Foundational domains and competencies for baccalaureate health informatics education.

BACKGROUND: Foundational domains are the building blocks of educational programs. The lack of foundational domains in undergraduate health informatics (HI) education can adversely affect the development of rigorous curricula and may impede the attainment of CAHIIM accreditation of academic programs. OBJECTIVE: This White Paper presents foundational domains developed by AMIA's Academic Forum Baccalaureate Education Committee (BEC) which include corresponding competencies (knowledge, skills, and attitudes) that are intended for curriculum development and CAHIIM accreditation quality assessment for undergraduate education in applied health informatics. METHODS: The AMIA BEC used the previously published master's foundational domains as a guide to creating a set of competencies for health informatics at the undergraduate level to assess graduates from undergraduate health informatics programs for competence at graduation. A consensus method was used to adapt the domains for undergraduate level course work and harmonize the foundational domains with the currently adapted domains for HI master's education. RESULTS: Ten foundational domains were developed to support the development and evaluation of baccalaureate health informatics education. DISCUSSION: This article will inform future work towards building CAHIIM accreditation standards to ensure that higher education institutions meet acceptable levels of quality for undergraduate health informatics education.

Knocking on Doors - How Healthcare Workers Informally Develop Expertise in Biomedical and Health Informatics.

With digital systems permeating the healthcare sector, the healthcare workforce (clinical and administrative) need insight in biomedical health informatics (BMHI) to some degree. This study shows how novices in BMHI had to knock hard on several doors to find and become part of a community of practice to gain such expertise within BMHI. While it may be generally understood that gaining access to expertise is important, our findings suggest that more attention is needed to how such access is gained. The study exemplifies that the needed skills and competencies are difficult to identify in the individual projects and are highly situated - not least because it requires access to various experts in communities of practices. Therefore, there is a continued need to reframe the necessary education and training. Knowing when to knock on doors, which doors to knock on, and keeping doors open is central to becoming - and keep on being - a part of a community of practice centring on health information technology and BMHI.

On the Effective Dissemination and Use of Learning Objectives Catalogs for Health Information Curricula Development.

Catalogs of competency-based learning objectives (CLO) were introduced and promoted as a prerequisite for high-quality, systematic curriculum development. While this is common in medicine, the consistent use of CLO is not yet well established in epidemiology, biometry, medical informatics, biomedical informatics, and nursing informatics especially in Germany. This paper aims to identify underlying obstacles and give recommendations in order to promote the dissemination of CLO for curricular development in health data and information sciences. To determine these obstacles and recommendations a public online expert workshop was organized. This paper summarizes the findings.

Access to Development Opportunities in Biomedical and Health Informatics.

In between users and trained informaticians, we find a group of people carrying out important work in implementing and further developing health information technology, without access to formal biomedical and health informatics (BMHI) training. Study findings show what is required of novices in BMHI to gain access to communities of practice through which expertise can be developed.

Proposing a Novel Hybrid Short-Term Exchange Program in Biomedical and Health Informatics Education.

International student exchange is a valuable opportunity for Biomedical and Health Informatics students to gain new perspectives and experiences. In the past, such exchanges have been made possible through international partnerships between universities. Unfortunately, numerous obstacles such as housing, financial concerns, and environmental implications related to travel, have made it difficult to continue international exchange. Experiences with hybrid and online education during covid-19 paved the way for a new approach that allows for short international exchange with a hybrid online-offline supervision model. This will be initiated with an exploration project between two international universities , each related to their respective institute's research focus.

Clinical informatics training in medical school education curricula: a scoping review.

