Hello,
Please see attached Excel file of the track assignments. Please review the table below for a comparison of the two tracks.
We largely followed your selections in making the assignments, however there were a few instances where we took the initiative and made the assignments as necessary.
Please feel free to reach out to me or Dr Motunrayo, if you have any questions.
Thanks
Understanding the two certificate tracks: Digital Health Systems (DHS) vs. Clinical & Care Delivery (CCD)
The Applied Health Informatics Certificate Program has two distinct tracks. Both tracks are equally rigorous and share a strong foundation in health informatics. However, they are designed for different types of professional roles and career goals. The key difference between the tracks is how and where informatics skills are applied.
What Both Tracks Have in Common
All students, regardless of track, will:
- Learn core health informatics concepts
- Understand health systems, data flow, and interoperability
- Work with LMIC‑appropriate, real‑world examples
- Complete an applied capstone project
- Focus on practical problem‑solving rather than theory
| Understanding the Two Certificate Tracks | ||
| CCD Track — Clinical Care & Documentation | DHS Track — Digital Health Systems | |
| Who this track is for | Work close to patient care Are involved in clinical documentation, nursing workflow, or case management Want to improve data quality at the point of care Often support clinicians or serve as clinical informatics leads |
Work at the system, program, or population level Support EHRs, registries, reporting systems, or interoperability Focus on data aggregation, analytics, or digital platforms Help connect clinical data to public health, research, or planning |
| Typical backgrounds | Nurses and nurse managers Clinicians and physician assistants Case managers and care coordinators Health Information Management (HIM) staff Oncology clinicians and registry staff |
Health informatics officers Program managers Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) staff Public health professionals Digital health implementers Data analysts |
| Main focus | How data is created during patient care. | How data moves and is reused across systems. |
| You will learn to | Improve clinical and nursing documentation Map and strengthen workflows in clinics and wards Reduce missing or poor‑quality data at the source Support safe, efficient, patient‑centered care |
Understand EHR and registry architecture Support interoperability and integration Improve reporting to national or program systems Translate clinical data into usable information for decisions |
| Key question the track answers: | How can we improve the way data is documented during patient care so it can be used downstream? | How can we connect systems and use health data for planning, reporting, and population health? |
| Examples of track focused projects | Improving cancer staging documentation at clinic visits Redesigning nursing notes or care plans Fixing discharge summaries that affect follow‑up Reducing documentation burden while improving data completeness |
Improving data flow between an EHR and a cancer registry Reducing duplicate data entry across systems Designing a basic interoperability or reporting plan Improving DHIS2 oncology reporting completeness |
| Capstone project style | A specific clinical workflow A documentation gap A frontline care process |
System‑level data flow Integration between platforms Reporting or analytics improvements |
| Deliverables often include | Workflow maps Documentation templates Training guides Quality improvement proposals |
System architecture diagrams Data flow maps Interoperability plans Reporting improvement proposals |