Careers in informatics: a diversity of options with an abundance of jobs

Don't miss this JAMIA (Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association) article titled, "Careers in informatics: a diversity of options with an abundance of jobs." There has probably never been a time like this for those interested in pursuing a career in medical informatics. Are you looking for a career as a CMIO or medical director of informatics? How about combining your experience in epidemiology and population health management and blend that into public health informatics? Maybe you'd like to experience the corporate world and work for a health IT company. Or, perhaps you'd like to invest in all these mobile health (mHealth) startup companies that are trying to revolutionize health care. Regardless of your interests, the health IT industry is booming and now is the time to jump in to ride this exciting wave of informatics.

AMIA 2011 Annual Symposium

AMIA (American Medical Informatics Association) 2011 Annual Symposium
October 22-26, 2011
Washington DC
Improving Health: Informatics and IT Changing the World

The AMIA Annual Symposium is the world’s most comprehensive annual meeting on biomedical and health informatics. The Annual Symposium venue is the Washington Hilton, Washington, DC.

Learn more here.

The AMIA Annual Symposium is the primary forum for the presentation of research and development related to the structure and management of data, and the design, implementation and evaluation of information systems in the field of biomedical and health informatics.

AMIA (American Medical Informatics Association) Career Center

The AMIA (American Medical Informatics Association) Career Center encourages the wide spread adoption of EHRs and supports the goal of a well trained informatics workforce. By facilitating productive and geographically diverse recruitment and hiring transactions, the Career Center directly contributes to the quality and safety of health care. The Career Center creates "connective tissue" in a multidisciplinary profession, among individuals as well as organizations.

The AMIA Career Center is a venue provided to members of the biomedical and health informatics community. It is not an employment agency. The content of all postings are the exclusive responsibility of the individual or employer who submits a listing. AMIA does not make any inquiry into, and cannot be held responsible for, the truth or accuracy of any assertions in any posting. Discover job openings and find valuable employees and employers through AMIA’s Career Center. When viewing position openings or resumes, note that all inquiries should be directed to the organization or individual in the posting.

Learn more here.

Clinical Informatics Becomes a Board-certified Medical Subspecialty Following ABMS Vote

September 22, 2011
AMIA to offer prep courses for clinicians who sit for Board Exam

Washington, DC—Today, AMIA—the association for informatics professionals—announces the success of a multi-year initiative to elevate clinical informatics to an American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) subspecialty certified by an examination administered by the American Board of Preventive Medicine and available to physicians who have primary specialty certification through the American Board of Medical Specialties. Joining such subspecialties as pediatric anesthesiology, medical toxicology, sports medicine, geriatrics medicine, and cardiovascular disease, clinical informatics (CI) certification will be based on a rigorous set of core competencies, heavily influenced by publications on the subject that were developed by AMIA and its members, many of whom have pioneered the field and supported CI’s new status as an ABMS-recognized area of clinical expertise. The goal for the first board exam is to have it available in Fall 2012, with the first certificates awarded early in 2013. To prepare physicians who wish to sit for this examination, AMIA is developing preparatory materials both as online and in-person courses starting Spring 2012.

"It is entirely appropriate and timely to certify clinical informatics as a specialized area of training and expertise in an era when more and more clinicians are turning to data-driven, computer-assisted clinical decision support to provide care for their patients," said AMIA’s Board of Directors Chair Nancy M. Lorenzi, PhD, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “Clinical informatics blends medical and informatics knowledge to support and optimize healthcare delivery."

Clinical Informatics emerging as an ABMS-approved medical specialty

Right now, you can get a master's degree in informatics. You can complete a fellowship in informatics. However, there is no established "Clinical Informatics" medical speciality recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS). That's about to change.

According to a story on InformationWeek Health Care:

A committee of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) on July 27 recommended that clinical informatics be defined as a subspecialty of the American Board of Preventive Medicine and the American Board of Pathology, the two specialty boards that cosponsored the proposal. The ABMS board of directors and the ABMS assembly are expected to approve the recommendation in late September.

...board-certified physicians... will be eligible to sit for the board exam in clinical informatics... physicians currently working in the clinical informatics field will not have to go through a training program to sit for the board exam... there will be a pathway to board certification that doesn't require training in a certified program if candidates have significant experience in the field...

