Introduction and Background
In the United States (US), the use of electronic health records (EHRs) has drastically
increased in the last decade[1], resulting in a need for a specialized workforce in Clinical Informatics. Recognizing
physicians’ expertise in Clinical Informatics and providing them with certification
fosters Clinical Informatics workforce capacity building to meet the growing needs
in the healthcare industry. Although certification in Clinical Informatics is uncommon
worldwide[2], the American Board of Preventive Medicine (ABPM) and the American Board of Pathology
(ABPath) offered the first board certification examination in Clinical Informatics
to eligible physicians in the US in 2013[3]. The first cohort of successful examinees on the inaugural examination were awarded
ABPM board certification in Clinical Informatics in 2014, thereby solidifying Clinical
Informatics as an official subspecialty under the umbrella of the American Board of
Medical Specialties (ABMS)[4].
The Argument for Board Certification
Board certification recognizes a physician's exceptional expertise in a particular
specialty and/or subspecialty of medical practice. In the US, board certification
for physicians is voluntary. After completing medical school, additional residency
training, and successful passing of United States Medical Licensing Examinations,
many states will grant a physician a license to practice medicine. Licensure indicates
a minimum skill set and knowledge and is not specialty-specific[5]. Successful post-medical school training in a specialty or subspecialty allows eligible
physicians to apply for board certification in their specialty or subspecialty and
demonstrate the physician's expertise in that domain. Board certification is important
as it allows stakeholders including patients to identify physicians with a specific
domain expertise, it allows physicians to demonstrate exceptional expertise in a particular
specialty and/or subspecialty of medical practice, and benefits society by encouraging
physicians to seek, maintain, and demonstrate a higher level of skills, knowledge,
and expertise than is required of non-board certified physicians.
Developing a Subspecialty
In order to be considered for new medical subspecialty status, certain requirements
must be met. A new subspecialty needs a professional home in a specialty society,
educational and training programs, and sustained research. In the US, the American
Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) had been established as the home for informaticians
across the spectrum of clinical informatics. While nurses in the US established a
certification process in 1992[6], the same was not true for physicians. In 2005, under the leadership of then AMIA
CEO and President Don Detmer, AMIA members pursued a subspecialty assignment for physicians
for Clinical Informatics with the ABMS and AMIA was elected to membership in the Council
of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS) in 2006.
A new subspecialty further requires commitment to advancing the field through peer-reviewed
scholarly engagement and research. Thus, opportunities for researchers to present
and disseminate their research in the field are needed. AMIA - recognizing the need
for applied clinical informatics research - established two tracks for its annual
symposium: foundational and applied research, with Clinical Informatics comprising
a key component in the applied track.
While the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association publishes papers
in the field of applied clinical informatics, the increasing adoption of EHRs[7], a growing health informatics workforce[8], the emergence of new roles including Chief Clinical Informatics Officers[9], and increasing dialogue and discourse on the future of the field[10] prompted the creation of the inaugural journal dedicated to Clinical Informatics,
Applied Clinical Informatics (ACI) in 2009[11]. ACI's core editorial subject matters include clinical information systems, administrative
and management systems, eHealth systems, information technology development, deployment,
and evaluation, socio-technical aspects of information technology (IT) and health
IT training[12].
AMIA created a code of ethics for this new field[13]
[14] and in 2007 began the development of the core content[15] that defines the domain knowledge, key competencies, and skills in Clinical Informatics[16]. After the creation of the core content and the training requirements[17] for Clinical Informatics, AMIA sought an administrative board sponsor for an application
to the ABMS[3].
In 2009, the ABPM sponsored the application for the Clinical Informatics Subspecialty
to ABMS. In 2010, after a rigorous vetting process, ABMS approved Clinical Informatics
as a subspecialty available to diplomates of all 24 ABMS Member Boards. Subsequently,
ABPM organized a sub-board in Clinical Informatics including twenty experts in the
field and chaired by one of the authors (CUL), which developed the initial item pool
for the ABPM Clinical Informatics certification examination. Prior to the administration
of the examination in 2013, its development incorporated vetting of the exam and other
industry best practices to ensure reliability and validity and to assure that the
examination met or exceeded industry standards. This process included a standard setting
exercise, which established the passing threshold for the examination.
Board Examination
Content
The core content of the Clinical Informatics subspecialty was created through an AMIA
initiative[13] and endorsed by the ABPM[18]. The four major content areas are Fundamentals (10%), Clinical Decision Making and
Care Process Improvement (30%), Health Information Systems (40%), and Leading and
Managing Change (20%). The examination includes 200 question items. The examination
lasts 4.5 hours starting when the examinee is seated at his/ her station. It is broken
up into a 15-minute tutorial, four 60-minute blocks (50 items each, for a total of
200), and 15 minutes of break time. Examinees may end any block early at their discretion
but cannot return to previous examination blocks. Any remaining block time is added
to the allotted break time, which may be taken between blocks.
