U. of Mich. debuts health informatics grad program

The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, has created a two-year master's program in health informatics, offered jointly by its schools of public health and information. The program will begin in fall 2012, and the university has begun accepting applications from prospective students, according to a news release.

The new program builds on an existing 18-month certification program in informatics that is open to current graduate students at the university. The program was added to meet the needs of a fast-growing field that will require more than 6,000 new informatics professionals a year up to 2014, the university said in the release.

"This program will emphasize the game-changing information technologies that will be used by healthcare consumers, which means all members of society, to promote health and wellness in entirely new ways," Charles Friedman, director of the informatics program and professor in the schools of public health and information, said in the release. "The graduates of this program will be leaders and innovators at the forefront of a revolution."

The application deadline for the program is Feb. 15, 2012.