"Director of Clinical Informatics"-- without clinical or informatics backgrounds

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"Director of Clinical Informatics"-- without clinical or informatics backgrounds

Posted by Scot Silverstein on Wednesday July 23, 2008 @ 10:22 AM
from the "Is clinical or informatics education and experience worth anything?" dept.
I'm interested in receiving examples of "Director of Clinical Informatics", "VP of Informatics" or similar Job Descriptions that are lacking a requirement for clinical or informatics education or experience (as opposed to traditional management information systems backgrounds). I want to compile a set of examples to serve as a reference on this practice, and possibly to link to outcomes at some future date. Digg this article

In continuation of a pattern I noted a decade ago (link), I receive solicitations for hospital "Director of Clinical Informatics" positions that require neither clinical nor informatics training or experience, instead calling only for traditional business/MIS backgrounds.

I consider such positions possibly harmful, and certainly not helpful, to hospitals and clinicians due to its putting incumbents in such positions outside their core competencies.

I raise the possibility that organizations and journals that provide information and management consulting to hospital I.S. departments are in part responsible.

In the example here just received yesterday, the qualifications for "the Director of Clinical Informatics" are a "BS with major in IT or provider related field such as accounting/finance, related MBA, IT program level management experience." I doubt those with formal clinical and informatics credentials would even be considered.

I'm interested in receiving other examples of this type of "Director of Clinical Informatics" or similar Job Descriptions to serve as a reference on this practice. Please email to me (sms88 AT drexel dot e-d-u). I will post them in a directory on my university server. Thanks. Scot

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Re: "Director of Clinical Informatics"-- without c
by David Kennerson on Thursday July 24, 2008 @ 01:14 PM

While I don't have it handy, I can tell you that I've received such solicitations myself and they always trouble me.

The complexities of managing an IT infrastructure within a hospital or even a large clinic are so far outside of the average IT persons realm of competency that it's almost unfair to the candidate and certainly a risk to the organization to even consider someone without a formal clinical or informatics background.

I suppose it's a sign of the budget conscious times we live in though since hiring someone with the requisite knowledge is both harder and more expensive than hiring someone with it.

Dangerous ground to tread on to be sure.

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Re: "Director of Clinical Informatics"-- without clinical or informatics backgrounds
by Fernando on Thursday July 24, 2008 @ 02:50 PM

It's a serious problem. I was a Vice President and Project Manager of IT for eight years (not in health care), now I am an MD. I chased after such positions as you cite, and for the life of me cannot land one. IMHO non-qualified people are filling them and the industry as a whole will suffer for it. Ultimately, patients will suffer for it.

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Re: "Director of Clinical Informatics"-- without clinical or informatics backgrounds
by John Norris on Friday July 25, 2008 @ 10:00 PM

While sometimes hard to out-right identify, I have a feeling that some positions should probably list clinical, or in my case, informatics background. I like to think it is because Informatics is new to the non-academic arena. In that light, I offer a brief description of Medical Informatics and my formal training on my site. Maybe if more folks did the same, it wouldn't be such a mystery.

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An opposite view
by John Lynn on Wednesday July 30, 2008 @ 01:29 AM

I've actually found the opposite. Which is really interesting, because I come from the more traditional MIS background with less of a clinical background. I understand your generalization about MIS degrees, but I think/hope that I buck that trend. My bias aside, in my current search for jobs I haven't found many "Director of Clinical Informatics" that just want a MIS degree. Maybe you could forward those types of jobs to me so I can apply. John Lynn http://www.emrandhipaa.com

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