Health informatics is a science of how health information is technically captured, transmitted and utilized. It focuses on information systems, informatics principles and information technology as applied to the continuum of healthcare delivery. It is an integrated discipline with specialty domains that include management science, management engineering principles, healthcare delivery and public health, patient safety, information science and computer technology.
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Northeast Ohio's only CAHIIM accredited Health Informatics program.
We are proud to be part of improving health informatics education and workforce development.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects increasing demand for careers in health informatics-related fields through 2032. Across all fields there is a median job growth of 16.5% in the next ten years.
Our award-winning health informatics faculty bring years of academic and professional research to their courses, providing you with relevant industry experience as well as the latest advances in theory and practice. Here are a few members of this team.
Dr. Meehan came to the iSchool in 2012, bringing an extensive background in research related to health care and health informatics, particularly focused on information technology and user experience. Her interests center on improving patient safety outcomes by improving the user experience of health information technology, and sociotechnical approaches to improving health outcomes for a diverse cultural population. Dr. Meehan bridges academic research to industry applications and standards.
She recently co-authored the book Making A Difference: Careers in Health Informatics with her iSchool colleague John Sharp, MSSA, FHIMSS.
Her previous experience includes senior research roles with Intuit, Inc., a fortune 500 company, as well as Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Department of Sociology. She also has served as senior research scientist at Myers Research Institute of Menorah Park Center for Senior Living, and senior research associate at Innovative Designs in Environments for an Aging Society (I.D.E.A.S., Inc.). Meehan holds a B.S. in biology from St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Ind.; a master’s and a Ph.D. in sociology from Case Western Reserve University, with concentrations in medical sociology and gerontology.
John Sharp has been Adjunct Faculty in the Health Informatics Master’s Program at Kent State University since 2012. He developed and frequently teaches Clinical Analytics I and II.
John recently retired as the Director of Thought Advisory for the Personal Connected Health Alliance, a HIMSS innovation company. Before working with HIMSS, Sharp had years of experience managing research informatics at Cleveland Clinic and at the Clinical and Translation Science Collaborative. In addition to producing white papers and blog posts on digital health, he advises startups through incubators and challenge competitions. He is the author of several book chapters and journal articles on digital health, most recently Making A Difference: Careers in Health Informatics which he co-authored with Rebecca Meehan, Ph.D.
Dr. Hong has been an adjunct instructor in Kent State’s iSchool since 2018. In addition to teaching, Dr. Hong works as an Integration Data Architect in a health data analytics company. She has over 20 years of practical experience working with health data to improve outcomes and efficiency of healthcare through data modeling and analysis, data transformation and standardized terminology services. She has enjoyed sharing her extensive experience with students in iSchools.
Dr. Hong holds a doctorate degree in Biomedical and Health Informatics from University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. Her research interests focus on big data modeling and mining, information architecture, standardized terminologies and controlled vocabularies, clinical decision support, information organization and knowledge representation. Honors include the New Investigator Award of the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine and the Graduate of the Last Decade Award of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has developed courses in standardized terminologies in healthcare, information organization and knowledge management which integrate theory with real world applications.
