As the Department of Veterans Affairs pursues an overhaul of its IT systems, it may face shortcomings in IT expertise, according to an article in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
The VA plans to implement a system-wide EHR by the end of the year as well as overhaul its IT systems, a data exchange, a patient ID system and a tracking system for wait times. The IT expansions accompany mandates for the VA to expand its graduate medical education residency program and clinical staffing, according to the article.
The expanded availability of informatics will likely improve care and access for veterans, the authors wrote. However, although the VA encourages the recruitment and retention of medical informatics specialists, it may still face a lack of expertise because its training program is limited, according to the article. Clinical informatics is a specialty, and online seminars have expanded access, but the VA should expand its hiring pipeline to avoid shortfalls in the future, according to the article.
"Given that clinical informatics is an approved subspecialty, and the new law enables the Secretary to expand graduate medical education programs for specialties with a shortage, the VA may wish to consider ways to expand its pipeline of informatics specialists," the authors wrote. "It should further consider what level of informatics knowledge and skills its general clinician workforce needs to be successful in using EHR systems."