Health Informatics and Analytics is a discipline that combines healthcare, information technology and artificial intelligence. As one of the fastest growing economic sectors worldwide, Health Informatics (also referred to as Digital Health) is, in many countries, creating job opportunities twice as fast as any other economic sector. In the recent Virtual Postgraduate Info Week on 24 July 2023, a group of current and graduated students shared their passion and experience pursuing the IMU Postgraduate Studies of Health Informatics & Analytics (PGHIA) on how it helps them to leap into the digital revolution in healthcare.
Dr Nuraini Muhammad Naim, currently a PhD Scholar at Kyoto University, is from the first cohort of Master in Health Informatics & Analytics (MHIA) programme. She shared that technical skills and knowledge from the MHIA programme provided her with the right skills needed to leap into the medical informatics field at Kyoto University. Dr Nuraini who has close to 15 years of clinical, hospital management, policymaking and consultancy experience said MHIA allowed her to confidently speak about the need and trend of digital transformation in healthcare services.
Ts Tajul Asni Ahamad is currently a part-time MHIA student who graduated in electronics engineering more than 20 years ago, agreed that the curriculum of MHIA equipped him with the right knowledge and skills.
He added that the advantage of able to meet and work together with peers who comes from various backgrounds enriched his experience in the Master programme. Currently a healthtech entrepreneur and venture builder, he iterated that the curriculum is able to provide a good understanding of the healthcare landscape, allowing him to grasp the need of comprehending healthcare data analytics and eventually advance into digital health business.
Another invited speaker Dr Muhamad Irfan Yasin bin Ali Uddin, a Family Medicine Specialist with the Malaysian Ministry of Health (MOH) enrolled as a Postgraduate Diploma in Health Informatics & Analytics (PgDHIA) student in 2022.
He had more than 20 years of clinical experience and acknowledged the importance of integrating digital technology in his practice to help his patients. He shared that the digital skills that he learned from the PgDHIA programme allowed him to easily adapt into the digital transformation efforts by the MOH at his current hospital. Dr Irfan, who is also an avid member of the Family Medicine Specialist Association (FMSA) is now encouraging his peers to join the programme.
The Postgraduate Health Informatics & Analytics (PGHIA) programme is an ideal programme for current health and social care practitioners who are looking to gain additional knowledge and skills in digital innovation. This accelerated, modular, and blended learning initiative offers exceptional flexibility to those currently working in the field.
The MHIA is a 40-credit programme in 2 semesters, offered in three levels (Postgraduate Certificate, Postgraduate Diploma and Master), and allows for multiple exit from the programme. Students will enrol into the Masters programme but they can exit at the Postgraduate Certificate (after 1 semester) and Postgraduate Diploma (after 1.5 semesters). Students can choose to complete all modules of the Master programme within 1 year as full-time students, or within a maximum period of 6 years as part-time students.
IMU also aims to equip working adults in the area of Health Informatics through micro-credential courses. “Introduction to Data Engineering – Application to Healthcare” will be offered from 16 October 2023 onwards. This course helps you ascertain your readiness and commitments for the MHIA programme. The course aims to build an understanding on the needs of data science, data management and data engineering in the healthcare sector. Details of these micro-credential courses can be found at http://web.imu.edu.my/icl-v2/micro-credential-courses/
