Health Informatics Scholarships

Crossroads of Medicine and Digital Information

Health informatics is a new field of study involving the use of information technology– devices for computing and communication– in medicine. Students of informatics learn how to design systems that support the operation of different medical environments (for example, a hospital, research laboratory, or doctor’s office) and how to store and utilize the vast amount of medical data that’s now kept on every patient contact.

The goal is to translate everything currently existing on paper (nurses’ notes, hospital charts, test results) to digital form so it can be accessed and added to by every facility that treats a particular patient. Information systems will be used to deliver improved medical care and help both patients and caregivers make informed decisions about diagnoses and treatments.

Some medical schools will schedule part of your training in the school’s own developing biomedical data bank, which is an excellent opportunity to make an important contribution and further your future career. Health informatics is a relatively new discipline and there is much seminal work being done today, which gives you a better chance to make your name in the field.

Government Scholarships

Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communication

The Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communication at the National Library of Medicine has a postdoctoral fellowship program open to graduate and medical students called the Clinical Informatics Postdoctoral Fellowships. Applicants must have medical degrees or doctorates in medical informatics, and those who are accepted will work in existing research projects in areas like developing standards for digitizing medical records and processing natural language or images.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sponsors the Public Health Informatics Fellowship Program, which lasts two years and trains students who have either medical or masters-level degrees in health informatics to solve problems in public health using information systems. You should have research experience as well as experience in the fields of public health and informatics.

If accepted, you’ll work primarily at the CDC and also be required to travel.

College Scholarships

The following are some of the many forms of financial aid available to those who want to study health informatics. Most medical schools offer this type of assistance to their students. If you’re interested in a fellowship that begins when you graduate, there is a long list of schools that provide such fellowships here.

University of Missouri

The Department of Health Management and Informatics at the University of Missouri has a number of options for students seeking scholarship funding. Here are three of them:

• The Foster McGaw Scholarship in the amount of $500 is given to a student chosen by the department.
• The Ernst & Young Health Informatics Scholarship is based on academic performance. There is one award for $5,000 and sometimes also others for $1,000 each.
• The HMI Alumni Scholarships, and for information on those you should contact the department directly.

Indiana University (Bloomington)

Indiana University (Bloomington)’s School of Informatics and Computing hands out three scholarships, and here are brief descriptions:

• The Cecil (Corky) Richmond Scholarship, which brings as much as $5,000, is given to a freshman and may be renewed for four years if the recipient maintains good standing at the university.
• The School of Informatics and Computing Direct Admit Scholarship ($1,000) is also intended for a freshman and also renewable, and chooses the student who has the most academic promise as shown in test scores and the application essay.
• The School of Informatics and Computing Hudson and Holland Matching Scholarship is awarded to a student who receives funds from the Hudson and Holland Scholars Program for students from underrepresented groups who have achieved academic excellence.

Scholarships From Private Organizations

Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), which has numerous chapters all over the country, offers two student scholarships, and its chapters underwrite others. These are the two categories of HIMSS awards:

• The Healthcare Information Management Systems scholarships, three in number, go to an undergraduate, a masters student, and a doctoral student who are members of HIMSS. Undergraduate applicants must be at least juniors, and the scholarships are one-time gifts.
• The Richard P. Covert, Ph.D., LFHIMSS Scholarship for Management Systems goes to a student member who promotes the use of Management Engineering.

There is a linked list of the chapter scholarships included on the HIMSS scholarship page.