Foundations of Healthcare Data Analytics

Healthcare generates vast amounts of data every day from electronic health records and lab systems to imaging, devices, and claims. If you’re looking to build analytics skills for healthcare, or eager to understand and work with healthcare data more effectively, this course is for you. In this course, you’ll explore the foundational landscape of healthcare data and understand what makes it distinct from other domains. You’ll learn how data flows through clinical and administrative systems, the formats and standards that shape it, and the challenges posed by fragmentation, interoperability issues, and data quality concerns. You’ll discover why privacy, security, and regulatory frameworks like HIPAA and GDPR are essential when handling patient information. You’ll also work through the core steps of the healthcare data analytics workflow, including identifying data sources, cleaning and validating datasets, exploring patterns, and preparing data for downstream analytical tasks. The key features of this course include hands-on labs using real-world healthcare datasets and interactive exercises that simulate common analytics scenarios. By the end of the course, you’ll have the foundational skills needed to interpret, prepare, and analyze healthcare data responsibly and effectively

• Describe healthcare data types and sources
• Explain privacy regulations and secure handling practices
• Apply data collection and cleaning techniques using Python, Excel, and SQL
• Generate descriptive statistics and data quality reports

• Basic understanding of healthcare terminology
• Willingness to practice through applied exercises