Health Care Data Analyst: Career Guide and How to Become One

Health care and technology are two of the fastest-growing career sectors in the United States. A health care data analyst career is at the intersection of both industries. When applied to health care, data analytics can unearth powerful insights. These insights can reduce health care costs, deliver better care, and have a positive impact on people’s lives.

Health care jobs are projected to increase more than any other occupational group, with 1.9 million projected job openings in the field each year between 2023 and 2033 [1]. Whether you are a data analyst interested in pivoting into health care or a health care professional seeking a more traditional 9-to-5 lifestyle, becoming a health care data analyst could be a good fit.

Learn all you need to know about health care data analysts and how to become one.

What is a health care data analyst?

A health care data analyst is an individual who uses data analytics to improve health care outcomes. By acquiring, combining, and analyzing data from multiple sources, health care data analysts contribute to better patient care, streamlined health care processes, and well-assessed health care institutions. They work primarily on the business side of medicine, unlike doctors, nurses, or medical assistants who work on the clinical side. 

What is the difference between health care data analyst and health informatics? 

While both health care data analysts and health informatics professionals work with data concerning health care, the roles are quite different. A health care data analyst uses data to help health care organizations make data-driven decisions about how the health care system should operate. A health care informatics professional uses data to facilitate giving care to patients. For example, a health care data analyst might analyze how a hospital could save money in its emergency room, but a health informatics professional could focus on compiling data so that all medical professionals in the emergency room have access to the information they need.  

Health care data analyst jobs

Professionals working in health care data analytics may have one of many job titles. In addition to health care data analyst, titles can be broad or specific, including:

• Health care information management analyst

• Health care business analyst

• Health care consultant

• Clinical data analyst

• Public health data analyst

• Health care risk management data analyst

Health care data analysts typically work in these environments:

• Health care providers (hospitals, clinics, doctor’s offices)

• Health insurance companies

• Consulting companies

• Health-focused non-profit organizations 

• Electronic health record companies

• Federal, state, or local government organizations

Read more: What Does a Data Analyst Do? Your Career Guide

What does a health care data analyst do?

Health care data analysts help health executives, providers, and administrators make data-driven, strategic decisions to achieve business goals and improve health care for all. In this role, your responsibilities include:

• Collecting data from multiple sources

• Managing and organizing data sets from database management systems

• Finding patterns and trends in data analysis

• Transforming complex data into digestible insights

• Sharing findings with stakeholders with reports and presentations

• Providing recommendations for improvement 

Health care data analysts can help improve the quality of patients' health care and, ultimately, boost patient outcomes.

Types of data analyzed

Health care data analysts must use the right types of data to generate insights that are valuable to health care. A few of the data types they work with, including big data, are:

• Clinical data: Clinical data analytics is the most common type of health care data analytics. This includes using medical records to directly improve medical outcomes. A data analyst today might use electronic health records (EHRs) to assess the number of cancer patients treated in a hospital network or how to reduce the risk of contamination, for example. 

• Insurance data: Data analysts who work for health insurance providers will analyze claims data to help institutions identify which areas could benefit from more financial investment. They may also help insurance companies understand whether their premiums are affordable or where resources are wasted. 

• Pharmaceutical data: Health care data analysts in the pharmaceutical sector usually support research and development that can improve products, such as prescription drugs or medical devices. Pharmaceutical companies help accelerate drug development while also sharing necessary historical research data on cancer, including clinical trials, treatments, and technology.

• Behavioral data: Patient behavior is an important type of data to analyze because it offers qualitative and quantitative information about consumer behavior, such as retail habits, satisfaction with a product or treatment, and more. This data can inform how health care providers deliver value-based care, medical suppliers with marketing, or governments with information campaigns.

• Public health data: A health care data analyst might work with public health data to deliver statistics, infographics, and reports after identifying methods for preventing disease or promoting health within a population.

How much do health care data analysts make?

