Master of Health Informatics: Looking beyond medicine
Babak Rashidi is a master of many disciplines; he practices internal medicine, teaches medical school curriculum, and contributes to clinical decision support to improve patient care. When he was training as a physician, and in his fifth year of residency, Babak decided that he wanted to enhance his contributions to health care and re-introduce technical skills into his work. Before completing his medical degree he had completed his undergraduate studies in Biomedical Computing. Babak was able to marry these two backgrounds to set him on a course that enables him to work towards aligning academic hospitals with modern health care systems. He believes that technology will - and already is - the future of patient care, with health informatics being a rapidly developing area in health care institutions.
“The MHI program has opened various doors and helped me carve my path into this field so that I can explore more avenues in the future.”
After completing University of Waterloo’s Master of Health Informatics (MHI) program, Babak has seized the opportunity to join different hospital committees that are integrating new electronic health records (EHR) and making patient-physician communication more efficient. He has worked on projects such as the CANImmunize app, which is designed to help Canadian families keep track of their immunizations. The MHI program has helped open doors for Babak to explore the latest innovations and find ways to enhance existing systems. As a “jack of all trades”, Babak wishes to continue to balance his research, teaching and practice, and to further contribute to health care support for all Canadians.