Consistent with industry best practices, ABPM via the Clinical Informatics subboard
reviews core content items annually, develops new items, and periodically reviews
the core content outline to ensure relevance and currency of concepts.
Exam Design
Certification examinations must be valid, reliable, and objective as outlined in [Table 1]. ABPM - based on the recommendation of individuals from AMIA and the ABPath - convened
a committee of 20 domain experts (17 nominated by AMIA, three by ABPath), who were
charged with designing an examination. The charge to this committee, the Sub-board
for Clinical Informatics, included the caveat not to create an examination that would
assess all aspects of the domain nor to test a candidate's knowledge of the latest-breaking
medical news of the day but, instead, create an examination that is specifically designed
to test the basic lasting concepts within the field of Clinical Informatics. With
this charge in mind, all committee members received formal training in item writing
and following well-established best practices created questions congruent with the
Clinical Informatics core content. The result of this rigorous process was an examination
that included recall questions, interpretive questions, and problem-solving questions,
which reflect key concepts that are important and pertinent to the field of Clinical
Informatics. The full committee reviewed all questions in the item pool for accuracy
and relevance. On an annual basis, the committee augments the item bank by creating
new relevant questions based on the core content with the goal of maintaining a robust
item pool for future examinations.
Table 1
Attributes required in examination items[19]
Attribute
|
Definition
|
Validity
|
The question measures what it is designed to measure and covers the domain
|
Reliability
|
Applying the same test in the future will generate similar scores (Repeatable with
the same results)
|
Objectivity
|
The performance on the test reflects how well the examinee understands and applies
the skill (and not some outside influence)
|
After each examination, the committee reviews the performance of the individual items
(i.e., validity, reliability, and objectivity). Only those items performing within
acceptable standards are retained for the purposes of scoring the examination. Items
for which statistical analysis confirms they were too difficult, too easy, or did
not differentiate well between successful examinees and others may be removed from
consideration when determining passing scores for the examination. Additionally, the
committee may select items to be retired or sent for re-writing and review to maintain
the highest quality of the item bank for future examinations.
Eligibility
To achieve general eligibility for the Clinical Informatics certification, the physician
must have graduated from a medical school meeting ABPM standards, hold an active board
certification from an ABMS Member Board, hold an unrestricted license to practice
medicine in every state or territory in which the physician has a license to practice
medicine, and provide a letter of reference from an ABMS-certified physician. Physicians,
who are board certified in pathology, must apply for the Clinical Informatics certification
through ABPath while applicants from all other ABMS Member Boards seeking Clinical
Informatics certification apply through ABPM. The initial ABMS approval of Clinical
Informatics allowed for two pathways for certification: A Fellowship Pathway and a
Practice Pathway.
Fellowship Pathway
In addition to the general criteria, eligibility criteria for the Clinical Informatics
Fellowship Pathway include successful completion of a 24-month full-time Accreditation
Council for Graduate Medical Education accredited Clinical Informatics fellowship[21].
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accredited the first
fellowship programs (Stanford University, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Oregon
Health & Science University) in 2014. The first applicants, who qualified via the
Fellowship Pathway, were admitted to the examination in 2016.
The AMIA Community of Clinical Informatics Program Directors (CCIPD) provides leadership
and supports the continued growth of ACGME accredited fellowships in Clinical Informatics[22].
[Table 2] shows the number of applications and their approval rates in 2017 for the Fellowship
Pathway. Applicants applying through the Fellowship Pathway have experienced higher
approval rates compared to the Practice Pathway. Only one Fellowship Pathway application
was rejected because the applicant completed a program that was not ACGME accredited
at the time of application.
Table 2
2017 Application approval rates
|
Applications Processed (N)
|
Applications Approved (N)
|
Percent Approved
|
Practice Pathway
|
290
|
222
|
77%
|
Fellowship Pathway
|
19
|
18
|
95%
|
Practice Pathway
At the time of the preparation of this manuscript, to be eligible for the board examination
under the Practice Pathway, the candidate must fulfill the general eligibility criteria
and must demonstrate the completion of a two-year biomedical informatics master's
program, two years fellowships sponsored by the National Library of Medicine or the
US Department of Veterans Affairs, or must demonstrate 36 months of substantial broad-based
professional activity with significant Clinical Informatics responsibility (at least
25% effort) in the five years preceding the application. Candidates may receive partial
credit for fellowships of duration less than 24 months, AMIA 10x10 courses (virtual
courses utilizing curricular content from existing informatics training programs),
or masters-level courses in health informatics, or ABPM-approved research and educational
activities in Clinical Informatics[18]. Clinical Informatics diplomates, who live and work outside the US, mainly qualified
via the Practice Pathway.
