A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

I want out of MTing, question though - sm

Posted: Jun 04, 2013

I want to work in health care IT, but I'm not exactly sure which degree to go for. I keep seeing health care informatics and I see programs for them, but it seems to me that these are degrees that prepare you to become a RHIA. I already have an AA degree and have my RHIT certification, but I want to work more in technology, specifically health care technology. Maybe a computer science degree or ......??

Not sure what you are asking - ??

[ In Reply To ..]
It looks as though your issue with the informatics degrees is that they're RHIA programs. Right now you have the first half of a bachelor's degree and the basic level health information certification. The informatics program would give you the second half, bring you up to the RHIA level, and it would be in informatics.

What do you mean by wanting to work "in technology"? Do you mean you want to install computers or fix them? Program them?

Basically, that RHIA program in informatics is computer science applied to healthcare information. It works with the computer systems (hardware and software) that handle electronic records and other information systems in healthcare. Researching and recommending purchases, getting them installed, setting them up, using them, managing data in them, getting data out of them, interfacing with users and their issues/training/applications, and so forth.

Keep in mind that you are a lot closer to a degree in informatics than one in computer science. Right now you have much of the first two years of an informatics degree. You have almost none of a computer science degree. I wouldn't wheel-spin getting a second AA in computer science if I were you. It would be a lot better to move on.

With what you have now, you are much closer to the RHIA, and the informatics would give you a lot of computer science. With that, you could easily do a masters in computer science. The most important thing right now is probably going to be getting a bachelor's degree. You need that to get any decent jobs.

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