The Northwestern School of Continuing Studies and the Feinberg School of Medicine have joined forces to offer a new master’s degree in the technology of medical information.

The degree program, Master of Science in Medical Informatics, applies to all levels of the health care system. It teaches the best way to integrate medical information so students will graduate knowing the most up-to-date methods to manage health care records, among other skills.

The part-time program consists of 10 night courses. A joint MD/MMI degree is also available for Feinberg students.

“We are experts at creating a professionally oriented degree with applicable skills and communication skills,” said Cary Nathenson, the school’s assistant dean of graduate programs. “People can work and learn while continuing their day job. The emphasis is on how you do things and how you become a leader in all areas of the health care field.”

Students can complete the MMI program in two years. A non-degree option allows other students to pick and choose courses of specific interest.

The idea is to create a common core of expert knowledge among doctors, clinicians and researchers with engineers, computer scientists and administrators.

“We want to bring together engineering students with their technical expertise and clinical people with their clinical expertise so that they share the experience and go through the track of 10 courses together,” said David Channin, associate professor of radiology and Feinberg’s chief of imaging informatics. “This combination specifically – to bring these two classes of students together – is unique to our program.”

Specially designed classes unite the two tracks. Health care experts are required to take two information technology classes, for example.

Students will learn about data management and health care systems with an emphasis on clinical decision making; legal, ethical, and social issues; and the development and management of new medical technologies.

The program is a response to a national need for improved health care information technology.

“There is a big federal push for electronic medical records, and we want to supply students with the knowledge of this technology in this burgeoning field,” Channin said.

President Bush called for computerizing medical records in his 2004 State of the Union address, and the President’s Health Information Technology Plan sets a goal of having electronic records for most Americans within 10 years in order to help reduce the costs of health care management and improve administrative efficiency.

“With (NU’s) program we are on the cusp of an important economic and educational trend,” Nathenson said. “The proof for this is the health care system already using medical informatics and the White House’s call for a better medical informatics program,”

Applications for the winter-quarter enrollment for this program are due Nov. 11. Class begins Jan. 3.

Reach Sameera Kumar at [email protected].