Top 5 Best Things About Being A MHI Student

When I was a medical intern and working at Shanghai Tenth People Hospital from 2010 to 2011, the hospital was implementing a large and integrated electronic medical record (EHR) across all physician offices, departments, and labs. It was easy to see the benefits of an electronic medical records: EHR can make healthcare more efficient and less expensive, and improve the quality of care by making patients’ medical history easily and remotely accessible to all who treat them. However, the information-technology system was also bringing daunting challenges like clunky and time-consuming interface, the workflow change, difficulties of care standardization and so on. This experience drove me to pursue a Master of Health Informatics at the University of Michigan when I finished my first-year clinical residency. I strongly hold a belief that change is coming to the business of healthcare and technology and can play a critical role as physicians seek to adapt their practices to the new landscape in America and China. Here are the top 5 best things about being a MHI student and becoming an innovative future leader in technology and healthcare.

·          Being part of both Top schools is the coolest thing. School of Information and School of Public Health are top school in this nation and provide the best education in human-computer interaction, information analysis and retrieval, and health management and policy. These foundations are giving MHI students incomparable opportunity to lead the development, analysis, and implementation of human centered health solutions in clinical, consumer, and population sides.

·          Learning informatics is beyond coding behind a computer. As Steve Jobs put, “I think everyone should learn how to program a computer, because it teaches you how to think”. The ability to code is important for health informatics professionals but it does not mean health informatics students will develop their computers. What is more important is to gain understanding of systems, algorithms and representation and to develop abilities having more efficient and effective interaction with scientific programmers and application developers. Technology courses at the School of Information are real-world applicable and enable these possibilities by leading development team and rapid prototyping of novel ideas.

·          Becoming a new class of healthcare professionals. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, popularly known as “Obamacare” is bringing a lot of changes to insurance coverage, physician reimbursement model, relationship between physicians and patients, and more. Health Informatics students are trained to lead the technology transformation and innovation in healthcare. Technology Skills, domain knowledge and policy mindsets gained in health informatics will significantly contribute to healthcare organizations in adopting new delivery and payment models and expanding their capacity to match growing demand.

·          Having ability to create new technology-focused ventures in healthcare. Entrepreneurship is innovating, dreaming, and solving problems and improving lives. In the health informatics program, entrepreneurial mindsets and skills are highly emphasized and students are offered entrepreneurship courses, Google-sponsored speaker series, startup treks in New York City and Boston, innovation and business plan competitions, and active engagement with the full entrepreneurship ecosystem across campus and in tech-friendly Ann Arbor. 

·          Bracing infinite possibilities in health informatics. “Where will I be in 10 years?” or “Where will my job be?” These are questions to ask with anxiety as a graduate student. However, the predicted transformation of healthcare is underway. Health Informatics is realizing its promise as the connective tissue between medicine and information science. Policy and payment method reforms are fueling the growth of health informatics positions in public health agencies, hospitals, payer organizations, healthcare and technology consulting firms, and information technology companies including start-ups. The world is at your finger tips!