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Biomedical Informatics

Online Master of Science in Applied Clinical Informatics – Curriculum

Coursework to Match Your Priorities

The online Master of Science in Applied Clinical Informatics program (MS-ACI) at Vanderbilt University offers a comprehensive curriculum in a format that works for you. By offering our informatics courses online, we’re able to accommodate working professionals who are looking to advance their careers in the health care field.

From the moment you meet your cohort to the day you receive your degree, you’ll thrive in our engaging array of courses and practical experiences. What’s more, your course directors and mentors will be there to support you every step of the way.

At a Glance: Clinical Informatics Program Curriculum

Curriculum Structure: Our online clinical informatics program consists of 36 credits taken in the Fall, Spring, and Summer of Year 1 and the Fall and Spring of Year 2. You’ll learn from and work with experts from Vanderbilt University Medical Center HealthIT and leading clinical informatics faculty as you apply what you learn in your own workplace.

Program Length: You can complete your master’s degree in clinical informatics at Vanderbilt in just 21 months. That’s 240 hours of practical experience and insights from the largest biomedical informatics department in the world, all in less than two years.

Online Applied Clinical Informatics Courses

  • Introduction to Clinical Informatics
  • Foundations of Health Information Technology
  • The Health System
  • Clinical Decision Support and Evidence-Based Patient Care
  • Clinical Information System and Applications
  • Workflow, User-Centered Design, and Implementation
  • Data to Knowledge (Clinical Data Standards)
  • Clinical Information System Lifecycle
  • Management and Organizational Change
  • Practicum Experience
  • Capstone Project Planning
  • Capstone Project Implementation and Evaluations

To learn more about what each of these courses entail, visit the Academic Catalog.

Review course schedule for a breakdown of when each course occurs.

Informatics Curriculum – Coursework, Practicum, and Capstone

Coursework: Lay the Foundations

During your first year, you’ll take three courses each semester for a total of 13 credits, including a blend of synchronous and asynchronous activities. From “Foundations of Health Information Technology” to “The Clinical Information System Lifecycle,” these essential courses will prepare you to tackle the demands of clinical informatics challenges today.

Your final eight credits of coursework, completed during the second year, will focus on your capstone project. In these courses, your instructors will guide you through the steps of planning, implementing, and evaluating a clinical informatics solution in your own workplace.

Practicum: Put Theory into Practice

Join an interdisciplinary team of health professionals addressing a significant clinical informatics challenge.

Beginning with your first semester of MS-ACI, you’ll attend regular team meetings, participate in problem analysis, and implement a multifaceted solution with your team. This practicum can be completed at VUMC, your home institution, or another clinical site.

Over the course of 240 hours across two years (a total of 1 credit hour per semester), you’ll gain exposure to current challenges in the informatics field and prepare to contribute solutions of your own.

Capstone: Choose Your Own Adventure

During the final nine months of the program, you’ll tackle an informatics challenge in your own workplace.

With the guidance of a mentor committee, you will identify a project mentor from your sponsor organization and submit a project proposal detailing the challenge and strategy of your work.

You will then lead a diverse team of health professionals to plan, implement, and evaluate your initiative. In doing so, you’ll learn from a Vanderbilt faculty mentor with expertise in the area of your particular challenge while advancing your organization’s agenda in ways that confer immediate value.

At the end of your second year, you will write a report and reflect on the initiative. The capstone project provides you with invaluable hands-on experience that yields tangible outcomes — the MS-ACI program at Vanderbilt has a 100% employment rate.

Curriculum Outcomes

After completing the online Master of Science in Applied Clinical Informatics courses, students will:

  • Advance in their career as they continue working while obtaining their degree
  • Have a network of connections to national leaders in health informatics
  • Feel comfortable and confident leading and implementing data-driven solutions in their workplace

Curriculum Resources

  • American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA): Core Competencies for Applied Health Informatics Education at the Master’s Degree Level (white paper)
    • Domain Name Brief Description
      F1 Health The background knowledge of the history, goals, methods, and current challenges of the major health sciences, including human biology, genomics, clinical and translational science, healthcare delivery, personal health, and public health.
      F2 Information Science and Technology The background knowledge of the concepts, terminology, methods, and tools of information science and technology for managing and analyzing data, information, and knowledge.
      F3 Social and Behavioral Science The background knowledge of the effects of social, behavioral, legal, psychological, management, cognitive, and economic theories, methods, and models applicable to health informatics from multiple levels including individual, social group, and society.
      F4 Health Information Science and Technology The knowledge, skills, and attitudes to use concepts and tools for managing and analyzing biomedical and health data, information, and knowledge. Key foci include systems design and development, standards, integration, interoperability, and protection of biomedical and health information.
      F5 Human Factors and Socio-technical Systems The knowledge, skills, and attitudes to apply social behavioral theories and human factors engineering to better understand the interaction between users and information technologies within the organizational, social, and physical contexts of their lives, and apply this understanding in information system design.
      F6 Social and Behavioral Aspects of Health The knowledge, skills, and attitudes to use social determinants of health and patient-generated data to analyze problems arising from health or disease, to recognize the implications of these problems on daily activities, and to recognize and/or develop practical solutions to managing these problems.
      F7 Social, Behavioral, and Information Science and Technology Applied to Health The knowledge, skills, and attitudes to apply the diverse foundational concepts and facets in order to develop integrative approaches to the design, implementation, and evaluation of health informatics solutions.
      F8 Professionalism The conduct that reflects the aims or qualities that characterize a professional person, encompassing especially a defined body of knowledge and skills and their lifelong maintenance as well as adherence to an ethical code.
      F9 Interprofessional Collaborative Practice Behavior that reflects the foundations of values/ethics, roles/responsibilities, interprofessional communication practices, and interprofessional teamwork for team-based practice.
      F10 Leadership Behavior that demonstrates the following characteristics: credibility, honesty, competence, ability to inspire, and ability to formulate and communicate a vision.

Take the Next Step –  Apply to the Online Clinical Informatics Master’s Program

With online clinical informatics courses that seamlessly fit into your busy schedule, you can complete your master’s degree in applied clinical informatics at Vanderbilt University in as little as 21 months. Take the next step by beginning your application today.