Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence & Informatics

The Human-Centered AI and Informatics Specialization within the DNP in Systems Leadership prepares experienced nurses for their essential role in determining how AI- and informatics-enabled technologies and processes are designed, implemented, and evaluated across healthcare settings.

A leader in nursing informatics and human-centered AI education and research for more than 25 years, Columbia University School of Nursing brings extensive experience to this burgeoning field. Students learn from nationally and internationally recognized scientists and educators in human-centered AI and informatics.

The program explores how AI- and informatics-enabled technologies and workflow processes can be designed and implemented responsibly to improve healthcare systems while keeping the needs of patients, nurses, and other healthcare professionals at the center.

Designed for nurses pursuing leadership in innovation and healthcare transformation, the specialization prepares graduates to help shape the use of AI- and informatics-enabled technologies and processes across healthcare settings.

Curriculum and Program Design

Our curriculum combines the evidence-based practice, systems thinking, and innovation of the Systems Leadership DNP with the focused study of AI, informatics, healthcare systems, and technology evaluation and implementation offered through the Human-Centered AI and Informatics Specialization.

The specialty curriculum integrates three major areas:

• Technical foundations: Build an understanding of artificial intelligence, informatics, data, and emerging technologies, and how they can be applied within healthcare organizations.
• Health systems: Explore the use of AI and informatics across acute care, long-term care, consumer health, public health, and other healthcare environments.
• Evaluation and implementation: Develop skills for evaluating healthcare needs, assessing emerging technologies, implementing new systems, and measuring their impact using approaches ranging from needs assessment to implementation science.

Didactic coursework is complemented by a three-semester practicum DNP project, giving students an opportunity to apply their knowledge to a significant healthcare or systems-level challenge.

Designed for Working Professionals

The Systems Leadership DNP is designed to make doctoral education accessible to experienced nurses who want to continue working while advancing their education.

The program features a fully online delivery model with a flexible combination of synchronous and asynchronous coursework. Consistent scheduling helps students balance their academic, professional, and personal responsibilities while providing opportunities to engage with faculty, peers, and healthcare leaders.

What Will I Learn in the DNP Specialization in AI and Informatics?

The Human-Centered AI and Informatics Specialization prepares graduates to approach AI and informatics from a systems leadership perspective.

Students develop the knowledge needed to evaluate emerging technologies, understand their organizational implications, bring together clinical and technical stakeholders, and guide responsible implementation across complex healthcare environments.

Graduates will be prepared to:

• Lead AI- and informatics-enabled healthcare transformation by aligning emerging technologies with organizational priorities, nursing practice, patient needs, and measurable healthcare outcomes.
• Evaluate emerging AI and informatics technologies and processes for their evidence base, usefulness, risks, limitations, usability, scalability, sustainability, and potential impact on healthcare delivery.
• Apply human-centered design principles to ensure technologies are developed and implemented around the needs of patients, nurses, healthcare professionals, and real-world workflows.
• Translate between clinical and technical teams, helping nurses, clinicians, administrators, informaticists, data scientists, engineers, and technology developers work toward shared goals.
• Champion the nursing perspective in AI and informatics development and ensure nurses have a meaningful voice in technology selection, design, implementation, and evaluation.
• Lead responsible AI and informatics implementation, including stakeholder engagement, workflow redesign, education, implementation planning, and ongoing assessment.
• Develop governance strategies for selecting, approving, deploying, monitoring, evaluating, and retiring AI- and informatics-enabled technologies.
• Address ethical and equity concerns, including fairness, transparency, privacy, consent, accountability, algorithmic bias, and appropriate human oversight.
• Promote responsible data stewardship by considering data quality, privacy, security, interoperability, governance, and their effects on AI- and informatics-enabled technologies  performance in real world settings.
• Use data and AI- and informatics-generated insights for strategic decision-making in areas such as quality improvement, resource allocation, workforce planning, organizational performance, and patient experience.
• Redesign healthcare workflows so that AI- and informatics-enabled technologies and processes reduce unnecessary burden and supports healthcare professionals rather than creating additional inefficiencies.
• Lead workforce transformation and change management as AI- and informatics-enabled technologies and processes change healthcare roles, responsibilities, skill requirements, and models of care.
• Build organizational AI and informatics literacy by helping healthcare professionals understand what AI- and informatics-enabled technologies can and cannot do and how they can be used responsibly.
• Evaluate the impact of AI and informatics initiatives using measures such as quality, safety, equity, efficiency, workforce experience, patient experience, and organizational outcomes.
• Guide the responsible use of generative AI in areas such as documentation, communication, education, administration, and knowledge management.
• Assess organizational readiness for AI- and informatics-enabled technologies and processes including infrastructure, data quality, governance, workforce capabilities, resources, and organizational culture.
• Make strategic decisions about AI and informatics investment by distinguishing meaningful innovation from hype and evaluating technologies based on evidence, need, feasibility, sustainability, and measurable value.
• Drive innovation in nursing and healthcare delivery by identifying problems that may benefit from AI- and informatics-enabled solutions and helping move promising ideas from concept through implementation.

Prepare to Help Shape the Future of AI- and Informatics-Enabled Healthcare Transformation

The roles and capabilities of AI- and informatics-enabled technologies and processes will continue to change, but the need for knowledgeable healthcare leadership will remain. Our graduates will be positioned to help healthcare organizations answer those questions and make informed decisions about emerging technologies.

The goal is not simply to prepare nurses to work in an AI- and informatics-enabled healthcare system; it is to prepare them to lead its responsible evolution, using technology to create better systems for patients, nurses, healthcare organizations, and communities.