Courses

Course Requirements

Total Credits: 9

Total Courses: 3

Required Course (1):

• MSCA 525 – Introduction to Cybersecurity

Electives (choose two):

• MSCA 550      Digital Forensics & Ethical Hacking (3 credit hours)
• MSCA 560      Distributed Systems & Network Security (3 credit hours)
• MSDS 740      Big Data Privacy & Security (3 credit hours)
• MSDS 655      AI in Cybersecurity (3 credit hours)
• MSDS 575      Ethics in Data Science (3 credit hours)
• Or any other course recommended by the Faculty Advisor

Build on your classroom experience through practical, portfolio-ready projects grounded in real-world healthcare cybersecurity scenarios.

Example projects include:

• Simulated HIPAA Breach Investigation: Perform end-to-end incident response, including triage, containment, recovery and reporting.
• Healthcare Phishing and Credential Theft: Execute a case study involving email analysis, user awareness controls and remediation planning.
• Ransomware Readiness: Develop a backup strategy, recovery playbook, and tabletop exercise for a clinic or small hospital.
• Digital Forensics Mini-Lab: Conduct log analysis, timeline reconstruction, and evidence handling while maintaining a chain of custody.
• Network Security Hardening: Implement segmentation, firewall rules and secure remote access for a health system.
• Vulnerability Assessment: Scan a mock health care web portal, prioritize findings and create a patch verification plan.
• Identity Controls for EHR Systems: Apply MFA, least privilege, and role-based access to electronic health record (EHR) systems.
• Data Privacy Design: Establish de-identification approaches and risk analysis safeguards for medical datasets.
• Cloud Security Baseline: Audit health care workloads for secure storage, encryption, monitoring and misconfiguration checks.
• Threat Modeling for IoMT: Map the attack surface and design mitigations for the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT).

Capstone Emphasis: Each student completes an end-to-end applied project that includes technical artifacts and an executive-style briefing. This allows you to show a hiring manager your ability to translate complex technical risks into business-level solutions.

Career Outlook

The Cybersecurity for Health and Medical Data Certificate prepares learners for high-demand roles dedicated to securing health care environments and protecting sensitive medical information. Graduates gain practical skills in threat response, secure systems, privacy-focused security controls and technical communication.

Career pathways may include roles such as:

• Cybersecurity Analyst: Monitor and defend healthcare networks against evolving cyber threats.
• SOC Analyst: Work within a Security Operations Center to identify, prioritize and mitigate security incidents in real time.
• Health IT Security Specialist: Bridge the gap between clinical operations and data protection to ensure secure patient care.
• Privacy and Compliance Analyst: Ensure organizational adherence to HIPAA and other critical data-privacy regulations.

Market Demand and Growth

The need for security expertise is at an all-time high:

• Explosive Job Growth: Employment for information security analysts is projected to grow 29% through 2034, significantly faster than the average for all occupations.[1]
• Critical Skill Gaps: Approximately 88% of cybersecurity professionals report that a shortage of specific skills—particularly in AI and cloud security—has led to significant security consequences for their organizations.[2]
• The “Privacy Crisis”: In 2025 alone, over 60 million individuals were affected by health care data breaches, underscoring the urgency for stronger cybersecurity governance in the sector.[3]

Data Sources

1. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS): Occupational Outlook Handbook, Information Security Analysts. Data reflects the 2024–2034 projection cycle, updated January 2026.
2. ISC2 2025 Cybersecurity Workforce Study: “The State of the 2025 Cyber Workforce: Skills Gaps, AI Opportunity and Economic Strain.” Survey of 16,000+ global professionals highlighting the impact of skill shortages on organizational security.
3. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) / HIPAA Journal: December 2025 Healthcare Data Breach Report. Cumulative analysis of 2025 hacking incidents and unauthorized disclosures reported to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

Applicants should meet the following requirements:

• Educational equivalent of at least a bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited university in the U.S.
• All students should have a working knowledge of all aspects of Microsoft Office; and should be familiar with Internet access and usage.
• Grade Point Average (GPA) of 2.75 on undergraduate work with a minimum of a “B” (GPA of 3.00) in undergraduate Calculus, Elementary Statistics, or their equivalents.

If you meet one of the above requirements, you may begin the admissions process.

Application timeline

Applicants can apply to begin our programs in the Fall Semester, starting in August, or Spring Semester (starting in January). While we accept students on a rolling basis, the following dates serve as application deadlines for the semester.

Spring 2027 application deadline

• Dec. 1, 2026: application deadline.
• Dec. 15, 2026: All materials outlined below are due.

Spring 2027 priority application deadline

• September 30, 2026: Priority deadline for application.
  All materials outlined in Step 2 of the applicant process are due by October 15, 2026.
• Please contact the Office of Enrollment Management about applying after these deadlines.

Each applicant must complete the following:

Step 1

Complete an application.

That application will include the following:

• Personal statement: The School of Applied Computational Sciences (SACS) wants to know (1) your personal and career goals, and (2) how the graduate certificate program will contribute to the achievement of your goals via the personal statement form.

Step 2

• Official transcripts: Please ask your institution to send official transcriptsdirectly to the Office of Enrollment Management. We prefer to receive an electronic transcript and the institution can email it to sacsenrollment@mmc.edu.If the institution prefers to mail transcripts, please use this address:

Office of Enrollment Management, School of Applied Computational Sciences,
Meharry Medical College,
3401 West End Avenue
Suite 260
Nashville, TN 37203

• CV: Submit an electronic CV to sacsenrollment@mmc.edu.

Get Prepared

Are you interested in this program but need to improve your programming, or statistics other skills? Contact us at sacsadmissions@mmc.edu or complete the request information form to learn about courses you can take to prepare you for either program.

Admissions Contact

JeanLuc Nshimiyimana, M.Ed
Director, Enrollment Management & Professional Development
sacsadmissions@mmc.edu

Program Contact

Firdous Kausar, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity
Certificate in Cybersecurity for Health & Medical Data Coordinator
firdous.kausar@mmc.edu
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