March 18, 2016
1:00PM
2:00PM
EST
Registration
Fee:
Free for AMIA members and non-members; no fee.
Presenters:
William Hersh, MD, FACP, FACMI - Professor and Chair, Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology, OHSU
Clinical Informatics was approved as a subspecialty by the American Board of Medical Specialties in 2011. Clinical informaticians “transform health care by analyzing, designing, implementing, and evaluating information and communication systems that enhance individual and population health outcomes, improve patient care, and strengthen the clinician-patient relationship.” (Gardner et al, 2009) The clinical informatician applies informatics methods, concepts, and tools to the practice of medicine.
Since 2013, the American Board of Preventive Medicine and the American Board of Pathology have been offering the clinical informatics board exam to physicians who qualify through the “Practice Pathway.” These licensed physicians have practiced clinical informatics for three years, for at least 25% of his/her full-time employment. This practice must have taken place within the five-year interval immediately preceding application for certification.
There are currently 1105 clinical informaticians who have become board-certified through the “Practice Pathway.”
There are physicians in the US who, because of their professional experiences and responsibilities, qualify to become diplomates in clinical informatics. However, awareness of the subspecialty is not optimal. Physicians have taken the initiative in spearheading the transition in their institutions to electronic medical records, forming committees that create clinical decision supports in those EMR systems, and championing the “Learning Health System” model in their places of work. With the intense focus these changes require, many qualified physicians have not been aware that clinical informatics has grown over the years into its own subspecialty.
At the end of 2017, the Practice Pathway to board certification in clinical informatics will close. Beginning in 2018, physicians who wish to sit for this board exam will have had to complete a 24-month ACGME-approved fellowship in clinical informatics.
William Hersh, MD, FACP, FACMI, presents this informational webinar on the core competencies of the clinical informatician, the value of becoming board certified, and the application process.
Learning Objectives
After participating in this activity, the learner should be more familiar with the:
Roles and responsibilities of the physician clinical informatician
Requirements for the “Practice Pathway” for board certification in clinical informatics
Value of becoming a board-certified clinical informatician during the “Practice Pathway” period
Post-Practice Pathway Fellowship training required for board certification in clinical informatics
Speaker Information
William Hersh, MD, FACP, FACMI
Professor and Chair
Department of Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology (DMICE)
Oregon Health & Science University
Portland, OR
William Hersh is a board-certified clinical informatician, and a leader and innovator in biomedical informatics, both in education and research. In education, he developed and serves as Director of all of OHSU’s graduate biomedical informatics education programs, including the Master of Science, the Master of Biomedical Informatics, the Graduate Certificate, and the Doctor of Philosophy. Dr. Hersh also spearheaded OHSU’s efforts in distance learning for biomedical informatics, which are available up to the master’s degree level. He also conceptualized and implemented the first offering of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) 10x10 (“ten by ten”) program, which has provided education to over 2,000 health care professionals and others in biomedical informatics.
Dr. Hersh also serves as Director of OHSU's two Fellowship Programs in Biomedical Informatics. These include OHSU's Research Fellowship in Biomedical Informatics, which is funded by a training grant from the National Library of Medicine, and its new ACGME-accredited Clinical Informatics Fellowship. Dr. Hersh has also been involved in other global efforts to expand informatics capacity through education, serving as Director of an Informatics Training for Global Health grant from the National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center in collaboration with Hospital Italiano of Buenos Aires, Argentina as well as activities in Singapore and elsewhere.