Medical Mission with a Master’s in Health Informatics from Northwestern SPS
For the past three years, Captain James Ellzy, MD, served on the team selecting a new medical records system for the US Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs. To ensure the system works, the US Navy officer treats patients two days a month so he can use the software himself. "It's important that I have credibility," he says.
Returning to Northwestern University for Master’s in Health Informatics
Ellzy, who has spent his working life in both medicine and information technology, got that credibility by going back to school to help the two disciplines learn to talk to each other. Having begun his career as a ship's doctor, he watched over the years as medical records became more and more automated. He saw, too, that producing software to meet the complex needs of medical teams remained a challenge. That's why Ellzy, who got his bachelor's degree from Northwestern University in 1992, returned to get his online Master's in Health Informatics (formerly Medical Informatics) from Northwestern SPS in 2011.
Connecting in the online MS in Health Informatics
At Northwestern SPS, the composition of Ellzy's MS in Health Informatics program cohort, split evenly between students with medical and technology backgrounds, required that students learn to explain themselves. "We learned to communicate with each other," he says. "Your grade depends on it."
In the distance learning program, "I learned so much outside the classroom," Ellzy says, including at conferences and via message boards with his cohort. Today he remains active in the Washington-area Northwestern University Club and participates in alumni interviews.
Better Systems with Master’s in Health Informatics
The medical information technology that Ellzy works to improve has potentially wide-ranging and long-term benefits: shared patient information across healthcare systems, algorithms to analyze that information and recommend treatments, and advancements in patient safety—because, he says, only half-jokingly, "doctors have messy handwriting."
Northwestern University School of Professional Studies offers many degree and certificate programs, with evening and online options available. To learn more about how the Northwestern University Master’s in Health Informatics program prepares graduates to advance healthcare systems, fill out the form below and we will be in touch with you soon.