Frequently Asked Questions

A Master's in health informatics is expected to prepare a student for a career at public health departments (e.g. CDC, local government), in industry (we have had inquiries from industry who are interested in working with students who have expertise and skills working with clinical and health data) or research (based on experience and information from our colleagues in the field doing research there are many potential jobs in clinical/research settings and public health settings). Good employees with skills and knowledge about data, health and informatics are hard to find. Anecdotally, many health employers are more interested in this type of employee than pure data scientists, computer scientists, statisticians etc who have no experience with health or public health data.

The Graduate School’s Office of Career Strategy can help you refine your plans and identify possible internships that can help you get there. Your advisor and other faculty are happy to help.

This is a relatively new program at Yale; as such we do not have career data for this program, however the MS in Biostatistics is offered by the same department, and information for that program is available on our YSPH Career Management Center pages.

For more information about career paths, see these external online resources:

• What Can I Do With a Master's in Health Informatics?

We strongly encourage students to seek a summer internship.

The Graduate School’s Office of Career Strategy can help you refine your plans and identify possible internships that can help you get there. Your advisor and other faculty are happy to help.

We are and intend to stay a small program (no more than 12-15 students a year) with over 25 faculty where students get assigned 1-2 advisors. These mentors will work with each student over the two years. Students may switch formal advisors if someone else is better qualified to address their evolving concerns or for any other reason. Additionally, most faculty are happy to have informal discussions.

The core courses are intended to provide an essential mix of background in public health and informatics. University policy does not allow credit at the master’s level for courses taken in an undergraduate program, but we want everyone to take classes at the appropriate level; students who have already taken an equivalent of a required course may petition to suggest a replacement course.

Electives are intended to provide more depth in specific areas of interest to further prepare you for your career goals. The program provides a list of suggested electives, but as new courses are constantly being developed, you are encouraged to check the Yale University Course Search to identify other opportunities and to discuss these with your advisor. Pre-registration for courses is not required, so you can “shop” several courses at the beginning of the semester to see which ones are most useful for you.

Feel free to sign up for additional courses beyond the required fourteen.

You are welcome to participate in research; you’ll need to arrange that with an interested faculty member, although we may be able to help identify related areas of research.

Health informatics is based out of the biostatistics department with significant involvement by both clinical and non-clinical faculty from several other departments, including emergency medicine, child psychology, and internal medicine. Consider starting by looking for interesting opportunities with the Biostatistics faculty — page lists research interests) and with faculty affiliated with the Yale Center for Medical Informatics. Some people have found research opportunities by contacting faculty directly; in Biostatistics some have found research opportunities through positions advertised through student employment.

Note that master’s students are limited to 9.5 hours of student employment a week.

Congratulations!

If you were accepted, that means the admissions committee thought that you would succeed.

We understand, however, that some students like to review or learn some material to make their transition easier. There are three broad skill/knowledge sets necessary for this program: computer programming (in Python and R), statistics, and public health.

The Graduate School’s website has information about locating and applying for external scholarships, student loans, and student employment.

Some students in YSPH have served as teaching assistants for other departments. Opportunities may be found by visiting the Graduate Student Teaching Opportunities website or by contacting other departments directly; Melanie Elliot in student affairs can help identify the appropriate contact people.

Our program is young, so statistics are not yet meaningful, but we currently have students with background in computer science, mathematics, and biomedicine.

We seek to remain a small program, with up to 12 - 15 students a year, although initial cohorts may be smaller.