Clinical Informatics Fellowship

About

The Department of Defense clinical informatics Fellowship at Madigan Army Medical Center was established in 2010. The program is a 24 month Fellowship including a distance learning master’s degree and applied clinical informatics activities. There are a few distance master’s degree programs to choose from: Oregon Health Sciences University (Masters in Biomedical Informatics) or two degrees from the University of Washington (Clinical Informatics and Patient-Centered Technology or Master of Science in Information Management). There is also a requirement to continue patient care activities to maintain credentials in primary specialties as well as remain knowledgeable about processes and systems.

Clinical informatics seeks to:

• Assess information and knowledge needs of health care professionals and patients;
• Characterize, evaluate, and refine clinical processes;
• Develop, implement, and refine clinical decision support systems, and
• Lead or participate in the procurement, customization, development, implementation, management, evaluation, and continuous improvement of clinical information systems such as electronic health records and order-entry systems.

A normal week (10 half days): 2.5 days Master’s program, one day patient care, half day didactics, and one day practicum.

Practicum

During applied informatics activities, we work with clinical informatics faculty, information management division staff, and end users at Madigan Army Medical Center, Bremerton Naval Hospital and the McChord Field Clinic to understand the requirements for infrastructure support & meeting the needs of end users in the medical center, community hospital and large outpatient clinic setting.

Research

All fellows will complete an applied clinical informatics research project that will also qualify as a Master’s project.

Clinical care

For outpatient-based specialties, clinic time will be allotted on a weekly basis. For specialties where procedural or inpatient work is required to maintain competency, arrangements will be made to accommodate those requirements on an individual basis.

Accreditation

The Fellowship is accredited by the ACGME for three fellows per year.

Application requirements

Applicants must be officers in the U.S. military and be a residency graduate (any specialty). A utilization tour of two plus years following residency with leadership experience is desired. Experience in informatics desired (clinical champion, CMIO, formal training in informatics or computer science, etc.).

Resident/Medical Student Elective

The Fellowship offers both a medical student and a resident elective of 4 weeks to one month (depending on the student’s/resident’s academic calendar) in Clinical Informatics (CI). The student/resident will work with one or more fellows, faculty and Clinical Informatics Division members to learn the basics of CI, as well as focusing on any specific areas of interest. A rotation evaluation will be provided to the resident/student, and they will complete a rotation evaluation as well.