Want to make a difference? Want to help solve tough problems like:
If these questions interest and excite you, join us for our NEW Master of Health Informatics degree in September 2012. Your computer science or software engineering background will position you to succeed in the David R Cheriton School of Computer Science. In just over one year, you will acquire the knowledge, skills and practical experience necessary to help solve today's complex technical problems within the healthcare sector. This includes an internship term spent as part of the largest cooperative education program in the world. For more information about other health informatics programs at Waterloo and our innovative research, please check out our university's Health Informatics website.
This course is offered by the Department of Health Studies and Gerontology, Faculty of Applied Health Studies. It examines the environment in which health care systems operate, with a focus on policy formulation legislative frameworks, governance structures, and funding models. Special attention is given to issues related to electronic health records and health information systems. A focus on international settings with strong track records in health informatics is central to this course.
This course focuses on health data as a key component of all health informatics systems. Topics include ontologies and other classification taxonomies found in health systems, data standards (with a focus on Canadian implementations of international standards), privacy and security of health data, client/patient assessment tools, and ethical considerations.
System architectures, interoperability, networking, and medical data storage are explored in the context of health information system applications such as digital image acquisition systems, telemedicine, laboratory automation, physician order entry systems, patient safety systems, administrative systems, and various forms of the electronic patient record. Issues related to usability and human computer interaction feature prominently in this course.
Pre-requisite: CS792 Health Informatics I - Data Structures and Standards
An overview of relational databases and how they are used; exposure to relational database technology. Fundamentals of transactions. Database views. Introduction to two or three alternative data models and systems, such as those used for structured text, spatial data, multimedia data, and information retrieval. Introduction to several current topics in database research, such as data warehousing, data mining, managing data streams, data cleaning, data integration, and distributed databases.
Anti-requisite: CS348 and CS448/648.
Introduces students to the requirements definition phase of software development. Models, notations, and processes for software requirements identification, representation, analysis, and validation. Cost estimation from early documents and specifications.
Distributed, multi-user applications are designed and implemented using many underlying technologies that must be coordinated to provide important features such as robustness, scalability, manageability, ubiquitous access, privacy, security, authentication, and role-based access control, to name only a few. The network supporting the application may be crucial to its successful implementation. The application logic itself is likely implemented in a number of languages and programming environments. Students will be provided with an advanced overview of current networking and distributed systems topics, and will apply it to case studies drawn from consumer internet applications, enterprise systems, and medical and healthcare systems.
Anti-requisite: CS454/654 and CS456/656.
This course is offered by the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science. Exploratory data analysis and data visualization. Confounding, censoring, selection bias, study designs and meta analysis. Statistical modeling for continuous and binary data. Use of statistical package to analyze case studies will be important throughout.
Pre-requisite: STAT231 or equivalent.
| Term 1 (Fall) | Term 2 (Winter) | Term 3 (Spring) | Term 4 (Fall) | |
| Co-op Stream | HSG611 |
CS793 Health Informatics II STAT631 Statistical Methods in HI CS640 Database Management & Use |
Co-op Work Term | CS655 Network Architectures Two approved electives |
| Regular Stream | HSG611 Health Care System CS792 Health Informatics 1 CS645 Requirements Specification & Analysis |
CS793 Health Informatics II STAT631 Statistical Methods in HI CS640 Database Management & Use |
CS655 Network Architectures Two approved electives |
Successful completion of a 4-year undergraduate degree from a recognized university with a specialization in computer science, software engineering, information systems, or systems design engineering, or a 4-year undergraduate degree that provides a sufficient computer science background. The Associate Director of Graduate Studies of the School of Computer Science responsible for admission will determine the suitability of each applicant’s background for success in the program;
An overall B+ (78%) average in undergraduate work;
Three letters of reference, normally from academic sources;
Proof of competency in English (if applicable) using the same criteria to assess admissibility to the existing course-based masters program in CS. International applicants from non-English speaking countries must submit a TOEFL showing an overall minimum internet-based score of 100, or computer-based score of 250 or paper based score of 600, and a GRE general test.
| Full-Time Students | Domestic | International |
| Per Term | $4,050 | $6,990 |
| Per Year | $12,150 | $20,970 |
| Part-Time Students* | Domestic | International |
| Per Course | $1,350 | $2,330 |
* To be considered a part-time student, you may only take one course per term.
The forms web page gives quick access to forms that students may need to complete. These forms are of interest to both prospective and current graduate students.
For more information on organizations to assist graduate students in their day to day life at UW, please visit the life at Waterloo web page. The information on our computer science orientation activities can also be found on this page.

David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1
Tel: 519-888-4567 x33293
Fax: 519-885-1208
Contact | Feedback: mhi@cs.uwaterloo.ca | David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science | Faculty of Mathematics