Public Health Informatics Online Degree and Certificate Program

Benefits of the Professional Enhancement Program

The current comprehensive program requires 51 credit hours to complete and is available to all students with Bachelor’s and advanced degrees. There are also two Professional Enhancement Program (PEP) tracks in addition to the original comprehensive track to accommodate the needs of the students with significant backgrounds in health-related fields. These tracks are the PHI Management Track and the PHI Technical Track. They will be available to students pending approval by the University of Illinois Senate.

Admission Requirements

Students with an advanced professional degree (at a master’s or doctoral level, as appropriate to the professional field) or equivalent professional experience of at least three years' duration who intend to pursue a public health career in the same professional area are eligible for admission into the Professional Enhancement Program.

Public Health Informatics Management Track

The goal of the public health informatics management track is to train students who will be able to apply fundamental information systems management skills to support public health efforts. In addition to acquiring the skills to perform traditional public health functions, graduates from the management track will be able to:

Advise management in the use of information systems

Manage a portfolio of information systems and associated human resources

Develop information management policies for public health agencies

Assure that information needs of project or program users and stakeholders are satisfied

Assure that informatics solutions meet patient privacy, confidentiality, security requirements.

A minimum of 44 credit hours must be earned for the management track in order to graduate. Students would normally complete the degree in three years by taking five courses a year (two in the fall and spring and one in the summer).

Public Health Informatics Technical Track

In addition to performing traditional public health functions students following the PEP MPH Technical track will acquire the skills needed to:

Develop and implement public health information systems and applications that meet user and stakeholder information needs

Integrate public health system requirements into information systems development, procurement, and implementation

Develop public health information systems that are interoperable with other relevant information systems

Develop and manage informatics solutions that assure confidentiality, privacy, confidentiality, and security, while maximizing the availability of information for public health.

Oversee the implementation of data and information usage to produce new knowledge sources ( data mining, GIS, and interactive website development) for decision making

The PHI technical track requires a minimum of 44 credit hours to graduate. Students would normally complete the degree in three years by taking five courses a year (two in the fall and spring and one in the summer).

Field Practicum and MPH Capstone Experience

A field practicum is required (3 sh). The academic advisor and a supervisor develop the structure of the practicum.

The capstone experience (1 sh) requires the student to synthesize and integrate knowledge acquired in coursework and other learning experiences. A field practicum may be the basis of a capstone requirement. The field practicum and capstone experience must address a practical informatics problem in an agency or organization

Program Curriculum

Public Health Core Courses

BSTT 400 – Biostatistics I (4 sh) Descriptive statistics, basic probability concepts, one- and two-sample statistical inference, analysis of variance, and simple linear regression. Introduction to a statistical computer package such as Minitab or SAS.

CHSC 400 – Public Health Concepts and Practice (3 sh) Concepts, principles, and case studies which provide an overview of the philosophy, purpose, history, organization, functions, tools, activities, and results of public health practice.

EPID 400 – Principles of Epidemiology (3 sh) Introduction to descriptive and analytic epidemiology, determinants of health and disease in populations, and application of the epidemiological method to disease control and prevention.

HPA 400 – Principles of Management in Public Health (3 sh) Integrates theories, concepts, and applications of management techniques and processes in health programs. Case studies illustrate management functions of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.

EOHS 400 – Principles of Environmental Health Sciences (3 sh) Environmental influences on health: population, food, energy; community hygiene and injury control; solid/hazardous wastes, air and water pollution, radiation; industrial hygiene and occupational health.

CHSC 401 – Behavioral Sciences in Public Health (3 sh) Provides grounding in the social and behavorial sciences to analyze public health issues. Includes analysis of individual, community, institutional, and societal factors influencing health and illness.

Informatics Courses – Management Track

In addition to the core public health courses students in the PHI Management Track will be required to take the following informatics core courses and at least one elective course.

HPA 465 – Health Information and Decision Support Systems (4 sh) Introduction to public health informatics; computer-assisted management information and decision support systems in healthcare organizations; planning, analysis, development and evaluation of information systems; design of databases; data and information flow; reports creation; and uses of microcomputers.

HPA 510 – Survey of Health Care Information Systems (4 sh) Examination, through case studies, of current and future information technologies and systems, in health care organizations and in health science libraries.

HPA 520 – Management of Health Care Communication Systems (4 sh) Same as BHIS 515. Examination and management of data communications in and between health care facilities including examination of issues, standards, technologies, and system configurations.

HPA 494 – Health Information Systems Applications (3 sh) Examination of web-based applications in public health practice, public health geographic information systems, and principles and practice of data mining in public health.

HPA 494 – Public Health Information Systems Project and Program Management (3 sh) course description.

Electives

Students following the management track are required to take one elective out of the list of courses listed below in order to satisfy the minimum of 44 credit hours required for graduation:

BHIS 505 – Legal and Social Issues in Health Informatics (3 sh) Examination of the legal and ethical issues involved in computerized health information systems.

BHIS 517 – Health Care Information Security (3 sh) Health information security and methods to achieve it; stresses risk assessment and pre-emptive action; outlines important role of security policies and procedures; surveys security technology with focus on non-technical security approaches.

HPA 494 – Public Health Surveillance and Informatics (3 sh) Course description.

HPA 494 – Pubic Health Information Systems Project and Program Management (3 sh) Course Description.

Informatics Courses – Technical Track

In addition to the core public health courses students in the PHI Technical Track will be required to take the following informatics core courses:

HPA 437 – Health Care Data (3 sh) Review of fundamentals constituting a health care information system. How data is transformed into information and then again transformed into knowledge through integrated computer systems.

HPA 563 – WEB-Based Public Health Informatics (4 sh) Examination of web based applications in public health practice and factors in the design of web-based public health education and database systems

HPA 564 – Applications of Geographic Information Systems in Public Health (3 sh) Examination of GIS applications in public health and the process of designing a GIS based public health investigation.

HPA 565 – Data Mining in Public Health (3 sh) Review of strategic decision systems and an introduction to the theory and practice of data mining in public health. Case studies in public health data mining will be assessed.

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