OBJECTIVES: This scoping review evaluates the existing literature on clinical informatics (CI) training in medical schools. It aims to determine the essential components of a CI curriculum in medical schools, identify methods to evaluate the effectiveness of a CI-focused education, and understand its delivery modes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This review was informed by the methodological guidance of the Joanna Briggs Institute. Three electronic databases including PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched for articles discussing CI between January 2010 and December 2021. RESULTS: Fifty-nine out of 3055 articles were included in our final analysis. Components of CI education include its utilization in clinical practice, ethical implications, key CI-related concepts, and digital health. Evaluation of educational effectiveness entails external evaluation by organizations external to the teaching institute, and internal evaluation from within the teaching institute. Finally, modes of delivery include various pedagogical strategies and teaching CI using a multidisciplinary approach. DISCUSSION: Given the broad discussion on the required competencies, we propose 4 recommendations in CI delivery. These include situating CI curriculum within specific contexts, developing evidence-based guidelines for a robust CI education, developing validated assessment techniques to evaluate curriculum effectiveness, and equipping educators with relevant CI training. CONCLUSION: The literature reveals that CI training in the core curricula will complement if not enhance clinical skills, reiterating the need to equip students with relevant CI competencies. Furthermore, future research needs to comprehensively address current gaps in CI training in different contexts, evaluation methodologies, and delivery modes to facilitate structured training.

Prototipo de multimedia educativa para la enseñanza-aprendizaje de los indicadores del recurso cama hospitalaria. Cuba, 2020 / Educational Multimedia Prototype for teach-learn Indicators of Hospital Bed Resource. Cuba, 2020

Introducción: En la Facultad de Tecnología de la Salud se estudia la carrera Sistemas de Información en Salud que incluye en su plan de estudios diversas asignaturas como Sistemas de Información de Estadísticas de Salud, en la que se incluye el estudio de los indicadores hospitalarios del recurso cama; materia que se imparte de forma tradicional y no tiene una herramienta tecnológica de apoyo que facilite el proceso educativo. Objetivo: Diseñar un prototipo de multimedia educativa que favorezca el auto-aprendizaje de los indicadores del recurso cama hospitalaria en la asignatura Sistemas de Información de Estadísticas de Salud de la carrera Sistemas de Información en Salud. Método: Se realizó un estudio de desarrollo tecnológico donde fueron encuestados estudiantes y se entrevistó a la profesora de la asignatura para la obtención de la información. Se utilizó la metodología de Proceso Unificado de Desarrollo y el Lenguaje Unificado de Modelado. Se emplearon las herramientas Visual Paradigm para el modelado, Axure para la creación del prototipo y Mediator para el futuro diseño de la multimedia. Resultados: Se identificaron los problemas de aprendizaje desde la visión de alumnos y profesores, lo que permitió diseñar el prototipo de multimedia educativa sobre los indicadores hospitalarios del recurso cama, que fue considerado útil y pertinente. Conclusiones: Se diseñó un prototipo de multimedia educativa que de manera combinada con el método actual de enseñanza facilitarán y efectuarán de forma dinámica las actividades en el proceso docente educativo(AU)

Introduction: Health Information Systems career is included In the Faculty of Health Technology; the career have in its curriculum subjects as Health Statistics Information Systems, in which the study of hospital resource bed indicators is carried out; the subject is taught in a traditional way and does not have a technological support tool that facilitates the educational process. Objective: To design an educational multimedia prototype that favors self-learning of the indicators of the hospital bed resource in the Health Statistics Information Systems subject of the Health Information Systems career. Method: A survey of students and interview of teachers permitted to obtain the information needed to carry out a study of technological development using Unified Development Process methodology and Unified Modeling Language; Visual Paradigm tools were used for modeling; Axure for prototyping and Mediator for future multimedia design. Results: there were identified learning problems from the perspective of students and teachers, which allowed the design of the educational multimedia prototype on hospital bed resource indicators, considering it useful and pertinent. Conclusions: The design of the educational multimedia prototype, combined with the current teaching method, will facilitate and dynamically carry out the activities in the educational teaching process(AU)

Training digital natives to transform healthcare: a 5-tiered approach for integrating clinical informatics into undergraduate medical education.

Expansive growth in the use of health information technology (HIT) has dramatically altered medicine without translating to fully realized improvements in healthcare delivery. Bridging this divide will require healthcare professionals with all levels of expertise in clinical informatics. However, due to scarce opportunities for exposure and training in informatics, medical students remain an underdeveloped source of potential informaticists. To address this gap, our institution developed and implemented a 5-tiered clinical informatics curriculum at the undergraduate medical education level: (1) a practical orientation to HIT for rising clerkship students; (2) an elective for junior students; (3) an elective for senior students; (4) a longitudinal area of concentration; and (5) a yearlong predoctoral fellowship in operational informatics at the health system level. Most students found these offerings valuable for their training and professional development. We share lessons and recommendations for medical schools and health systems looking to implement similar opportunities.

