What is a Health Care Informatics Professional?

Working as a health care informatics professional, you will go to school to train to maintain, assemble and retrieve patient records. Their duties also include making sure that patient records are correct and are required to communicate with physicians about updating the records of their patients.

Training

To work in the field of health care informatics, you will need to obtain an associate's degree in the field. You can find these programs within various community colleges around the country. Some of the courses you will study for include database maintenance, medical terminology and medical coding.



Certificate

To work as a health care informatics professional, you will have to pass a written exam that is given through AHIMA, or American Health Information Management Association. The exam will allow you to become an RHIT, or registered health information technician.

Compensation

The average annual salary for health care informatics is between $20,000 and $50,000. The median income for this profession in 2008 was around $30,000.

Location

The professionals that work in this field are able to find work within hospitals, physicians' homes and nursing homes.

Outlook

The outlook for this field is expected to grow quicker than average through 2016.