Master's in Health Informatics Graduates First Class in 2015

A relatively new, and specialized, online master’s program at the University of Cincinnati College of Allied Health Sciences has gained ground on enrollment and celebrates its first graduating class of seven students on Aug. 8, 2015.

"It’s kind of a niche discipline, so we didn’t expect to have huge numbers of enrollments right away, but we are up to over 70 enrollments,” Victoria Wangia-Anderson, PhD, associate professor and program director,  says of the Master’s in Health Informatics degree she helped launch at UC in 2013.

The degree, she says, tends to be a bridge discipline between health care and information technology and prepares students for employment in healthcare settings adopting information systems or settings developing and implementing technology for health or health care. Students who enroll, she says, have a broad range of academic and professional backgrounds that include medicine, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, information technology, business and health information management, among others.

The program is conducted online and is part-time degree program that has to be completed in two years. 
Graduate Julie Dooling, from Ozark, Missouri, says she "rolled right into the program” after completing her bachelor’s degree in health information management at UC in 2013, which she earned online as well.

"It wasn’t a requirement for my job, but I knew it was a unique opportunity to advance my skills,” says Dooling, who is a director at the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). 

Dooling says she knew the online degree program was going to be the best option to continue her education while trying to manage a full time job and maintain a work/school/life balance.  "The way the course was structured with most assignments due on the weekends.  That really helped with a job that requires travel and a family,” says Dooling.

Obtaining an MHI degree was a milestone for Dione Walder, who recently accepted a position as a clinical documentation improvement specialist at the Dayton Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center.
Walder says she set a goal in 2011 to obtain a graduate degree and will walk to the podium —goal realized —at graduation with a 3.9 GPA.  

 "It’s very rewarding to be an example to my entire family that this can be done,” she says, explaining that she is the first person in her immediate family of eight and extended families of over 50 people to obtain a graduate level degree.

Walder also holds her bachelor’s degree from UC in health information management (’10).