The Changing Landscape: The View from My Window

Charles P. Friedman, PhDSchools of Information and Public HealthUniversity of Michigan

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Out the Window, I See…

A proliferation of programs Increasing confusion about what

informatics (and thus informatics education) is and isn’t

And thus, increasing confusion about which of these programs are and are not “informatics”

I am going to try to outline some boundaries

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What Informatics Is: Three Visions

I. Cross-training between a set of basic sciences and a domain

II. Pursuit of a “Fundamental Theorem”

III. “Tower of Achievement”

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Informatics Vision I: Informatics as Cross-training

Basic Informational & Behavioral Sciences

An Application Domain

“<Domain> Informatics”

Information ScienceComputer ScienceCognitive ScienceOrganizational ScienceImplementation Scienceetc.

HealthClinical professionBiologyPublic Healthetc.

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So an “Informatician” is Different…

An Application Domain

What an Informatician Knows

Basic Informational & Computational Sciences

What a Scientist Knows

What a Clinician or Public Health Practitioner Knows

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Informatics Vision II: “The Fundamental Theorem of Biomedical Informatics”*

The “practice” of informatics is the pursuit of information and knowledge resources that seek to make people “better” than they would be if unassisted, and also to explore if they have been successful in that pursuit.

Informatics is about people, groups, organizations, cultures—as much as it is about technology.

*Friedman CP. A ‘fundamental theorem’ of biomedical informatics. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 16: 169-170, 2009.

( + >)

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Informatics Vision III: The Tower of Achievement*

Informatics training touches each level of the tower and the science at each level.

Model Formulation

System Development

SystemDeployment

Studyof

Effects

*Friedman CP. Where’s the science in medical informatics? JAMIA 2: 65-67, 1995.

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Informatics Isn’t…

Scientists or clinicians tinkering with computers

Management of large datasets per seDeploying and configuring EHRs in

pursuit of Meaningful Use, or supporting deployment

The profession of health information management

Anything done using a computer

The Changing Landscape…

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HIT Workforce Programs•Certificates•Fill ~9 ONC workforce roles

Research Programs•Doctoral degrees•Teaching and research consistent with the Fundamental Theorem and the “Tower”Professional Programs•Masters degrees•Fill advanced informatics practice and leadership positions consistent with Fundamental Theorem and the “Tower”

HIM Programs•Bachelors and masters degrees•Practice within the bounds of an established profession

Not Informatics Informatics