Informatics Workforce, Roles, and Competencies
Health informatics is carried out by a varied workforce: physician and nursing informaticians, clinical informatics specialists, data and systems analysts, and others who bridge clinical practice and information technology. This entry describes the roles that make up this workforce, the competencies expected of them, and the educational and credentialing pathways that have developed around the field.
Definition
The informatics workforce comprises the people who apply biomedical and health informatics in research, clinical care, public health, and management, spanning roles from clinically trained informaticians to technical specialists, defined by sets of competencies in clinical, information-science, and organisational domains.
Scope
The topic covers the composition of the informatics workforce, the distinct roles within it, the core competencies defined for graduate education and for the clinical informatics subspecialty, and open questions about how to size and train the workforce. It is reference material on roles and competencies, not career, hiring, or accreditation advice.
Core questions
- Who makes up the health informatics workforce, and what roles do they fill?
- What competencies are expected of biomedical and clinical informaticians?
- How is clinical informatics recognised and credentialed as a practice area?
- How large should the workforce be, and how should it be trained?
Key concepts
- Clinical informatics subspecialty
- Physician and nursing informaticians
- Core competencies for graduate education
- Roles bridging clinical practice and IT
- Workforce sizing and training pathways
- Credentialing and board certification
Clinical relevance
A capable informatics workforce is needed to design, implement, and govern the systems that support care, so workforce composition and competencies bear on how well health technology serves clinical goals. This entry is descriptive reference material and does not constitute career or staffing guidance.
Evidence & guidelines
Professional consensus documents specify core competencies for graduate education in biomedical informatics (Kulikowski et al., 2012) and the core content underpinning recognition of clinical informatics as a subspecialty (Gardner et al., 2009); analyses of workforce needs highlight unresolved questions about its size and training (Hersh, 2010).
History
As informatics matured into a discipline, professional bodies defined the competencies and roles that distinguish informaticians from general IT staff. The articulation of core competencies for graduate education and of core content for clinical informatics supported the field's recognition as a subspecialty and the development of certification pathways, while workforce analyses drew attention to persistent gaps in capacity and training (Kulikowski et al., 2012; Gardner et al., 2009; Hersh, 2010).
Debates
- How large is the needed informatics workforce, and how should it be trained?
- Estimates of how many informaticians health systems require, and of the right mix of formal degrees, certification, and on-the-job training, remain uncertain, with analyses pointing to unanswered questions about demand and educational supply.
Key figures
- William Hersh
- Reed M. Gardner
- Casimir A. Kulikowski
- Don E. Detmer
Related topics
Seminal works
- kulikowski-2012
- gardner-2009
- hersh-2010
Frequently asked questions
- What is a clinical informatician?
- A clinical informatician is a professional, often a clinician by training, who applies informatics methods to improve care delivery, for example by leading electronic health record design, decision support, and data governance; in some countries it is a recognised medical subspecialty.
- What competencies does the informatics workforce need?
- Consensus frameworks describe competencies spanning biomedical and clinical knowledge, information and computer science, and organisational and people-oriented skills, reflecting the field's position between clinical practice and technology.