MSc in Health Informatics programmes
The MSc in Health Informatics programme is delivered by distance learning.
Information is at the core of health care services throughout the world. It is important in ensuring that healthcare and health services are delivered effectively and efficiently. Health Informatics is a relatively new discipline which seeks to maximise the use of this information. Although `health informatics´, has no standard definition, it is concerned with the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and information in health to improve the organisation, management, and ultimately the overall quality, of care for patients, their families and carers, and the general public.
Health Informatics is a rapidly developing field that is increasingly viewed as a key driver in modernising health services and in ensuring that patients receive the best possible care. The delivery and use of information within healthcare is particularly important as technology changes so rapidly, for example, the development of electronic patient records, the advent of online communities, the development of new imaging techniques, etc. ICTs present an exciting opportunity to improve how information is collected, stored, retrieved, analysed and shared in health care. ICTs also facilitate communication between different people involved in the processes of health care, i.e., patients, health care professionals, managers and planners of health services.
Improving the way that information is used in healthcare requires health care professionals, managers, library and information specialists and other professionals in the health sector who have developed appropriate skills through high quality education and training. With this in mind, the new MSc in Health Informatics programme has been developed with multidisciplinary contributions from the Department of Information Studies and the School of Health and Related Research.
You may be interested to read this article in the Independent newspaper, (09/07/2008), in which one of the students on the MSc Health Informatics programmes discusses benefits of undertaking the course at the University of Sheffield.
MSc in Health Informatics (Distance Learning) programme
This international version of the programme is delivered by distance learning, and is open to potential students from across the world.
MSc in Health Informatics (South East Europe) programme
This programme is run in collaboration with CITY College, Thessaloniki - an International Faculty of the University of Sheffield.