First graduating class ready to make a difference in healthcare behind the scenes

Like many students navigating their options, Nicholas McCardle couldn’t quite pin down a major. He bounced back and forth between healthcare, business and law.

“There were aspects of each major that I liked, but it wasn’t the perfect fit for me,” McCardle said. “I just wasn’t content until I got an email from my advisor about a new bachelor’s program under the School of Medicine’s Professional Programs.”

The program, Health Informatics and Information Management, focuses on how health information is gathered and analyzed, as well as how that information is utilized and protected.

“I would still be able to focus on patient care and making a difference, but in a nontraditional way,” McCardle said. “A lot of people think to be in healthcare you have to be a clinician — either a physician or a nurse, but that’s not necessarily true. HIIM professionals can have a significant impact on care — protecting patient information, influencing health policy, and making a difference behind the scenes.”

The four-year program prepares students for a number of careers after graduating, including compliance/risk management; education/communication; informatics/data analysis; IT/infrastructure; operations/medical records administration; and revenue cycle management/coding and billing. Job settings can range from healthcare systems and hospitals to software companies and prison systems.

“It has been a well-rounded, challenging experience,” McCardle said. “The curriculum prepares you for so many different things, and you end the program with 400 hours of professional practice experience.”

The program is graduating its first class this spring — an achievement the HIIM coordinators have been working on well beyond the program’s four years in operation.

Mary Beth Mandich, vice dean of Professional and Undergraduate Programs, said the effort began roughly eight years ago when WVU Medicine approached the school with a workforce need; specifically, they needed individuals to help them implement a national upgrade process in how medical conditions are classified and coded. After hiring a consultant, planning the degree programs and receiving approval, the program enrolled its first students in 2017.

“A lot has gone into reaching this milestone,” Mandich said. “It took us a long time to find a program director because the field is so competitive, and we were really fortunate to get Sally Lucci.”

Lucci, who has 20-plus years a healthcare practitioner and 15-plus years as an educator, says HIIM careers will be in demand now more than ever with the data surrounding COVID-19.

“We need people who know how to take bits of data and turn it into useful information, such as where to divert the most resources,” Lucci said.

She’s hopeful the program will become more well-known, especially as high school students begin thinking about career paths. She emphasizes the number of opportunities that will arise in this field, as many HIIM professionals work from home.

“We included the remote element in our curriculum. One of our professors teaches virtually; he lives in Charleston,” Lucci said. “We wanted to make sure students knew how to start a webinar, how to use Zoom, etc. When COVID-19 happened, our class just flipped the switch and were ready to go.” Even the in-person experiences of the program were able to shift online through virtual physician office simulations.

Although the job market will be greatly impacted due to the coronavirus, Mandich anticipates minimal interruptions for HIIM professionals. Many members of the first graduating class have already been offered jobs.

“It’s the nature of the jobs they do,” Mandich said. “The profession will be resilient in that way. These students are going to be prepared to work in an environment with high demands for their needs.”

She’s especially thankful for the first graduating class, as the students and instructors navigated trials and errors together. “Being first is special, but it’s also hard,” Mandich acknowledged.

McCardle is certainly living up to the Mountaineer value, “Go first.” Not only is he part of the first graduating class of the HIIM program, but he will be in the first graduating class of the Masters in Healthcare Administration program through the School of Public Health as well.

He hopes to either get involved in healthcare policy, or help aid healthcare facilities in serving rural and underserved populations.

“When I was in my data analytics and research courses in the HIIM program, I did research on the opioid epidemic and access to healthcare in Appalachia,” McCardle explained. “It motivated me to want to do something to make a difference.”