Abstract
Board certified clinical informaticians provide expertise in leveraging health IT
(HIT) and health data for patient care and quality improvement. Clinical Informatics
experts possess the requisite skills and competencies to make systems-level improvements
in care delivery using HIT, workflow and data analytics, knowledge acquisition, clinical
decision support, data visualization, and related informatics tools. However, these
physicians lack structured and sustained funding because they have no billing codes.
The sustainability and growth of this new and promising medical subspecialty is threatened
by outdated and inconsistent funding models that fail to support the education and
professional growth of clinical informaticians. The Clinical Informatics Program Directors'
Community is calling upon the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to consider
novel funding structures and programs through its Innovation Center for Clinical Informatics
Fellowship training. Only through structural and sustained funding for Clinical Informatics
fellows will be able to fully develop the potential of electronic health records to
improve the quality, safety, and cost of clinical care.
Keywords
clinical informatics - professional training - education - Accreditation Council on
Graduate Medical Education - Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services - education
and strategies for HIT