Featured Physician Executive: Edward H. Shortliffe, MD, PhD

This week, our featured physician executive is Edward H. Shortliffe, MD, PhD.

Dr. Ted Shortliffe is the President and CEO, AMIA.

Edward H. Shortliffe, MD, PhD, and ACMI Fellow, was appointed President & Chief Executive Officer of the American Medical Informatics Association in July 2009, after many years of service to AMIA as an active member and after two decades of working as a key architect in AMIA’s development and growth. A lifetime AMIA member since 1990, Dr. Shortliffe served on AMIA’s initial Board of Directors, chaired the Public Policy Committee, served as President of the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) Scientific Activities, and chaired the MedInfo Organizing Committee for the 11th World Congress on Medical and Health Informatics (2004).

AMIA 2010 Annual Symposium

The fall is always full of annual meetings. AMIA (American Medical Informatics Association) is having its 2010 annual symposium Nov. 13-17, 2010 in Washington D.C. If you're considering a career in medical informatics, you won't want to miss this meeting.

Here are the details:

The AMIA Annual Symposium is the world’s most comprehensive annual meeting on biomedical and health informatics. The Annual Symposium provides a wide range of formats for education and discussion. Papers and posters present peer-reviewed state-of-the-art scientific and technical work. Demonstrations and Partnerships in Innovation allow for comprehensive presentation of advanced systems, including new developments and innovative uses of commercial systems. Panels, keynote presentations, tutorials, and workshops bring together thought leaders for in-depth and active audience exchange about critical issues of the day.

AMIA’s Annual Symposium flourishes as the premier educational forum in clinical informatics, clinical research informatics, public health informatics, and translational bioinformatics. It attracts an impressive network of informatics experts spanning the spectrum of informatics foundations and applications, and is comprised of professionals and students from an array of occupational settings—academic institutions, community-based organizations, government agencies, the military, health care and research facilities, industry, international health, and private practice.

The early-bird registration deadline is 8/26/2010

Learn more and register here:  http://symposium2010.amia.org/

AMIA Spring Congress (AMIA Now! 2010)

Don't forget that the AMIA (American Medical Informatics Association) Spring Congress is coming up at the end of May. It's called AMIA Now! 2010. AMIA is the American Medical Informatics Association. For those of you who wish to pursue a career in medical informatics, make sure to get involved with AMIA.

AMIA Spring Congress, May 25-27, 2010 in Phoenix, Arizona. Hands-on computer labs, case studies, and more. Advance registration deadline is Tuesday, May 11th. Don't miss the opportunity to register at reduced rates!

To learn more about AMIA Now! 2010, visit: http://amianow2010.amia.org/

While we're on the topic of AMIA, make sure to mark your calendars for the 2010 AMIA Annual Symposium November 13-17 in Washington D.C. http://symposium2010.amia.org/

Attend HIMSS or AMIA?

This year, I'd really like to attend a health IT meeting. I'm torn between HIMSS and AMIA. Ideally, I would attend both. However, I don't think that's practically going to happen, so I need to choose one or the other.

I was planning on attending HIMSS until I went to the Alliance for CME meeting. After speaking with some individuals and hearing Dr. Don Detmer speaking about CME and medical informatics, I'm now more inclined to attend AMIA instead of HIMSS this year. I'd love to attend both in 2010, but I don't think that will be possible. Both meetings are very important and I'd encourage you to attend both if you're serious about pursuing a career in health information technology.

Physician Executive - Sales (health IT job post)

Here's another interesting health information technology (health IT) for physicians. Cerner is a leading supplier of healthcare information technology solutions in the United States.

Physician Executive - Sales

The Physician Executive is responsible for the support of marketing, project initiatives, and product enhancement. The development of strong on-going relationships with client physicians is a key component of this role. Specific responsibilities of the Sales Physician Executive include conducting Cerner solution presentations to current and potential clients, including physicians and key executives, in support of the sales team; host client physicians during visits to Cerner's World Headquarters and reference sites; and, develop, maintain and assume long term ownership of effective relationships with client physicians, executives and key decision-makers throughout the sales process as well as during the implementation of the solution at the client site.

