Formal study of informatics at the master’s level is designed as a multi-disciplinary approach to accomplish these major goals:
The applicant should present to the Registrar’s Office the following:
Applicants are to submit relevant materials in a portfolio manner. The portfolios are then forwarded to an admission subcommittee, which will then review the materials. Applicants are required to take either the GRE exam or the MAT exam for admission. The admission subcommittee will consider such areas as:
Master of Science in Health Informatics application deadlines:
Fall admission - July 1
Summer admission - March 15
Spring admission - November 1
Interview
The second component for admission is a personal interview. Applicants who have been recommended by the admissions committee will interview with two faculty members. Faculty members are either requested by the applicant or assigned by the admissions committee. If offered admission, these faculty members will become the students’ advising committee. Separate interviews may be conducted due to scheduling. The interview is expected to focus on the applicant’s goals and how they can be achieved in the master’s program, communication skills, and understanding of the program.
Transfer credit for equivalent courses taken elsewhere may be awarded and used to meet degree requirements if their equivalency to a SHIS degree program course is approved through a Petition for Equivalency (see Page X). The maximum number of transferable semester credit hours is 12 for the masters program. Support courses, which are courses, possibly taken elsewhere, that enhance a student’s degree plan as determined by agreement with their advising committee. Credit for support courses taken elsewhere is approved by the students’ advising committee - a Petition for Equivalency is not required. Contact the Director of Admissions for information.
Applicants who are presenting course work from universities or colleges outside the United States to meet admission or graduation requirements are referred to the section on International Applicants in this catalog for a listing of additional requirements.
Master of Science in Health Informatics Core Competencies
Health Informatics has three areas of competencies. They are biomedicine, computer science, and mathematics. Proficiency in each of these areas is required to successfully work in health informatics. If skill sets from one or two of these competencies are missing, courses are available to help meet each competency. If any of the three, careful consideration should be given that your background knowledge might not help to succeed in informatics.
Communication skills are very important to the field of informatics. If your verbal GRE score is below 640, you must take HI 5000 Technical Writing in Healthcare. If your MAT score is below 432, you must take a technical writing course.
Academic Requirements
Credit hours must total at least 42 semester hours for all courses in the degree plan. Six of those semester credit hours will be in support courses, which might not be offered by the school. Support courses could include areas such as cognitive sciences from Texas A&M University, computer science from Rice University, mathematics from the University of Houston, measurement courses from The University of Texas School of Nursing at Houston or courses studying healthcare outcomes from The University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston. Each student follows a degree plan developed with an Advising Committee. A total of 42 semester credit hours listed in the sample curriculum matrix in this catalog for Health Informatics must be completed prior to graduation.
A full-time student in the Program in Health Informatics has up to four years (12 semesters) from the time of entry to complete the required course work. A part-time student has up to eight years (24 semesters) from the time of entry to complete the required course work. Continued enrollment is required unless approval from the advising committee is obtained. A maximum of one year of approved leave will allow for continuance in the program. If more than one year of leave occurs, the student must be readmitted to the program.
Each course with a HI prefix in the Health Informatics degree plan is a graduate level professional course and must be passed with a grade of “B” or better. The minimum grade point average (GPA) required for graduation is 3.0 on all HI courses.
If a student in the Health Informatics program fails a course in the curriculum, the student may enroll in that particular course one more time (a total of two enrollments for the same course). If the student makes lower than a B in that particular course the second time, the student cannot continue in the program. If a student fails two academic courses in one semester or three or more courses during enrollment in the degree program, the student will be dismissed from the program for academic reasons
Other Requirements
In Residence Requirement- the term “in residence” refers to a total of 30 semester credit hours, which must be taken at UTHSC-H. A student must fulfill his or her in residence requirement in order to receive any academic degree from the School.
Computer Requirement
Each student is required to have access to a computer. The computer minimum requirements will be updated each academic year. The student should verify the requirements prior to registration. See http://www.shis.uth.tmc.edu/students/prospective-students/computer-requirement/ for current specifications. A portable computer that is easily used at clinical sites and in student work groups is recommended.
The curriculum of the Master of Science degree in Health Informatics includes required didactic courses and a practicum. Didactic courses (lecture/discussion, demonstration and student laboratories) are presented to provide facts, concepts, and theories related to the techniques and procedures of health informatics. The courses include instruction in basic informatics, research, advanced informatics and support courses. The Practicum is designed to give the students the opportunity to apply theory and techniques in the hospital, research or private laboratory setting. A full-time student in the Program in Health Informatics has up to four years (12 semesters) from the time of entry to complete the required course work.
Each student will develop a degree plan with written approval of their advising committee. A degree plan will be filed that includes a minimum of 6 semester credit hours in foundation courses, 3-9 semester credit hours in basic informatics, 3-9 semester credit hours in research, 3-9 semester credit hours in advanced courses, six semester credit hours in support courses and six semester credit hours in practicum courses. Changes to the degree plan must have the written approval of the advising committee.
Pre-Foundations to meet Core Competencies
Foundation Courses
Basic Courses
Research courses
Advanced courses
Support courses may include:
The Advising Committee must approve support courses before being taken unless they are transferred in at the time of admission. Approval of the transferred courses must be completed at the time of transfer to the program. Only six semester credit hours of support courses will be accepted toward the degree requirements.
As part of the practicum, students will be expected to prepare a ‘state of the science’ paper based on research in the student’s area of interest. The ‘state of the science’ paper will be submitted to a refereed journal for publication. The ‘state of the science’ paper will be developed in cooperation with the student’s Advising Committee. Students will have the experience of disseminating the knowledge they have gained by sharing it with the larger community. It will not be a requirement that the paper actually be published due to the inability to predict journal-publishing times. However, the paper must be of sufficient quality to be accepted for publication in the selected journal. The Advising Committee will be responsible for monitoring the quality of this paper, as well as the practicum. The ‘state of the science’ paper approach has been chosen because it gives more flexibility to conduct different kinds of research such as concept analysis, discussion of implementation issues or investigation of new data in Health Informatics. All research papers, theses, and dissertations authored by degree candidates are available to interested members of the general public upon request.
| Course No. Course Title | Semester Credits |
| Fall Semester | |
| HI 5310 Foundations of Health Information Sciences I | 3 |
| HI 5352 Statistical Methods in Health Informatics | 3 |
| HI 5354 Cognitive Engineering in Health Informatics | 3 |
| Total | 9 |
| Spring Semester | |
| HI 5351 Research Design and Evaluation in Health Informatics | 3 |
| HI 5304 Advanced Database Concepts | 3 |
| HI 5307 Foundations of Health Information Sciences II | 3 |
| Total | 9 |
| Summer Semester | |
| HI 5308 Introduction to Object-Oriented Systems Development in Health Informatics | 3 |
| HI 6307 Cognitive Engineering in Health Informatics II | 3 |
| Total | 6 |
| Fall Semester | |
| HI 6301 Health Data Display | 3 |
| HI 6308 Consumer Informatics | 3 |
| Support Course 1 | 3 |
| Total | 9 |
| Spring Semester | |
| HI 6000 Practicum in Health Informatics | 6 |
| Support Course 2 | 3 |
| Total | 9 |
| Grand Total | 42 |
For further curriculum information, please contact:
Robert Vogler, D.S.N., M. Ed, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
7000 Fannin, Ste 800
Houston, Texas 77030
Telephone: (713) 500-3591
Email: [email protected]