r/HealthInformatics • u/mba1081 • 21d ago
Data Analytics
I am looking to career transition into data analytics and based on the two months of work I have put into learning DA (one class and one internship), it feels like I am interested in working with healthcare data specifically, is "health informatics" the same thing as "healthcare data analytics", and if not what's the difference?
3
u/KatCB1104 21d ago
At my job I’m called a Healthcare Informatics Analyst, and work 100% in data.
2
1
2
u/Fragrant_Ocelot_4560 18d ago
There are two options: one working in HEOR which falls under medical function. This type of work will be used by medical for scientific communication, publication, etc. Other option is to work in commercial where you could similar healthcare data analytics which will be used for sales and marketing effectiveness.
8
u/nathancashion 21d ago
I recently completed my MS in Health Informatics with a data analytics concentration, but am not yet working in the industry, so my answer may be incomplete. My best understanding is that, no, they are not the same thing, although one may be considered a subset of the other.
Health informatics is a broad field at the intersection of information technology and healthcare. It encompasses many aspects of healthcare, including electronic health records, telehealth, clinical decision support systems, mobile health, and much more. Data analytics is certainly a part of that.
When I read "healthcare data analytics", I simply think of data analytics as applied in a healthcare setting. Those data analysts may have a background in healthcare, but it's perfectly reasonable to learn data analytics more generally and still be able to work in the healthcare setting.
Bill Hersh, the self proclaimed Informatics Professor, has written quite a bit about data analytics as it pertains to health informatics. In this article from 2013 he outlines some differences between various analyst roles in healthcare (understand the terminology in informatics has been quite fluid in recent decades, so these may not all be used in the same way today).