Career Paths
Explore the diverse, dynamic career opportunities available to you with a degree in health information management.
Health information management is a growing field, incorporating healthcare, business and technology into an in-demand career. This dynamic profession offers you a variety of employment options.
Health information, simply put, is a massive amount of data. It can include an individual's health history. This can include things like a patient's symptoms, diagnoses, procedures and outcomes. Health records can also consist of a patient’s history, lab results, X-rays, clinical information, demographic information and notes.
As a health information professional, you can view a patient’s health information individually to determine how their health has changed. Or you can view it as a part of a larger data set to understand how a population’s health has changed and to determine how interventions can change health outcomes.
AHIMA, the leading voice and authority in health information, offers an array of tools to help you explore career paths.
Here to Help You
As a student in health information management at KU, your advisor and faculty team will work with you to find your niche in this dynamic field. You will be in high demand as the health sector continues to expand and career opportunities evolve with changing health policy initiatives, technologies and regulations.
This fast-growing field will provide you opportunities for lifelong learning and continued professional development. The American Health Information Management Association anticipates an increased demand for health information professionals in industries such as healthcare organizations, academic institutions, consulting agencies, government agencies and healthcare software companies. Health information managers, who are specialized medical and health services managers, are in one of the fastest-growing occupations in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with an anticipated 10-year job growth rate of 23 percent. A 2024 Bureau of Labor Statistics report indicates the median salary is $117,960.
"I think there is a misinterpretation of HIM that it is only coding, but you learn databases, health care quality and the many aspects of HIM that cover how hospitals get paid, documentation, legal guidelines and compliance, administration and management. HIM is a very diverse field."- Kelly Clodfelter, RHIA, CCS, CRC, Class of 2015