Health Information Concentration

Kaitlin L Costello New concentration!

Although it is increasingly necessary for people to be able to make informed decisions about their health, it can be difficult for many to find and interpret high-quality health information. This concentration prepares you to serve the health information needs of a wide audience, including the public, patients, healthcare providers, health researchers, and others.

Concentration Goals and Objectives

You will learn how to:

Locate, evaluate, synthesize, and share authoritative health information, research studies, and medical evidence.
Identify and design tools, methods, and systems for solving health information problems in a variety of different settings including consumer health information seeking, clinical care, and patient decision-making.
Organize and make available health information resources and collections for specific audiences using appropriate technologies.
Understand and facilitate the interaction between users and health information resources and systems within the contexts of their lives and/or work roles, including acquiring and imparting critical information literacy skills.
Articulate the effects of individual, interpersonal, community, institutional, and geopolitical interactions on the creation and use of health information and on health information behaviors and practices.
Communicate and collaborate with their constituents and people in the allied health professions to provide and improve upon ethical and equitable health information services.

Courses focus on:

Human information behavior
Organizing information
Management principles in information organizations
Knowledge and society
Health sciences information
Health informatics

This course of study is appropriate for those who wish to work as clinical research librarians, health information scientists, health engagement well-being coordinators, health sciences librarians, systematic review librarians, and analysts for community health and wellness.