New Degree Targets Health Care Technology Needs industry,” said Steve Herendeen, vice president of the College of Professional Studies. “This degree fills that need and is ideal for current employees who need to be retrained, as well as people interested in entering the health care field.” Although the new degree program does include two courses on the new ICD10 coding system, it goes far beyond outdated paper coding training programs to prepare graduates for a long term career path. The skills covered in the HIT associate degree include: Indiana Tech is always exploring ways to improve or add degree programs to meet the needs of employers, and a new health information technology (HIT) degree could have a big impact on the health care industry. The online associate degree begins in fall 2012. Students who complete the HIT degree will have the specific skills required to support and use information technology in the delivery of health care. Federal regulations that require the use of electronic health records are expected to create tens of thousands of jobs in health information technology within the next three years. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act allocated $38 billion to computerize patient records by 2015. “The shift to electronic patient records has created a tremendous need for workers who are trained to deal with the unique technology needs of the health care
■■ Infrastructure implementation ■■ Integration of HIT into clinical workflow ■■ Meaningful use of HIT ■■ Application development and use ■■ Data-mining and analytics ■■ Report writing and compliance ■■ System analysis and evolution The HIT degree will be offered online through the College of Professional Studies. Each course lasts five weeks, and students can access the course materials anytime, anywhere with broadband Internet access. Although the HIT courses will not be offered until the fall, interested students can enroll now and begin taking other required classes such as English and math courses. For more information or to contact an admissions representative, visit www.IndianaTech.edu/CPS or call 800.288.1766.
Louisville Campus Celebrates Opening The College of Professional Studies celebrated the university’s first campus outside of Indiana with a ribbon cutting and open house in Louisville on November 3. The admissions staff in Louisville began recruiting students for online classes in September, and on-campus classes began in January. To contact the Louisville campus, call 502.708.2363.
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