Elaine B. Steen

A Roadmap for National Action on Clinical Decision Support

This document comprises an AMIA Board of Directors approved White Paper that presents a roadmap for national action on clinical decision support. It is published in JAMIA for archival and dissemination purposes. The full text of this material has been previously published on the AMIA Web site (www.amia.org/inside/initiatives/cds). AMIA is the copyright holder.

Core Content for the Subspecialty of Clinical Informatics

The Core Content for Clinical Informatics defines the boundaries of the discipline and informs the Program Requirements for Fellowship Education in Clinical Informatics. The Core Content includes four major categories: fundamentals, clinical decision making and care process improvement, health information systems, and leadership and management of change. The AMIA Board of Directors approved the Core Content for Clinical Informatics in November 2008.

Program Requirements for Fellowship Education in the Subspecialty of Clinical Informatics

The Program Requirements for Fellowship Education identify the knowledge and skills that physicians must master through the course of a training program to be certified in the subspecialty of clinical informatics. They also specify accreditation requirements for clinical informatics training programs. The AMIA Board of Directors approved this document in November 2008.

Eligibility requirements for advanced health informatics certification

AMIA is leading the effort to strengthen the health informatics profession by creating an advanced health informatics certification (AHIC) for individuals whose informatics work directly impacts the practice of health care, public health, or personal health. The AMIA Board of Directors has endorsed a set of proposed AHIC eligibility requirements that will be presented to the future AHIC certifying entity for adoption. These requirements specifically establish who will be eligible to sit for the AHIC examination and more generally signal the depth and breadth of knowledge and experience expected from certified individuals. They also inform the development of the accreditation process and provide guidance to graduate health informatics programs as well as individuals interested in pursuing AHIC. AHIC eligibility will be determined by practice focus, education in primary field and health informatics, and significant health informatics experience.

Essential technologies for computer-based patient records: a summary

The purpose of this summary is to convey an overall view of the technologies that are relevant to or are exhibited in today’s computer-based patient record (CPR) systems and also to highlight those technologies that will be required to build the state-of-the-art CPR systems of the near future. The needs of users of systems are the most important consideration in the design and development of any computer-based system. It is important that the designers and implementers of systems understand not only the users, but also how they will use the system and what demands they will place on the system to meet their evolving needs. Some of these users and uses have specific technologic implications of which designers of CPR systems need to be cognizant. In general, current CPR systems do not address the information needs of many of these users.

Don E. Detmer and the American Medical Informatics Association: an appreciation.

Don E. Detmer has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) for the past five years, helping to set a course for the organization and demonstrating remarkable leadership as AMIA has evolved into a vibrant and influential professional association. On the occasion of Dr. Detmers retirement, we fondly reflect on his professional life and his many contributions to biomedical informatics and, more generally, to health care in the U.S. and globally.