Organisational Change: Using Health Informatics Education as a Change Agent.

This paper highlights some of the challenges, achievements and collaborations using health informatics education and research as a change agent in which I have been involved over the last 40 years. The Open Software Library (OSL) was a specialist publisher of Computer-Based Training materials (CBT) mainly authored by nurses and medics. The "Rainbow" series of distance learning materials, "Using Information in Managing the Nursing Resource" sold over 55,000 copies. It was utilized as the basis for seven Universities' Certificate and Diploma programmes and in-house training by the NHS to encourage organisational change. Workshops at Manchester University's HSMU focusing on evaluation studies highlighted that most NHS IT projects failed because of human and organisational issues rather than IT. This led to the development of a master's degree in Health Informatics shared between four European Universities. IMIA conferences, Working Groups and the development of the IMIA approved Education Recommendations and the IMIA Knowledge Base are effectively used worldwide.

Milestones and Outcomes in Health and Human Services Informatics Education Programmes.

This chapter describes the milestones and outcomes of Health and Human Services Informatics (HHSI) education programmes at master and doctoral degree level. In Finland, since the year 2000 the programmes have been based on the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) recommendations on biomedical and health informatics and the master's degree programme has been twice accredited by the IMIA Accreditation Committee. The paradigm created to advance and support both education and research in the health and human services fields is used to analyse and synthesize the research focuses of students' theses and evaluate milestones. The outcomes of HHSI programmes are described using quantitative and qualitative data from a student administrative database and student theses. The research focuses and research methods were coded for master's and doctoral theses based on the HHSI paradigm. Experiences from the accreditations and feedback are summarized to provide insights for future development. Based on the results, recommendations for further development of the programmes are provided.

Climate change and health informatics: pilot survey of perspectives across the field.

OBJECTIVE: Establish a baseline of informatics professionals' perspectives on climate change and health. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Anonymized survey sent to 9 informatics listservs March 31, 2022 to April 15, 2022. RESULTS: N = 85 participants completed part or all of survey. Majority of participants worked at hospitals with 1000+ employees (73%) in urban areas (60%) in the United States. Respondents broadly reported general understanding of climate change and health (51%), but 71% reported unfamiliarity with technologies that could help clinicians and informaticians address the impacts of climate change. Seventy-one percent of surveyed wanted climate-driven environmental health information included in EHRs. Seventy-six percent of respondents reported that informaticians should be involved in institutional decarbonization. Seventy-eight percent of respondents felt that it was extremely, very, or moderately important to receive education on climate change. DISCUSSION: General consensus on need to engage informaticians in climate change response, but gaps identified in knowledge dissemination and tools for adaptation and mitigation. CONCLUSION: Informaticians broadly concerned about climate change and want to be engaged in efforts to combat it, but further education and tool development needed.

Engaging the next generation of physician-informaticians through early exposure to the field: successes and challenges associated with starting a novel clinical informatics interest group.

Clinical informatics remains underappreciated among medical students in part due to a lack of integration into undergraduate medical education (UME). New developments in the study and practice of medicine are traditionally introduced via formal integration into undergraduate medical curricula. While this path has certain advantages, curricular changes are slow and may fail to showcase the breadth of clinical informatics activities. Less formal and more flexible approaches can circumvent these drawbacks. Interest groups (IGs), which are organized through the Association of American Medical College Careers in Medicine (CiM) program, exemplify the informal approach. CiM IGs are student-led groups that provide exposure to different specialty options, acting as an adjunct to the traditional medical curriculum. While the primary purpose of these groups is to assist students applying to residency programs, we took a novel approach of using an IG to increase student exposure to an area of medicine that had not yet been formally integrated at our institution. IGs provide unique advantages to formal integration into a curriculum as they can be more easily setup and can quickly respond to student interests. Furthermore, IGs can act synergistically with UME, acting as proving grounds for ideas that can lead to new courses. We believe that the lessons and takeaways from our experience can act as a guide for those interested in starting similar organizations at their own schools.

