The Graduate Certificate in Health Informatics (GCHI) joins the expertise of the School of Information, the School of Public Health and Michigan Medicine. The certificate exposes students to courses with key concepts related to the use of data and technology in designing, evaluating and implementing healthcare policy and interventions in support of individual and population health. 

The certificate is not a stand-alone certificate or terminal degree. The certificate is an opportunity for eligible University of Michigan-Ann Arbor graduate students to supplement their home degree program. Students looking to be leaders in health informatics should pursue the Master of Health Informatics program.

Goals

The certificate’s core goals include:

• Developing, studying and applying theories, methods and processes for the generation, storage, retrieval, use and sharing of medical and health data, information and knowledge
• Building on computing, communication and information sciences and technologies and their application in medicine and public health
• Serving as a bridge between basic and clinical research and practice and the healthcare industry
• Recognizing that people are the ultimate users of health information and drawing upon the social and behavioral sciences to inform the design and evaluation of technical solutions and the development of complex economic, ethical, social, educational and organizational systems

Competencies

Upon completion of the Graduate Certificate in Health Informatics, students will have acquired experience in the following competencies:

• Assessing the needs and resources of individuals, organizations and communities where individuals live and work — to ensure that information technology deployed to improve health will sustainably meet these needs
• Designing sociotechnical interventions that employ forward looking and human-centered methods, are novel and creative, are usable, fit to context and thereby carry high probability of successful deployment
• Appropriately utilizing theories of individual behavior, social science, health management and organizational change in the design and implementation of sociotechnical interventions
• Implementing and managing sociotechnical innovations in ways that respect the prevailing culture, organizational context and policies relating to health
• Evaluating information technology interventions to ascertain their effects and improve them over time

For questions about the certificate, please email [email protected].