Master of Science in Healthcare Analytics

Program Description/Overview

The classes will all be offered on campus, beginning at the main San Diego campus. All courses will be supported by the Canvas Learning Management System as a course document repository for the course syllabi and submission of assignments. Courses have one hour a week of project lab work that will be conducted either on-site or via distance learning. The final learning experience in the curriculum is either a Capstone course or a Professional Practice Internship in a healthcare or medical setting.

The program is not yet Title IV approved; therefore, students enrolling in this program are not eligible for federal financial aid at this time, but may apply for private education loans through an outside lender.

Program Learning Outcomes/Goals

1. Define and comply with key legal, regulatory, and ethical constraints and safeguards to protect sensitive client data.
2. Conduct logistical, diagnostic, descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive statistical evaluations to quickly and accurately inform healthcare stakeholders.
3. Recognize, articulate, and utilize key performance and financial indicators in health information analysis and reporting.
4. Effectively synthesize and integrate ontological classifications, nomenclature, and coding into healthcare systems and analytics processes.
5. Evaluate and represent trending and phenomenological healthcare data results leading to improvement and optimization opportunities.
6. Identify and resolve issues related to the implementation of ambulatory, clinical, acute care, long-term care, electronic health records, patient demographic, patient satisfaction surveying, and electronic prescribing healthcare data and reporting initiatives.

Program-Specific Admission Requirements

1. GPA: Applicants need to meet one of the following GPA requirements:
   1. Overall Bachelor’s GPA is 2.75 or above or
   2. Overall Bachelor’s GPA is between 2.60 and 2.75, plus Minimum five (5) years professional work experience, or
   3. Minimum GPA of 2.75 in the last 60 units of coursework (include graduate work) completed, or
   4. An accredited master’s degree with overall GPA 3.0 or above
2. Resume
3. Recommendations: Encouraged but not required
4. Personal essay: A 1 to 2 page personal essay describing the following is required:
   1. A brief autobiographical statement including future professional plans the professional organizations to which you belong and honors, activities and other creative accomplishments.
5. English Proficiency (international applicants):
   1. CSML will admit students with IELTS score of 6.0 with no individual band score below 5.5 (TOEFL IBT 75, PTE 50). Students can start their academic program immediately on entry into their program. 
   2. CSML will conditionally admit students with IELTS score 5.5-5.9 with no individual band score below 5.5 (TOEFL IBT 60, PTE 42). Students will start in an English program and upon successful completion will start their academic program
   3. Students with IELTS scores 5.0-5.4 (TOEFL 45, PTE 36) will be admitted to a full ESL program. Upon successful completion of the ESL program, they will start their academic programs.

Upon receipt and review of all documentation, the candidate will be considered for final admission. Final admissions decision will be made by the Program Faculty.

Note that students may apply for admission in the final year of their undergraduate program if they are confident they will meet the admission requirements above upon completion of their Bachelor’s degree. A completed Bachelor’s degree, with appropriate GPA, is required to remain enrolled after admission.

Internship, Practicum, and/or Dissertation Information

Students will have the option to take a capstone course or participate in the internship series as part of their culminating learning experience within the program. The Internship option is designed to develop professional practice related skills in student’s area of concentration through a variety of work experiences which could involve independently conducted projects in professional settings or an internship. This is designed to provide students with in depth supervised practical learning experiences. The Internship option should be chosen by international students after in one (1) academic year in the MSHCA program. Contact the International Students Office for details in case you want to do the internship prior to completion of one (1) academic year.

Credit Units

Total Credit Units: 33

Total Core Credit Units: 33

Total Elective Credit Units: N/A

Total Concentration Credit Units: N/A

Prerequisite Courses

This program has two pre-requisite courses that are to be completed during Session 1 and 2 of Year One. Applications for a waiver is to be made to the program academic advisor. For consideration to waive the pre-requisite courses, students must satisfy one of the following requirements:

1. Bachelor Degrees: Students with undergraduate majors including a course in math, a course in statistics and a course in programming are eligible to apply for waivers of the program pre-requisites courses. A 3-unit equivalent course completed at the Bachelors level within the last 3 years in math and in statistics with a grade of B+ or better will waive the DAT5005 pre-requisite course. A 3-unit equivalent course completed at the Bachelors level in programming (e.g., C++, .NET/C#, JAVA, R, or Python) and in math and in statistics within the last 3 years with a grade of B+ or better will waive the DAT5000 pre-requisite course. In cases where the course was completed more than 3 years ago, students can apply for a waiver and the program will assess the course contents.
2. Masters Degrees: Students with a masters including a course in math or statistics, and a course in programming at the masters level, completed with a grade of B or better in the previous 3 years can waive the applicable subject area pre-requisite course for the program.

The prerequisite courses for this program are to be completed during Session 1 and 2 of Year One:

• DAT5000 - Essentials of Informatics Using Python  (3 units)
• DAT5005 - Basic Applied Statistics  (3 units)

Curriculum Plan