Studying in-demand healthcare careers
The demands on the healthcare system are becoming more diverse and more challenging. Find out about three pioneering study programmes.
Epidemiology
The pandemic showed everyone how important epidemiology is as a discipline. As a core element in public health, epidemiology is still a very important subject in Germany even after the end of the pandemic. What keeps a population healthy? What makes them ill? What makes it more likely that an epidemic will occur? Epidemiologists look for answers to these questions by taking a focused view of society. The healthcare system is just as significant as the political, financial, legal and social environment in shaping public health. And of course, individual behaviour is also a factor. The programme is only offered at master’s level by the universities of Mainz, Bremen, and Würzburg, as well as LMU Munich and the Charité hospital in Berlin.
Medical IT
Few careers can be as varied as medical IT, where practitioners work at the interface between IT and medicine. The job includes developing new methods, software engineering for diagnosis and treatment, and simulation and modelling. The aim is to help medicine continuously evolve and become increasingly individualised. The career profile also includes developing new techniques in e-health and telemedicine, along with the planning and evaluation of clinical trials. Medical IT specialists must be equally skilled in both fields, i.e. in medicine and IT. Heidelberg University has offered courses in the subject since 1972.
Health education
What use are all these advances in medicine if no-one can teach anyone else about them? The increased awareness of the importance of knowing about health has lent greater significance to health educators. Their role includes training specialists who work with patients. They also advise groups, institutions and businesses on health topics, such as giving fitness and dietary advice to large companies. One long-established job in this field is teaching at vocational colleges for healthcare careers. Other activities include academic evaluations of data collections and designing studies. You can train to be a health educator at many universities and universities of applied science, including Fulda, Hamburg and the Charité hospital in Berlin.
