Overview of the Profession

The first step in your career planning process is to discover what drives your interests and match it to a career choice that best suits you. If you have an interest in healthcare and information technology, health information technology (HIT) may be the right career choice for you. As one of the fastest growing occupations in one of the fastest growing industries, an HIT career places you right where the expanding arena of healthcare meets the cutting edge of technology.

Health Information Technology is right for you if you:

  • Want to work in healthcare, but not directly with patients.
  • See yourself in a career that offers diverse opportunities.
  • Have an aptitude for science, but also like business, management, law, and technology.
  • Enjoy working with professionals: physicians, nurses, lawyers, administrators, and executives.
  • Want a career where you can choose to work on your own, with others, or a little of both.

Health Information Management (HIM) is a combination of business, science, and information technology. It’s the process of acquiring, analyzing, and protecting digital and traditional medical information, which is vital to providing quality patient care. Health information professionals care for patients by caring for their medical data. They ensure a patient’s health information and records are complete, accurate, and protected.

HIM professionals work in a variety of settings and job titles. They often serve in bridge roles, connecting clinical, operational, and administrative functions. Looking at the chart, you can see they serve many different groups, including patients, physicians, and administrators.

Within healthcare facilities, HIM professionals are in the middle of the action. They often act as the informational hub, working closely with doctors, insurance providers, and patients. Outside of the HIM department, they work closely with Billing and Finance, and the Admitting department.

The Division of Health Sciences is responsible for the information on this page.
To inquire about the Health Information Technology program, please contact .