.
- Identify and describe the tiers and the benefits of an n-tier software system.
- Be able to use a variety of persistent file–based storage strategies: text files, binary files, serialization of objects, and XML.
Data, Information, and Storage Structures
- Apply knowledge of database architecture and design (data dictionary, data modeling, data warehousing, and so on) to meet organizational needs.
- Apply knowledge of database querying and data mining techniques to facilitate information retrieval.
- Implement and manage knowledge-based applications to meet end-user information requirements.
- Design and generate administrative reports using appropriate software.
Data Security
- Enforce confidentiality and security measures to protect electronic health information.
- Protect data integrity and validity using software or hardware technology.
- Implement and manage knowledge-based applications to meet end-user information requirements.
- Recommend elements that must be included in the design of audit-trail and data-quality-monitoring programs.
- Recommend elements that should be included in the design and implementation of risk assessment, contingency planning, and data recovery procedures.
Information and Communication Technologies
- Implement and manage use of technology, including hardware and software, to ensure data collection, storage, analysis, and reporting of information.
- Contribute to the development of networks, including intranet and Internet applications to facilitate electronic health record (EHR), personal health record (PHR), and public health and other administrative records.
- Interpret the derivation and use of standards to achieve interoperability of healthcare information systems.