Consistent with ABMS-approved practices for new subspecialties, the Practice Pathway
was initially approved for five years. This time interval was extended for an additional
five-year period after an ABPM petition to extend the timeline for the Practice Pathway
was approved by ABMS. Therefore, applications for board certification in Clinical
Informatics via the Practice Pathway will be accepted through the 2022 application
cycle.
Over the initial five years that the examination has been given, the percentage of
applicants in the Practice Pathway, who did not meet the eligibility criteria, increased
annually. While the eligibility criteria for the Practice Pathway and the committee
members reviewing the applications have not changed since the first application cycle
in 2013, the candidate pool appears to have changed over the five years the examination
has been administered with increasing number of candidates, who have not provided
sufficient evidence of Clinical Informatics activity (e.g., clinical domain experts,
who collaborated with IT departments to generate health IT artifacts such as order
sets, decision support, and documentation).
Beyond insufficient Clinical Informatics experience, other reasons applicants do not
meet eligibility criteria include insufficient time (lees than 36 months) in Clinical
Informatics practice, less than 25% effort during the 36 months, double counting of
training (e.g., the applicant is requesting credit for time spent in another ACGME-accredited
residency or fellowship program), and incomplete applications. [Table 2] shows the number of applicants and their approval rate in 2017 for the Practice
Pathway.
Exam Results
Each year, the Clinical Informatics subboard examination is developed using a unique
combination of questions from the item pool. While the questions in the examination
vary from year to year, the examination difficulty, by design, remains consistent
across examination cycles. [Table 3] shows the pass rates since the first examination.
Table 3
Exam results 2013-2017
|
Examination (N)
|
Certification (N)
|
Pass Rate (%)
|
2013
|
488
|
445
|
91
|
2014
|
367
|
329
|
90
|
2015
|
400
|
320
|
80
|
2016
|
472
|
401
|
85
|
2017
|
249
|
192
|
77
|
Total
|
1,976
|
1,687
|
85
|
Fellowships
Beginning in 2023, only candidates trained in an ACGME-accredited fellowship program
will be eligible for the Clinical Informatics board examination. As of December 13,
2017, 24 ACGME-accredited Clinical Informatics fellowship programs were participating
in the match for fellows in the US. Of interest to an international audience is the
fact that ACGME-International accredited programs exist[22], offering the opportunity to establish ACGME-accredited programs internationally
but keeping in mind that candidates must meet all current ABPM requirements including,
but not limited to licensure and primary certification via an ABMS Member Board.
Establishing and Accrediting a Fellowship
ACGME restricts the primary specialties that may host a Clinical Informatics program
to Anesthesiology, Diagnostic Radiology, Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Internal
Medicine, Medical Genetics and Genomics, Pathology, Pediatrics, or Preventive Medicine.
An eligible institution interested in creating a Clinical Informatics fellowship needs
to complete an application with ACGME. The application will be reviewed and if approved,
the new program can recruit fellows. Usually after the first year, ACGME reviewers
will evaluate the program on site. The specific program requirements can be found
on the ACGME website under Preventive Medicine[23].
Fellows require opportunities to acquire a comprehensive knowledge set. Most programs
solve this need by subscribing to Clinical Informatics certification programs that
fellows can participate in remotely. Some programs have on site master's programs
in Clinical Informatics that fellows complete during the fellowship [Vanderbilt University
Clinical Informatics Fellowship Program. Available online at https://www.vumc.org/dbmi/clinical-informatics-fellowship-pro-gram. Last accessed 3/30/2018].
Fellows must further have ample opportunity to gain practical experience. Many programs
embed their fellows in health information technology operations and create a rotation
schedule (block diagram) that permits fellows to observe and experience various aspects
of health information technology.
Milestones
ACGME develops Milestones for all of its training specialties including Clinical Informatics[24]. Milestones are points of achievement along the path of a fellow's education from
novice to expert[25]. Twice annually, program directors must compare their fellows’ performance to the
milestones. The program's Clinical Competency Committee reviews the assessments and
reports them to ACGME. [Figure 1] shows a sample milestone.
Fig. 1 Sample milestone for Clinical Informatics
Financial Challenges
With salary and benefits (including the cost of a master's degree), the cost of Clinical
Informatics fellowship training can range from $100,000 to $150,000 per fellow annually
not including administrative support. Unlike other clinical specialties and subspecialties,
Clinical Informatics in the US does not have any billing codes and does not generate
revenue for the “practice of clinical informatics”. These are required to bill health
care services to a payer. Unfortunately, a clinical informatician, who performs services
that reduce cost[26]
[27], improve safety[28]
[29], reduce length of stay[30] for patients and payers, may not be able to bill for the work provided. In other
clinical specialties, the presence of a fellow increases the number of patients a
physician can see, resulting in more billable events, which can justify the employment
of a fellow. In Clinical Informatics (and other specialties like Public Health and
General Preventive Medicine), this incentive does not exist and as a result programs
have to be innovative in how they fund their training program[31].
