Those professionals having a public health degree or public health experience involved in the informatics mission of their agencies and wishing to upgrade their informatics skills;
Those individuals desiring to pursue a shorter course of study in public health informatics with an option to apply for the full MPH informatics degree program at a later date;
Those students enrolled in schools of public health outside the United States wishing to establish a public health informatics specialization with the agreement of their participating schools as part of their present degree program.
The certificate program involves a 5 unit course of study based on five public health information management courses and an integrative paper on a topic in health informatics. The certificate program is directed at developing the following competencies:
The ability to specify the requirements for the development or adaptation of public health-related information systems;
The ability to plan, specify, and manage the implementation of public health information system projects;
Familiarity with health data definitions and standards.
An understanding of the basic functions and operations of information technologies that have significant application to public health practice such as geographic information systems and the web-based information dissemination.
HPA 437 – Health Care Data
HPA 465 – Health Information and Decision Support Systems
HPA 563 – Web-Based Public Health Informatics
HPA 564 – Applications Geographic Information Systems in Public Health
HPA 565 – Data Mining in Public Health
For the certificate integrative experience the students will be required to complete an information management project paper. The paper would be of a quality that would allow its publication in the Online Journal of Public Health Informatics managed at the school.
To earn the Certificate, students must maintain a 3.0 (out of 4.0) cumulative average for all certificate program courses.
All courses will be taught online.