1. Marketing a Masters of Healthcare Informatics (MHI) Degree Program​​
Brittany D. Clemmons; LaDeja L. Dean; Brooke V. Griffin; Azideen Hajissa; Robert C. Rados PhD, MHA
Health Care Management Program, School of Allied Health, College of Applied Sciences and Arts, Southern Illinois University Carbondale  ​
What is Health Informatics?
Health informatics can be described as the use of healthcare information to provide a service that will improve the efficiency of an organization and improve health outcomes for patients. Health informatics includes the use of information technology that helps to effectively deliver health care. The increased use of the electronic health records (EHR) has accelerated the growth of health informatics which has made health informatics specialists in high demand. The Bureau of Labor projected that health information technicians are projected to grow 15 percent from 2014 to 2024.  ​
What is The Focus of Online Marketing?
The purpose of online marketing is to establish and build brand recognition. Digital marking is pacing at a healthy 11% annual growth rate between now and 2021. ​ ​
What online marketing can do for a business: ​
New ways to connect with your market ​
Builds Trust​
Creates Value ​
Instant Feedback ​
Trackable ​
Reduced expenses ​
Online Marketing Social Media Platforms: ​
Facebook: over a billion users ​
YouTube: over a billion users ​
Twitter: over 600 million users ​
LinkedIn: over 500 million users 
Introduction
Online master’s degree programs designed to meet the needs of students who are currently working full-time or are unable to complete a master’s degree that meets on campus are becoming more popular (Waugh, DeMaria, & Trovinger, 2011). Master’s programs that used online marketing methods have been shown to increase enrollment in their classes (Popa, Tarca, & Sasu, 2016).​
Personalized techniques that focus on target populations have been shown to effectively increase recipient acknowledgement and response to marketing messages (Bilos, Turkalj, & Kelic, 2016). More information regarding methods to reach students is needed to be more effective (Popa, 2015).​
This proposal for survey research, is intended include Health Care Management student researchers, to gather information to better identify potential MHI students, and utilize specialized techniques and electronic methods to promote student enrollment.     ​
Proposed Methodology
Research Questions​
How can marketing outreach be expanded to access niche population groups that current MHI marketing is missing?​
What strategies are best for conveying value of an MHI program to students with no former knowledge of the degree?​
As social media becomes increasingly relevant in United States' communication, how can digital social platforms be leveraged to achieve marketing goals?​ ​
Purpose​
The paradigm shift from paper-based medical records to digital electronic health records, has created greater demand in the health industry for formally trained informatics specialist. Online MHI programs that can take advantage of this industry momentum with successful marketing strategies, will be strong competitors in capturing student enrollment. The purpose of this research is to evaluate and develop marketing strategies that will serve as a guide to Online MHI marketing teams. ​
Methods​
Participants will be selected using systematic sampling from the following target populations: ​
Anticipated Participants​
Undergraduate and Graduate Informatics Students​
Undergraduate and Graduate Health Informatics Students​
University Departments with Online MHI degree programs​
Healthcare Facilities​
Health Care Workers ​
A mixed methods approach giving weight to qualitative data will be used for both data collection and data analysis. Data collection tools are as follows: semi-structured survey, phone interviews, and video teleconference calls with participants. Data analysis will be used to extrapolate participant demographics: age, highest level of education, socioeconomic status, occupation, location, social media preferences, and gauge interest of online MHI degrees. Open ended questions will allow participants to provide written responses.​
Throughout data collection, participants will be gauged for information about alternative locations or sources for attracting more participants potentially interested in MHI. Using this approach increases the potential for a representative participant pool. ​
References
Ashrafi, N., Kuilboer, J., Joshi, C., Ran, I.
& Pande, P.      (2014). Health Informatics in
the Classroom: An Empirical Study to
Investigate Higher Education's Response to
Healthcare Transformation. Journal Of
Information Systems Education, 25(4), 305-
315.​
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of
Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook,
Edition, Medical Records and Health Information Technicians, ​ on the Internet at  19, 2017).​
VanBoskirk, S. (2017, January 26).
US Digital Marketing Spend Will Near $120
Billion By 2021. Retrieved from Forbes: