Academic Courses

Medical science is making rapid progress with the introduction of e-health measures. Large volumes of healthcare data are being generated and made usable for tailored diagnostics and individual therapy. To navigate the path of digital transformation in healthcare in light of sustainable medical, healthcare and therapeutical care and research, professionals at the disciplinary interface of medicine and informatics specialized in extracting, managing, analyzing medical data and developing knowledge are needed.

In order to train qualified specialists for the digital transformation of the healthcare sector, RWTH Aachen University’s new part-time Master’s program (M. Sc.) in Applied Health Informatics and Digital Medicine will start in October 2024.

The study program is aimed at university graduates in medicine, computer science, natural sciences and mathematics with at least one year of professional experience in either medicine or computer science. Part-time study is made possible by the flexible and individualized course design within the framework of a blended learning concept. Traditional forms of learning are combined with online offerings.

Graduates of this four-semester program acquire important skills and competences at the interface of IT and medicine. They learn to collect and evaluate medical data and make it usable for the healthcare system. As a result, graduates will be able to help shape the digitization of healthcare processes.

More information about the program can be found here.

The digitization of the healthcare system makes it possible to communicate information, data and knowledge in the healthcare sector in a wide variety of ways – both among patients and medical staff. This information transfer has become part of a new, digital communication that allows us to act quickly, effectively and interprofessionally for the benefit of the individual.

The Friedrich Schiller University Jena has been offering the part-time master’s program “eHealth & Communication” in a blended learning format since the summer semester 2020.

The interdisciplinary degree program combines medicine, computer science, public health and communication sciences, among other subjects. It enables students to actively shape digitization in healthcare through the scientifically based use of eHealth technologies. The main focus lies on the development and reflection of communication competences in the context of digitalized medicine.

The program is aimed at university graduates in medicine, health and nursing sciences, social sciences, as well as communication and media sciences with one year of relevant professional experience.

In this three-semester course, graduates acquire the necessary skills to be able to move safely and confidently in the digital health system and to provide effective interprofessional communication and mediation of digital health information for the benefit of the patient.

More information about the program can be found here.

As one of the oldest universities in Europe, the University of Leipzig looks back on a history of more than 600 years. Its medical faculty is the second oldest in Germany. In this context, medical informatics teaching is a relatively young discipline, although it was established in Leipzig two decades ago. Starting with the winter semester 2021/2022, Leipzig University is now offering the four-semester master’s program “Medical Informatics”, which is aimed at both computer scientists with a bachelor’s degree and medical graduates. The course combines the fields of computer science and medicine in an interdisciplinary manner, thus addressing the shortage of IT specialists in the healthcare sector. Personnel working at the interface of medicine and informatics should be enabled to understand and combine both disciplines.

Depending on the nature of the students’ prior knowledge, the fundamentals of the subject area of computer science or medicine are therefore taught at the start of the program. Building on this, students have the opportunity to determine individual combinations in core and elective subjects. In this way, graduates can position themselves as broadly as possible within medical informatics for their later work or focus on specific sub-areas. The available modules cover a wide range of medical informatics topics. These include, for example, evidence-based medicine, Big Data in biomedicine, architecture of complex information systems, biosignal and image data analysis, as well as representation and modeling of medical knowledge. In addition, the program focuses on the management of information systems for medical care and research.

The degree program qualifies graduates for executive positions in medical research institutions, healthcare institutions and IT or consulting companies. In addition, it is possible for graduates to work scientifically in the field of medical informatics at universities and research institutes.

More information about the program can be found here.

In theoretical and clinical medicine, there is an increasing need for the use and further development of computational information processing methods.

With this background, the application subject medicine is offered to computer science students. The education in the application subject consists of various courses and aims at the practical application of computer science and statistical methods in the professional field of medicine. Basic insights into terminology, methodology and medical issues are given in order to train natural scientists for the cooperation at the interface of medicine and computer science. With the help of the corresponding methods and concepts, computer science students will be able to identify medical issues and to develop solutions.

More information about the application subject can be found here.

In everyday medical practice, more and more medical data has to be processed, optimized, archived and analyzed. Innovative information technologies are needed to support the healthcare system organizationally and technically and to form a bridge between research and patient care.

The application and subsidiary subject “Medical Data Science” ties in with this need and provides students of applied informatics, computer science and mathematics with competencies in the analysis of medical data and signals, in imaging and in medical statistics. Contents of basic medical subjects and clinical applications complete the curriculum. In this respect, this application and subsidiary subject is interdisciplinary and combines areas of medical research, computer science, physics, mathematics and clinical biometry and epidemiology. The goal is to train highly qualified graduates who aspire to a professional career in hospitals or in medical-scientific research institutions.

More information about the application subject can be found here.