Click here to learn more about this opportunity on the AMIA website.

AMIA 10x10 Program

Here's a brief summary of the AMIA 10x10 Program (directly from the AMIA website):

AMIA believes that strengthening the breadth and depth of the biomedical and health informatics workforce is a critical component in the transformation of the American health care system.  AMIA is committed to the education and training of a new generation of clinical, public health, research, and translational bioinformatics informaticians to lead the transformation of the American health care system through the deployment and use of advanced clinical computing systems of care by the end of the decade.  AMIA's 10x10 program aims to realize the goal of training 10,000 health care professionals in applied health and medical informatics by the year 2010. This training will be conducted in a wide range of settings across the United States by AMIA in collaboration with key academic partners in the biomedical and health informatics education community. The AMIA membership includes thought leaders who are the most qualified to pursue this effort through their many current and future informatics training programs. These programs have a tradition of turning out the leading thinkers, dating back more than thirty years, many of whom are now at the forefront of the health information and communication technology (HICT) revolution.
 
AMIA's 10x10 utilizes curricular content from existing informatics training programs and other AMIA educational initiatives with a special emphasis toward those programs with a proven track record in distance learning. The content provides a framework but also covers plenty of detail, especially in areas such as electronic and personal health records, health information exchange, standards and terminology, and health care quality and error prevention.

Currently AMIA's 10x10 courses cover the following topics in the field of informatics:

• Clinical or health informatics
• Clinical research informatics
• Translational bioinformatics
• Nursing informatics
• Public Health informatics

AMIA’s 10x10 involves participants developing solutions to problems in real-world settings, ideally their own, guided by established informatics principles. Participants will be exposed to a set of concepts that upon completion will enable them to serve as champions in their local hospitals, outpatient offices and clinics, and other health care settings to use relevant informatics views in their health information technology projects.

Intensive in-person sessions will be located around the country, typically aligned with AMIA meetings (Summit, Spring Congress, or Annual), sometimes co-located at the institutions of higher education, or offered as satellite meetings to various professional informatics, medical, nursing or meetings of other health professional groups. These sessions will provide additional lectures, panel discussions, project work, and an opportunity for students to interact in-person with faculty who are leading educators in the field of biomedical and health informatics.

To learn more about the AMIA 10x10 Program, click here.

AMIA CMIO Boot Camp

Have you ever been to boot camp? The American Medical Informatics Association holds a boot camp for physicians who hold leadership positions.  How would you answer this question: Are you a physician in a leadership role at a health care provider organization?

CMIO Boot Camp is designed for Chief Medical Information Officers who want to broaden and deepen their understanding, knowledge and skills in biomedical and health informatics and the current challenges in using EHRs in the health system.

Two CMIO Boot Camps are scheduled in 2010:

Spring Boot Camp
March 24-27, 2010
Hyatt Regency Coconut Point
Bonita Springs, FL
 
Fall Boot Camp
September 29-October 2, 2010
Arizona

The whole concept of a boot camp is quite creative. Can you imagine the conversation at work? So, where did you go for the weekend? Oh, I was at boot camp...

AMIA’s pilot CMIO Boot Camp was so successful last October that there is an on-demand schedule of two more boot camps to be rolled out in 2010.  The Spring Boot Camp for CMIOs will take place March 24-27, at the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort and Spa in Bonita Springs, Fla.  Its focus, Achieving Meaningful EHR Use, will provide a comprehensive, engaging experience for physicians embarking on CMIO leadership roles. The four-day program will provide CMIOs or those aspiring to that role with knowledge and tools essential to take the reins. CME is available. Visit https://www.amia.org/primary-links/cmiobootcamp for more information.

Click here to view the Boot Camp program from last year.

AMA, AMIA, AHIMA, AMDIS, and others

The world of health IT is all about acronyms. You've got to keep them straight. Here are several that may get confusing if you say them too quickly because they all start with the letter "A" and they share some similar letters and words:

AMA = American Medical Association
AMIA = American Medical Informatics Association
AHIMA = American Health Information Management Association
AMDIS = Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems
ASHIM = American Society of Health Information Managers

Confusing, isn't it? Some health IT associations use the word "medical" while others use the word "health." Which should we use to stay consistent? HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) uses "healthcare" and spells it as one word. Many people spell healthcare as health care.

