A Deep Dive Into Health Informatic Job Roles

I periodically speak for the Health Informatics Bridging program where I provide tips for those looking to break into the field of Health Informatics. During these sessions, I receive a variety of questions from participants and I wanted to focus on one of the questions asked during the most recent session.

Today I want to break down the difference between the analyst and specialist roles in the field of health informatics.

I have recently transitioned to a new specialist role and previously I have worked as an analyst for the entirety of my time working in the health informatics field. I have noticed some differences between these roles, as outlined in the table above. If you look at the Informatics side of the helpful Career Map that AHIMA has developed here. You can see that there are roles such as Clinical Informatics Specialist, Health Informatics Specialist, Clinical Systems Analyst, and Data Quality Analyst.

For the majority of my career within the healthcare field, I have worked in the analyst role. First as an Information Reporting Analyst at a children’s hospital and then as a Senior Analyst for a provincial government healthcare agency. I recently switched into a specialist role and this career transition has been a learning experience!

One of the main differences I have found is that in the specialist role, you might be focused on one area of healthcare. I currently work in the area of cancer care but one could work in renal, health system planning, maternal and childcare, to name a few. This role might be more suited for those who already have a strong clinical background and are looking to pivot into the project management side of healthcare.

In this role, you will often be working closely with clinicians to look for areas to better improve healthcare delivery. In addition, I have noticed that those who work in the specialist role don't necessarily need to have technical skills to be successful, although it can be an aid if you would like to translate your ideas into charts or graphs when presenting. The skill I think would fast-track your success in the specialist role is the quality of your communication skills. You might be in several meetings with clinicians or working with them to educate clinical staff on a new quality improvement project you would like to roll out. Therefore, your communication skills will really shine in this role.

Whereas, if you are more focused on the data or technical side of healthcare, the analyst role may be a better fit for you. For example, in some hospitals, there could just be one large analytics or decision support team and as an analyst, you might be involved with generating reports on readmission rates across several different areas of the hospital (i.e., emergency department, neonatal intensive care unit), so you are not focused on one clinical area but are more focused on building reports for several different departments. In this role, you might rely heavily on clinicians to help you add context to the data because you don’t have the expertise that they do, working on the front lines on a daily basis.

So, why did I after many years working as an analyst decide to make the switch to a specialist role?

My background is technical, I studied biomedical engineering for my undergraduate and master’s degrees and then my master’s was focused on developing machine learning models to be able to better predict a risk of preterm birth. Throughout my career, I have worked primarily with data and although this has been quite fulfilling, working at the children’s hospital definitely piqued my interest in wanting to be more immersed in the clinical side. From a personal development perspective, I feel comfortable with my analytical skills as this has been my focus for the entirety of my career and I wanted to have an opportunity to develop my communication skills.

This transition from analyst to specialist has not been easy and I would love to hear from you, reply to this email or comment down below if you have made a similar switch, pushing yourself out of your comfort zone.

As an aside, one of the books that is on my list, of my favourite books of all time, and which I recommend frequently is called Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. The premise of the book is that people who have a diverse set of skills have been able to call on those skills to help solve a specific problem.

This is from the synopsis of the book:

“As experts silo themselves further while computers master more of the skills once reserved for highly focused humans, people who think broadly and embrace diverse experiences and perspectives will increasingly thrive.”

This world is constantly changing and adapting, who among us would have thought we would witness a global pandemic? I found that in my career as an analyst, I felt I was becoming too specialized only focused on learning technical skills, and wanted to become more generalized, therefore I made a shift.

What shifts or pivots are you hoping to make happen in 2025? How can this newsletter help you with this?

Resources

I don’t know if it was just me but January felt like it would NEVER end! I am looking forward to all the celebrations and joy in February!

Looking to learn more about a Career in Health Informatics? You can watch this webinar replay I was a part of. In this webinar, participants will gain practical insights into day-to-day responsibilities, required certifications, and strategies for entering the field

Summer Internships:
Don’t forget to start applying for Summer Internships to get practical experience in the field here