Developing the Digital Healthcare Workforce in Italy: The SIBIM Experience.

The digital healthcare workforce is usually composed of two major types of professionals: the healthcare workers, who are the users of eHealth, and the health informatics developers, who are usually computer scientists, biomedical engineers, or other technical experts. Health informatics educators have the responsibility to develop the appropriate skills for both, acting within their specific curricula. Here we present the experience of the Italian Society of Biomedical Informatics (SIBIM) and show that, whereas the technical curricula are widely covered with a large range of topics, the eHealth education in medical curricula is often limited to simple bioengineering and informatics skills, thus suggesting that eHealth associations and organizations at the national level should focus their efforts towards increasing the level of eHealth contents in medical schools.

Medical Informaticians' Skills and Competencies to Achieve Roles and Opportunities: A Qualitative Study.

For Medical Informatics graduates, there is no compatibility between the training knowledge and skills at universities and the job requirements. This study aimed to determine the skills and competencies requirements for medical informatics graduates and possible job positions in an emerging discipline. This qualitative study was conducted using a questionnaire developed by the researchers. Nine independent medical informatics professionals assessed the initial draft of this tool to determine its face and content validity, and reliability. The questionnaire was distributed among 80 medical informaticians with a doctorate or a master's degree. In this study, items with an average of 4 and higher were confirmed; out of the 78 items, 66 were approved. The highest number of unapproved items was related to managerial knowledge and skills. Research knowledge, training skills, individual skills, technical capacities, specific skills in the health industry, and managerial skills are the main areas that graduates must learn. This survey can help develop a curriculum and job descriptions for medical informatics.

Developing a professional-practice-model-based nursing organizational informatics competency model.

BACKGROUND: The development of nursing informatics started late in China. There is an urgent need to develop a clinical practice model that can guide nursing managers in constructing an organizational nursing informatics competency. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to develop a nursing organizational informatics competency model based on the Professional Practice Model (PPM) and to provide a reference for training in clinical nursing informatics in hospitals. METHODS: A multidisciplinary team in the hospital was first formed as the working group, consisting of nurses trained with the TIGER (Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform) Taiwan model and had practical experience in system development. We used an exploration map to help build the prototype of the hospital nursing informatics competency model. Then, a final model was constructed by experienced out-of-hospital experts using the Delphi method. The final model was determined according to the validity analysis. RESULTS: Ten hospital stakeholders were invited to form the multidisciplinary working team to develop the prototype organizational PPM model. Two rounds of Delphi were conducted to twelve experienced nurses' informatics experts outside the hospital by e-mail. The results showed that the questionnaire return rate was 100 %, the expert authority coefficient was 0.84, the general validity of the two rounds of content was 92.46 % and 100 %, respectively, and the coefficient of variation of all items was < 0.3. The final model included five categories, including management strategy and leadership, organizational structure and operation, improvement of the environment for nursing information practice, cultivation of core competence in nursing information, and project management of the nursing information system, with 61 elements in total. CONCLUSIONS: We propose this model to help hospital nursing managers to establish a plan of action to build up organizational clinical informatics competency.

Developing Harmonized Benchmarks for the Master of Science in Health Informatics for the East African Region.

Higher education institutions in low- and middle-income countries are increasingly offering post-graduate degree programmes in health informatics. An analysis of accredited Master of Science in Health Informatics (MSc HI) programmes in the East African Community (EAC), a common higher education and labor zone, revealed wide variability in covered courses and competencies. In this paper, we describe the process undertaken to harmonize and establish common benchmarks for MSc HI for the EAC, in collaboration with the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA). After a multi-step process involving desk-reviews, benchmarking workshop with stakeholders, and quality assurance of benchmarks by IUCEA, the MSc HI benchmarks were finalized. These benchmarks outline the MSc HI degree programme goal, objectives, admission criteria, graduation requirements, and expected Learning Outcomes (ELOs). The ELOs are further translated into courses covering all identified skills and competencies. The benchmarks should facilitate mobility of students, faculty and labor, and improve program quality.