Roles of ABPM and AMIA
AMIA is the professional home of the Clinical Informatics subspecialty in the US and
provides education, networking (like CCIPD), and research opportunities. ABPM is the
administrative home of the Clinical Informatics board certification, while ABPM and
ABPath are the sponsoring boards. Both organizations work closely to align their activities.
For example, AMIA provides educational activities for the maintenance of certification
program. ABPM reviews and approves these activities.
Updating of the Core Content
Few specialties or subspecialties have seen their domains change as rapidly in the
last five year as Clinical Informatics. New applications of informatics like precision
medicine[32], quantified self[33], and wearable sensors[34], are starting to gain momentum, traction, and importance in the application of Clinical
Informatics to patient care and may have to be included in the core content of the
subspecialty in the future once they have reached mainstream status[15].
In this dynamic field of Clinical Informatics, ABPM is dedicated to the integrity
and relevance of the examination and is therefore committed to ongoing evaluation
of the core content. Therefore, when advancements in the industry rise to the level
of becoming core to the practice, ABPM will revise the core content as necessary to
accommodate those advances and simultaneously update the Clinical Informatics sub-board
item bank. Consistent with this goal, in 2017, ABPM and AMIA pledged to partner on
a comprehensive review of the core content for the Clinical Informatics subspecialty,
which in turn informs the annual update to the examination's question pool. Efforts
such as the framework developed by AMIA for the Commission on Accreditation for Health
Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM) will inform this collaboration[35]. ABPM and AMIA anticipate this effort to begin in 2018 with an estimated duration
of 24 to 36 months.
Future Opportunities
For ABPM, there are a number of opportunities in the context of the Clinical Informatics
board certification. In 2017, administration of the examination was transferred to
the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME). This transition has strengthened the
metrics and technical processes involved in the exam preparation process.
AMIA is currently formalizing a leadership structure within its Clinical Informatics
Community of Practice (CICOP) for improved communications between AMIA and ABPM. As
the professional home of the Clinical Informatics subspecialty, AMIA is developing
a Fellow designation for Clinical Informatics diplomates, who make an ongoing commitment
to lifelong learning practicing the medical subspecialty of Clinical Informatics.
Both efforts will enable diplomates to surface key issues and communicate the value
of the Clinical Informatics subspecialty certification.
Additional opportunities include the development of new fellowships in Clinical Informatics
to foster the pipeline for physicians certified in Clinical Informatics once the Practice
Pathway expires in 2022. Working with ABMS to evaluate and appropriately design the
program for maintenance of certification that meets stakeholder needs will also be
of importance. In this regard, ABMS is spearheading the Continuing Certification Visioning
Initiative, which is designed to solicit meaningful input from all stakeholders and
which will inform the next generation of standards as they relate to programs for
maintenance of certification.
The demand on applicants by the sub-specialty certification requirements to meet eligibility
criteria fosters high quality fellowship training, primary board certification, and
licensure and will naturally entail that not every interested person will be able
to meet the eligibility criteria. However, without strict requirements and without
the termination of the practice pathway in 2022, the incentives for obtaining fellowship
training would be undermined and fellowship programs would suffer, ultimately jeopardizing
the subspecialty itself. A potential solution to this dilemma would be a collaboration
between ABPM and ACGME to propose an alternative approach to fellowship training that
would recognize the challenges of mid-career physicians and would ensure that relevant
high quality experiences in Clinical Informatics are defined and made available to
interested clinicians. A viable proposal would require a specific plan and ideally
a pilot agreement from one or more accredited fellowship programs. The ACGME has not
addressed this issue directly but similar problems exist for many newly developed
sub-specialties and a solution may be applicable to a variety of other disciplines.
The authors are supportive of further collaboration with various stakeholders in an
effort to develop innovative approaches to high quality training and experiential
learning that facilitate and ensure attainment of core knowledge in the field while
maintaining the integrity of the standards that form the foundation of this most important
subspecialty.
As the Clinical Informatics field continues to grow and as more organizations and
offices implement EHRs, there will be an increasing need for physicians with demonstrated
Clinical Informatics expertise to address the challenges in implementation, clinical
decision support, workflow, documentation, and many other areas. Few data exist on
the career opportunities of newly certified Clinical Informaticians. Tracking their
career paths and their employment options will be an important task for AMIA.