New CE programs, such as Northwestern University's Master of Science in medical informatics (MMI), address the merging of health care and information technology.
photo courtesy
of Northwestern University |
A Rising Demand for Allied Health Professionals
From the September 2007 Issue of InFocus
Allied health professions are experiencing labor shortages as health care in America expands, and the demand will continue to rise over the next decade. Continuing Education units are responding to this need. They are partnering with medical campuses and delivering flexible and innovative programs to professionals in healthcare fields that increasingly require postsecondary degrees.
“Healthcare is one of the largest businesses in America,” says Jeffrey Rosen, Dean of the School
of Continuing and Professional Studies at Loyola University Chicago. “When you look at the workforce boards, every metro region shows an increase in demand, and a lack of well-educated, competent people to satisfy the demand.”
Allied health professionals include occupational and physical therapists, physician assistants, dental hygienists, and cardiovascular technicians, among others (the term allied health is generally used to identify a range of medical providers exclusive of nurses and physicians.) Advances in medical technology and expanding job responsibilities have increased the degree requirements for many healthcare providers.
“The fields keep changing,” says Rosen. “Physical therapy now requires a doctorate level degree to practice, so the whole attitude of continuing education is built into the expectations for professional advancement in these fields. That really describes the opportunity, and the way that continuing education can respond.”
Collaborating to Provide Programming
Last year, SCPS at Loyola created a new bachelor of science program in clinical laboratory science —the field of analyzing laboratory testing in patient medical care and clinical research. The program will enroll its first class in fall 2008, and will rely on faculty members of the University’s Stritch School of Medicine to provide instruction.
The collaboration, says Rosen, was instrumental to the program. It provided the opportunity to affiliate continuing education’s mission with the medical campus at Loyola, while leveraging the School’s flexibility in partnering to meet an educational need. “Continuing education is the most fluid of the University’s many units to respond to these challenges, by being able to create new alliances across departments and Schools,” Rosen says.
SCPS has proposed a bachelor of science program in emergency management that likely will be approved this fall. The program is a result of collaboration with Loyola University Health System and its Medical Center in Maywood, Ill., which is unique in its market as a state-designated Level 1 trauma center. The School’s partnership also extends to the Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing’s program in health care management, and its related program in population-based infection control and environmental safety (PICES).
Continuing education brings to the partnerships its experience reaching adult learners, says Rosen “We can market the programs to a broad audience, including traditional undergrads, adult B.A. transfers or degree-completers, as well as adults changing careers from within the medical center or from related employment areas.”
Meeting Technology Demands
In January 2006, the School Continuing Studies at Northwestern University began offering its master of science in medical informatics (MMI) degree program, in partnership with the University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Medical informatics is the effective organization, analysis, management, and use of information and communication in healthcare, with an emphasis on improving patient outcomes. The 11-to-14-course, part-time evening program prepares students for careers in a field where information technology and healthcare increasingly are intertwined.
“Three factors are bringing this to a head,” says Joel Shapiro, Assistant Dean, Graduate Programs at SCS. “You have highly educated consumers who need better access to their health information, and want to know their physicians are using the latest technologies; you have more patients being treated with more medications, and more complexity in the treatments themselves; and you have a greater accountability among physicians to report their data. There is a need for both IT and healthcare professionals to have the baseline information needed to deal with those demands—it’s the merging of two fields.”
The MMI curriculum is designed for healthcare professionals as well as those in IT, and other qualified individuals who seek to transition into the growing field. Feinberg students at Northwestern can earn a joint MD/MMI degree, and a non-degree option is available for students who only need specific courses. The program is designed to be completed within two to three years, and SCS recently began offering it online to meet a large demand outside of the Chicago area. Some 200 students are enrolled in the program; more than half are taking it online.
Shapiro says SCS is the logical arm of the institution to offer the program for two reasons. “Students are working in the field, and the ones most in need will continue to work while they are being trained,” he says. “And we do a great job of leveraging both our internal and external personnel.”
Not only do faculty from the Feinberg School provide instruction, but non-Northwestern personnel—including chief informatics officers or other professionals working in the field—are called upon to contribute to the program. “We are always actively developing new partnerships in a field like this,” Shapiro says.
Online Programs Attract Working Healthcare Professionals
Excelsior College introduced a bachelor’s degree in health sciences last spring, targeted toward healthcare professionals who have completed certificate programs or hold associate degrees in their field, but who seek an advanced degree.
“Where an associate degree prepares individuals for occupations, a bachelor’s degree prepares individuals to better integrate occupational skills with managerial requirements at a higher level of critical and complex thinking,” says Deborah Sopczyk, Dean of Excelsior’s School of Health Sciences. “Although many health care workers are prepared at the associate degree level, employers place a premium on advanced degrees.”
The program is aimed at professionals such as medical administrative assistants, dental hygienists, health information technicians and pharmacy technicians. Ninety-two students with a broad range of backgrounds are currently enrolled; the average student age is 42. The 120-semester-hour program is interdisciplinary, with concentrations including management, health education, gerontology, and end-of-life care. Additional concentrations in clinical
education and health promotion are being planned.
As with all of Excelsior’s instruction-based programs, the degree is offered entirely online—a format that is particularly attractive to medical professionals. “The flexibility of time and place for participating in and studying for an online program is a significant benefit to those employed full-time, who work odd or varied shifts, such as many who work in the health care field,” says Sopczyk.
— Doug Davala
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