Through her work with Kennesaw State University’s Master’s Degree program in Healthcare Management and Informatics (HMI), Sweta Sneha is helping bolster Greater Atlanta’s status as the health IT capital of the nation.
HMI was launched in 2012 to help provide a skilled workforce for Georgia’s growing health IT industry. Sneha, a professor of information systems at Kennesaw State University since 2008, helped first build the program as its founder and director. She was later promoted to executive director, in 2017.
“Our objective was to close the workforce gap, drive economic development, and have a strong footprint on diversity, equity and inclusivity in the digital health transformation in Georgia,” Sneha said. Sneha launched the program — developing both its curriculum and its strategic business plan — with support from an interdisciplinary team of Kennesaw State University faculty and an advisory board of C-suite executives from across theGeorgia health ecosystem.
Since its launch as the first and only program of its kind in Georgia, HMI has graduatedapproximately 250 students, brought in close to $10 million in tuition revenue, and fostered more than 70 partnership projects with hospitals, providers, insurance agencies, pharmaceutical companies and other key health system
participants.
“It gives me an immense sense of pride and accomplishment to know that I played a part in realizing the mission of supporting workforce and economic development in health IT for the state of Georgia,” Sneha said.
Going forward, HMI will continue to build a diverse and inclusive pool of innovators skilled in the technology, AI, security and management tools essential to modern health informatics. In the next five years, Sneha hopes to increase the program’s partnerships with feeder institutions across Europe, South America, Africa and Asia while growing HMI’s footprint of graduates and alumni by 500%.
“When I think of a Titan, I envision an individual truly driven to have a positive impact on the community and individuals they touch, one who is respected by both leadership and their peers. Dr. Sweta Sneha is that Titan,” said her team.
At Kennesaw State University, Sneha has been awarded both the Distinguished Service Award and the KSU Collaboration Award. She has also been named a Woman of the Year in STEAM Education, winner of the NCWIT RISE-IT Award and a Top Three Women in Technology/WIT Honoree. Sneha has taught more than 100 classes and personally mentored more than 250 students, helping develop clear pathways for minorities and underrepresented groups to succeed in STEAM disciplines.
A respected thought leader in health IT and healthcare innovation, Sneha serves on the boards of several nonprofits and startups, including the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, the Technology Association of Georgia, Tech Alpharetta and Jeeva. She sits on the editorial boards for journals, including Blockchain in Healthcare Today and Health Systems Journal. Sneha co-chairs the Health IT track for the Americas’ Conference on Information Systems and the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, the two largest international conferences on information systems.
