Career Outlook

Information management is critical to the provision of health care in the 21st century. The tools of medical informatics help make patient care safer and more effective, and the increased use of electronic patient records promises enormous cost savings and improved efficiency. As modern health care becomes increasingly dependent on information management, employment prospects for those skilled in the field of medical informatics will continue to grow. Graduates of Northwestern's MMI program — whether their backgrounds are medical or technical — will benefit not only from the growth of the health care industry but also from an increasing demand for efficiency in health care.

Health care professionals — clinicians, administrators, researchers and educators — with medical informatics training will be able to perform their jobs better and advance more rapidly in their careers. Information technology managers will discover increased demand for their services focused on health care. To comply with federal legislation mandating the use of electronic medical records, jobs for medical records and health information technicians are projected to increase 18 percent through 2016, driving a projected 16 percent increase in jobs in medical and health services management.

The top job in medical informatics is the executive position of CMIO, Chief Medical Information Officer, one of the fastest-growing positions in health care, according to the Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems. Typically the CMIO is a board-certified or board-eligible physician who maintains a part-time clinical practice while devoting the majority of his or her time to developing and implementing IT strategies and educating users of clinical information systems. According to HealthExecutive.com, "Physicians with informatics expertise and leadership skills are... in demand... and the majority earn at least $250,000, plus bonuses." CMIOs are leaders in improving the safety and efficiency of health care.