It wasn't too long ago that doctors kept their records on paper and stored them in a back room of their office. The problem with this was pretty obvious.
If you switched doctors, moved to another town, or ended up in the emergency room, your medical records might very well have been inaccessible. What's more, insurance claims could take weeks or even months to mail and process, leaving the patient stuck with the bill in the meantime.
Of course, the staggering pace of development in computing technology and information networking has changed what's possible for keeping – and synchronizing – health records. And now, the Affordable Care Act has mandated that Electronic Health Records (EHR) become the American standard for health care providers large and small.
These changes have not only affected how patients' information is kept, and shared, among providers and insurers. They have also created a fast-growing and high-paying career field in health informatics. As Charles Friedman, director of the health informatics program at the University of Michigan, told U.S. News and World Report, "This field is exploding. Access to health information on the Web is taking off at a meteoric pace. It's creating enormous employment opportunities."
If you're interested in a career that combines technology and IT skills, medical knowledge, and policy fields such as patient privacy law and insurance regulations, medical informatics may be right for you. Plus, jobs in health informatics are both in demand and highly paid.
According to the job-search site Simply Hired, average salaries for the field are around $64,000 a year. For more information on the career field or for networking opportunities, check out organizations like the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society and the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA).
While a number of universities have begun offering health informatics, you may not be willing or able to uproot your life (or your family's) to attend school full-time on campus. And you may be wondering if you can afford to make the investment in education that would open the door to this field. Thankfully, there are many affordable online options.
That's why we've ranked the 10 most affordable online bachelor's degrees in health informatics. Some of these programs do have an on-the-job training component that can be filled through a local internship. However, their course content is delivered online, making it ideal for working adults.
What are the most affordable bachelor's in health informatics?
All of our ranked programs are regionally accredited, but not all are geared towards the highest level of professional accreditation through the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM). If you're looking for a degree that leads directly to professional licensure through AHIMA without additional work requirements, check for that second accreditation before committing to a school.
Most Affordable Bachelor's in Health Informatics Degrees
See our rankings methodology page.