A typical salary for a health care data analyst may depend on the type of company or organization you work for. A health care data analyst's average annual base salary is $95,974 to $101,189 [2, 3]. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, that number is higher, at $83,640 [4]. 

Job outlook

Skilled data analysts are needed in the health care sector to transform data into actionable insights for companies, non-profit organizations, and governments. It is estimated that operations research analyst jobs will grow 23 percent between 2023 and 2033, much faster than the average for all occupations [4].

Read more: How Much Do Data Analysts Make?

Skills needed to be a health care data analyst

Health care data analysts share many of the same qualifications that data analysts need in other sectors. Technical skills are critical for any data analyst’s toolkit. A health care data analyst should have the following skills:

• Knowledge of mathematics and statistics

• Proficiency with data storage, data wrangling, data warehousing, and mining

• Familiarity with programming languages like Python, R, and SQL

• Experience with Microsoft Office, especially Excel 

• Understanding of data analytics and visualization tools like Tableau, Sisense, and more

• Enthusiasm for working at the intersection of health care and technology

As a health care data analyst, you’ll also need workplace skills (soft skills), such as effective written and verbal communication, creative thinking, interpersonal skills, and time management. Further, knowledge of the health sector and experience with EHR, medical terminology, and medical billing are extremely useful—and can help you land a job more easily.

Because “health care data analyst” can be a broad job title, the specific skills and knowledge you’ll need will depend on the specific job and area of specialization.

To boost your data analytics skills, consider enrolling in Google’s Data Analytics Professional Certificate program:

How to become a health care data analyst

Say you’re ready to pursue this career field. What are the next steps you’ll need to take? Explore these steps to get started.

1. Get a degree or diploma.

Consider getting at least a high school diploma. For most employers, a bachelor’s degree is not a minimum requirement but is regarded favorably. According to Zippia, education among health care data analysts breaks down as follows [5]: 

• Bachelor’s degree: 60 percent

• Master’s degree: 22 percent

• Associate degree: 9 percent

• Doctorate degree: 4 percent

• High school diploma: 2 percent

When choosing a major, you may consider mathematics, science, or IT field. You might also benefit from a health care administration degree, as long as you gain technical skills to supplement it.

2. Build your skills in data analytics.

You’ll want to boost your skill set in data analytics. You can do this by taking courses targeting the skills you need for a specific job. Taking data analytics and data science courses rather than health or health care courses makes more sense because the core skills you’ll need are to maneuver data. 

Consider enrolling in a professional certificate, such as IBM’s Data Analyst program, to ensure you’re building the right skills in a structured setting while setting your own pace. If you have experience and want to build your data analytics skills further, consider the Google Advanced Data Analytics Professional Certificate.

3. Gain work experience.

Once you feel ready to apply to health care data analyst positions, spruce up your resume with your new skills and any education you’ve received. Scour job sites like LinkedIn for related jobs, and when you find ones that interest you, tailor your resume to each job role. You’ll want to mention any previous health care experience you have.

If you land a data analyst role that is not in health care, don’t fret. You’re still gaining valuable, relevant experience and developing a high-quality skill set that will be easily transferable to the health sector when you have a few years under your belt.

4. Grow your career.

If you have been a data analyst in the health sector and find yourself itching for something new, then you might be ready to advance in your career. Some ways to do that include:

• Earning your master’s degree in data analytics

• Getting a data analytics certification, such as the CompTIA Data+ 

• Gaining data analyst experience in multiple health care settings

No matter which path you decide to pursue, a career at the intersection of health and technology can be a rewarding and high earning one. 

Data-driven health care on Coursera

A career as a health care data analyst allows you to work in the cross-section of health care and data analytics. If you’re considering becoming a health care data analyst, you might be interested in Columbia University’s class on Health Informatics for Innovation, Value & Enrichment. This 10-hour online training program can help you achieve your specific, role-based career goals by using case scenarios.