McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics is the first school in the nation to offer an advanced, practice degree in health informatics. The Doctorate in Health Informatics (DHI) provides unique curriculum that was custom-built for executive-level professionals seeking a terminal, applied degree in the field of health informatics.
The program is best suited for individuals who have at least three (3) years of informatics experience at the management or supervisory level. An applicant who lacks substantial informatics in her or his background must at least have advanced IT work experience.
The DHI is a 63-semester credit hour program for students who already hold a master’s degree in health informatics, or a related field. Students without a master’s degree in health informatics, or a related field, can enter the program with a bachelor’s degree. However, those students must complete 33 semester credit hours of didactic coursework before starting the DHI curriculum.
This practice doctorate provides informatics leaders with the advanced education required to translate evidence from original research, evaluate current practices, and utilize critical thinking to accelerate the adoption of best informatics practices in clinical and healthcare organizations. Because the program is geared towards working professionals, instruction for the DHI is in a hybrid environment with more than 50% of the coursework taught online. Students will be required to make visits to the McWilliams’ campus each semester to meet with their classmates, instructors and advisors.
Rather than write a dissertation for the culminating project, the DHI program requires a large-scale translational project that students must complete in a healthcare organization.