Interested in Medical Informatics, Would appreciate tips.

[Heathen6]

I'm starting my internship in July. I've been advised by a radiologist to look up medical informatics as it is a freshly introduced specialty.
I tried looking it up online, only not much to be found. I'd appreciate if anyone could help me out with some points. I'm an international student for clarity.

- I've come across medical informatics both as fellowship and masters. Would there be any noticable difference in job practice/pay between the two? Would you rate the paycheck similar to other medical fields? Should I just go for a specialty with lesser years (such as family medicine) than my choice (radiology) as it wouldn't make a difference?

- I've understood that the job mostly include programming and dealing with ITs. Is it identical to IT with the medical aspect in the loop? Would appreciate some elaboration

- Is there a common or important programming language you'd recommend learning now as it would help later on?

- I'm into computers and would prefer less patient contact. Would you recommend this field?

Thanks!

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[Stories]

I can only speak from the bioinformatics side of things. But right now, folks with abilities in big data and informatics are a big part of shaping medical and biotechnology research and innovation. I can't comment on salary as I tend to think that medical salaries are high compared to general jobs because of their debt-income-ratio, but that's another discussion.

 

[SPSS]

I'm starting my internship in July. I've been advised by a radiologist to look up medical informatics as it is a freshly introduced specialty.
I tried looking it up online, only not much to be found. I'd appreciate if anyone could help me out with some points. I'm an international student for clarity.

- I've come across medical informatics both as fellowship and masters. Would there be any noticable difference in job practice/pay between the two? Would you rate the paycheck similar to other medical fields? Should I just go for a specialty with lesser years (such as family medicine) than my choice (radiology) as it wouldn't make a difference?

- I've understood that the job mostly include programming and dealing with ITs. Is it identical to IT with the medical aspect in the loop? Would appreciate some elaboration

- Is there a common or important programming language you'd recommend learning now as it would help later on?

- I'm into computers and would prefer less patient contact. Would you recommend this field?

Thanks!

To be honest , I have been interested in clinical informatics as well . Yet the discouraging part for me is some factors such as

1) I can not be ambitious enough like developing a software because there are dozens of dedicated companies that have multidisciplinary team of competent programmers/soft ware developer, clinicians and IT personnel investing time and money to innovate, develop and maintain such softwares .

2) There are loads of clinical informatics specialists from health or IT backgrounds which are much cheaper to hire than a certified physician. I personally know some one with MD plus phd in informatics.