Kennesaw State's Healthcare Informatics Program Continues to Connect Students and Industry

Varun Thalla graduates in July 2021. He is working as a graduate research assistant under Sneha in the MSHMI program, which has allowed him to help create a statewide digital healthcare services provider database for the Technology Association of Georgia, a 30,000-member nonprofit association representing technology workers in the state.

Thalla has also interned with digital solution provider Cognizant since August 2020, working on a project to help patients better understand factors impacting their health outcomes. For Thalla, who has held business analytics jobs for Deloitte and Hinduja Global Solutions in India and plans to focus his career on healthcare data, the MSHMI program has been an essential step on his journey.

“The opportunity to interact with key individuals in the healthcare industry as well as the MSHMI program curriculum’s blend of healthcare and informatics will aid me in achieving the goals I’ve set for myself,” he said. “The curriculum can take me far, but what’s more important is that I can transfer my knowledge into the real world.”

Alumni like Fortune Onwuzuirke demonstrate how the program’s combination of management courses, technology courses, and networking can propel a recent graduate’s career.

Onwuzuruike was working as an associate security analyst for Wellstar Health System when he enrolled. While still in the program, he leveraged his newfound expertise in healthcare IT to secure a job as an information security analyst for risk and cybersecurity at Piedmont Healthcare, ultimately joining Microsoft as a security program manager in 2021.

“I learned so much about healthcare project management and about the industry as a whole,” Onwuzuruike said. “I gained an understanding about how things operate and how to conduct research and study best practices. Most importantly, I learned time management. All this helped me get to the senior space I am in now.”

Onwuzuruike received the 2019 Richard P. Covert Scholarship for Management Systems from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, awarded each year to only four students nationally.

He believes that much of the MSHMI program’s value comes from interacting with industry professionals.

“Countless times Sweta gave us the chance to interact with executives, whether at conferences or other networking events,” he said. “This made me feel really comfortable when it was time to do the actual job. I already knew how to answer questions, be knowledgeable, and control the room.”

Although many people entering the MSHMI program are in the early stages of their careers, others, like Stacey Hayes, are more established but want to remain current and take on new responsibilities. Hayes has worked for one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies for the last 20 years. Her current role is senior immunology account executive, which requires her to coordinate directly with large health systems and private practices. With digital technology increasingly becoming key to those interactions, Hayes enrolled in the MSHMI program to improve her understanding of technology’s role in healthcare.

“The program led me to understand a different perspective on healthcare,” she said. “It allowed me to see the value of the data that is collected and how it can be utilized to serve patients, providers, and payers as we improve the healthcare landscape and reduce costs through technology-driven improvements.”

Hayes’ newfound skills have improved her ability to communicate with internal business partners and with clients. Her organization has also started assigning new projects to take advantage of her growing expertise in healthcare technology.

Like Thalla and Onwuzuruike, Hayes believes one of the program’s core strengths is networking, specifically with the other members of her cohort.

“The colleagues I’ve met during the program have been instrumental to my success,” she said. “Networking has really helped me expand my perspectives. As a cohort, we have all stayed close and continue to share our learnings.”

In addition to managers and information technology professionals, doctors also benefit from the skills taught in the MSHMI program. For Vidya Soundararajan, an OB/GYN at Wellstar Cobb Gynecologists, the lessons have been especially valuable during the last year.

“As a medical professional who has seen firsthand how health informatics has been used in the midst of a pandemic, I realize how crucial it is to work closely with informatics to interpret the data collected from a clinical perspective,” Soundararajan said. “It is more and more important for clinicians to become involved and assist with data collection in a manner that forwards patient care.”