Business
Clinical informatics gains recognition
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted April 2, 2007
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awarded a $300,000 grant to the American Medical Informatics Assn. to create a system for certifying physician competency in applied clinical informatics.
Don E. Detmer, MD, AMIA president and CEO and the principal investigator for the project, said certification would help establish the field as a formal discipline.
Such a move is essential for the future of medicine, Dr. Detmer said. As more organizations invest in information technology, more physicians are needed who understand how to use this technology to improve patient safety and quality of care, as well as increase the effectiveness and efficiency of health care delivery systems.
The AMIA's first steps will be to determine the core content for the field and develop training requirements.
"As enrollments in clinical informatics programs increase, this grant will create an opportunity for AMIA to maintain a rigorous educational infrastructure for the discipline," said John H. Holmes, PhD, a co-investigator for the project, and assistant professor of medical informatics in epidemiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/04/02/bibf0402.htm.