January is Health IT month here at  http://www.nonclinicaljobs.com and I'll be writing about each of these organizations over the next several weeks.

Defining medical "informatics"

How do you define "medical informatics?" How about "health informatics?" Clinical informatics? Biomedical informatics? Public health informatics? The list just goes on...

I had gotten into some interesting conversations about this topic, so I decided to look at Wikipedia, and here's what I found:

Health informatics, Health care informatics or medical informatics is the intersection of information science, computer science, and health care. It deals with the resources, devices, and methods required to optimize the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information in health and biomedicine. Health informatics tools include not only computers but also clinical guidelines, formal medical terminologies, and information and communication systems. It is applied to the areas of nursing, clinical care, dentistry, pharmacy, public health and (bio)medical research.

Wow, this is an extremely broad definition, isn't it? Some people only think of electronic health records (EHRs) or electronic medical records (EMRs) when they hear the phrase "medical informatics." Others focus on inpatient uses of computerized physician order entry (CPOE) and we often lose focus on the broader concept associated with informatics.

The AMIA (American Medical Informatics Association) defines informatics this way:

Biomedical and health informatics applies principles of computer and information science to the advancement of life sciences research, health professions education, public health, and patient care. This multidisciplinary and integrative field focuses on health information and communication technologies (HICT), and involves the computer, cognitive, and social sciences. Biomedical and health informatics has developed its own areas of emphasis and approaches that sets it apart from other professions and disciplines.

Biomedical and health informatics is an emerging, interdisciplinary and diverse field that:

•  Combines health sciences (such as medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy and allied health) with computer science, management and decision science, biostatistics, engineering and information technology.
•  Solves problems in health care delivery, pharmaceutical, biomedical and health sciences research, health education and clinical/medical decision making.
•  Is essential in all aspects of health care and biomedicine.

So, how do you define health informatics?

Health IT Jobs for Physicians

There are so many different types of health information technology (Health IT) jobs for physicians. If you're a seasoned executive, then you could be a Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO). However, if you're not so "seasoned," then you'll have to earn your stripes. But where do you begin?

Sometimes, the best starting place is to join some professional societies and to learn about the different types of opportunities that are out there. Let me suggest 3 major organizations:

1. American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA)
2. Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems (AMDIS)
3. Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)

You can learn so much by joining these groups and participating in some of the educational sessions. The landscape of health IT is changing so quickly that it remains critical to stay on top of all the updates and legislative changes that are impacting this industry. If you feel like you lack formal health IT education, then you may also want to consider some formal programs (either master's level or post-graduate fellowships) in health informatics (or they may be called medical informatics, biomedical informatics, etc.).

Did You Experience the HIMSS Virtual Conference?

It was great to listen to some of the educational sessions from the HIMSS Virtual Conference. I had some unique networking opportunities and I met a few fellow bloggers and tweeters (people who tweet on Twitter). We exchanged contact information and had a good time. If you're interested in health IT and you hope to someday become a Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO), then join HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) and AMIA (American Medical Informatics Association) and start getting involved during this exciting (and historic) time in our country.

Medical Informatics Programs in the United States

Clinicians who have a strong interest in learning more about medical informatics (or health informatics) should probably invest the time and money to get formal education in this topic. There are many different ways of getting this education. You can do a fellowship in medical informatics. You can also pursue a master's program. If you're looking for a list of educational programs, take a look at the AMIA list. You can also take a look at this University of North Carolina site, although it may be a bit outdated. There are also a number of online programs where you can receive an MS in medical, biomedical, or health informatics. If you can be disciplined to study independently, then you may find that an online program is the most flexible way to receive more education.

Handbook of Medical Informatics

A frequent question that comes up is: "What is medical informatics?" There are all types of explanations to that question, so let me refer you to an e-book that can be found here:
Handbook of Medical Informatics

There are many different types of opportunities in health or medical informatics. If you're serious about learning more, I encourage you to join the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) found here: http://www.amia.org/

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) is also an excellent resource found here: http://www.ahima.org/