Graduate Certificate in Dental Informatics

Study the science and technology of dental informatics

Successfully implementing and using health information technology (HIT) requires more than just knowledge about technology. This graduate certificate prepares you to examine the role of health information technology in dentistry to improve patient care processes and outcomes.

The Graduate Certificate in Dental Informatics is a 12-month, 15-credit hour graduate certificate program. This certificate is designed to meet the requirements of advanced health informatics certification examination through the AMIA.

Dental Informatics professionals oversee information systems utilized in dental practices and develop technology to improve dental care. The duties of Dental Informatics professionals include:

  • Developing theoretical models – designed to improve dental research. For example, researchers seeking cures for oral cancers need to be able to quickly access information about cancer growth, current medical procedures, and symptoms. Research models can also be used to test hypotheses and treat disease.
  • Developing and setting up computer applications – that make patient information and records accessible for dentists. Dental informatics specialists are developing approaches to retrieve information from electronic dental records for research, patient care and administrative purposes. These approaches include querying structured data and utilizing text mining approaches such as natural language processing and deep learning models to query unstructured data such as clinical notes for the information of interest.

 

 

Learning Outcomes

If you successfully complete the program, you will be able to demonstrate competency in these areas.

  • analyze dental information systems (electronic dental records) and how they support patient care and clinical workflow
  • adapt information systems for capturing and managing dental data and supporting clinical decision making
  • analyze the use of controlled vocabularies, terminologies, and ontologies to represent information in electronic dental records
  • identify user-centered design methods to design and evaluate dental clinical information systems
  • evaluate and interpret usability assessment results on clinical workflow and patient care documentation
  • recognize the different algorithms used in clinical decision support systems and their applications at the point of care
  • anticipate and resolve challenges during health information technology implementation
  • examine HIPAA privacy and security requirements and devise a plan to comply with them
  • determine future staff needs, develop job descriptions, and recruit personnel who fit the job description
  • develop a plan to implement and manage a clinical system or an information technology infrastructure for a dental office or a large academic or care organization

How to apply

You will use the IU Graduate CAS Application to apply to the Graduate Certificate in Dental Informatics program.

The application deadline is November 1 each year.

Costs and financial aid

Your tuition and fee costs will depend on your residency (in state or out of state) and the number of credit hours you take each semester. You can use IU’s tuition and fee estimator as a starting point for figuring out what your costs will be.

The Indiana University Graduate School Indianapolis can help you explore options for paying for graduate school.

Learn more about costs and financial aid

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