Clinical Informatics Professionals' Training Needs and Job Satisfaction in Singapore.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the training needs and job satisfaction of clinical informatics professionals in Singapore public hospitals and institutions. DESIGN: an anonymous online survey was disseminated by institutions' informatics leads to their respective teams. RESULTS & CONCLUSIONS: 53 professionals responded to the survey. About 80% of respondents agreed that informatics work was meaningful, and they were happy in their roles. Only 9% indicated they would consider leaving their jobs. Fifty-one per cent of respondents were pleased with the career development opportunities available. Forty-nine percent agreed that their organization looked after their professional growth. Fifty-three percent felt that they received sufficient training opportunities for the work they do, while 25% disagreed. The results suggest that more could be done to improve clinical informatics professional development and training in Singapore.

Using Robots in Medical Informatics Education.

Although robots have been used for quite some time in education on school and university level, we found no reports of robots being used in the teaching of medical informatics. Thus we present the timetable and structure of a one week, 2 ECTS blocked course for robots in medical informatics initiated in autumn 2022. 19 participants completed the first iteration. We report about the requirements in terms of an appropriate programming environment, the combination among robots and our medical informatics lab and the results of the student's evaluation of the first instance as well as the experiences with the two types of robots used.

Reuniting Long Lost Cousins: a Novel Curriculum in Imaging Informatics for Clinical Informatics Fellows.

We developed a curriculum of imaging informatics for clinical informatics fellows. While imaging informatics and clinical informatics are related fields, they have distinct bodies of knowledge. The aim of this curriculum is to prepare clinical informatics fellows for questions regarding imaging informatics on the clinical informatics board certification examination, prepare fellows to handle issues and requests involving imaging informatics in their future roles as clinical informaticists, and develop sufficient knowledge and skills in order to interface with imaging and radiology domain experts. We mapped ACGME core competencies for clinical informatics and the clinical informatics skills and attributes to topics covered in this curriculum. Topics covered included orders vs. encounter-based workflow, understanding imaging informatics operations and the differences between an IT department leading digital image management and the radiology department, clinical decision support for radiology, procuring and integrating new modalities into a PACS system, troubleshooting slow application performance in a PACS environment, imaging sharing, artificial intelligence (AI) in imaging including AI bias, validation of models within home institution and regulatory issues, and structured reporting vs. Natural Language Processing to mine radiology report data. These topics were covered in interactive didactic sessions as well as a journal club. Future work will expand to include hands-on learning and a formal evaluation of this curriculum with current fellows and recent graduates.

A Data-Driven Assessment of the U.S. Health Informatics Programs and Job Market.

BACKGROUND: Health Informatics (HI) is an interdisciplinary field, integrating health sciences, computer science, information science, and cognitive science to assist health information management, analysis, and utilization. As the HI field is broad, it is impossible that a student will be able to master all the diverse HI topics. Thus, it is important to train the HI students based on the offering of the various HI programs and needs of the current market. This project will study the U.S. HI programs, training materials, HI job market, the skillset required by the employers, competencies taught in HI programs, and comparisons between them. METHODS: We collected the training information for the 238 U.S. universities that offered MS, PhD, or postbaccalaureate certificate programs in HI or related professions. Next, we explored the HI job market by randomly checking 200 jobs and their required skillsets and domain knowledge. Then, we compared these skillsets with those offered by the HI programs and identified the gaps and overlaps for program enhancements. RESULTS: Among the 238 U.S. universities, 94 universities offer HI programs: 92 universities with MS (Master of Science), 43 with doctoral, 42 with both MS and doctoral, and 54 with certificate programs. The most offered HI courses are related to practicum, data analytics, research, and ethics. For the HI job postings, the three most technical skillsets required in HI job posting are data analysis, database management, and knowledge of electronic health records. However, only 58% of HI programs offer courses in database management and analytics. Compared with American Medical Informatics Association's recommended 10 fundamental domains, the HI curriculum generally lacks training in socio-technical systems, social-behavioral aspects of health, and interprofessional collaborative practice. CONCLUSION: There are gaps between the industry expectations of HI and the training received in HI programs. Advance level technical courses are needed in HI programs to meet industry expectations.