Stanford (Calif.) Medicine's new two-year clinical informatics fellowship, which will lead to informatics certification for physicians who complete the program, is the first in the nation to be accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.
The fellowship's four participants will divide their time between courses, informatics projects and clinical practice. "This fellowship represents the formal recognition of a major change in medicine, one that merges best-practice clinical training with advanced IT and analytical expertise," said Ed Kopetsky, CIO at Stanford Children's Health and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford, in a news release. "Clinicians with a strong knowledge of clinical informatics and analytics will not only play a key role in optimizing workflow, but will help us understand more about disease and optimal care methods. In the end, this means better healthcare decisions."
Informatics became a recognized subspecialty in 2011, and the first physicians received their certification in 2013. Beginning in 2018, all physicians seeking clinical informatics certification will be required to complete an accredited fellowship like the one at Stanford.
More articles on informatics:
How I became a healthcare CIO: 10 CIOs, 10 different career paths
EHRs could help determine drug repurposing opportunities, says study
Pathology Organizations Launch GME Informatics Program