What is clinical informatics?

Clinical informatics (CI) is the application of information technology to healthcare delivery. It encompasses a wide range of topics including computerized order entry, clinical decision support, electronic clinical documentation, patient portals, and much more. In 2011 the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) first recognized CI as a board-eligible subspecialty. In 2013 the first Clinical Informatics board exam was offered, and already there are more than 1,100 physicians that are board certified in Clinical Informatics.

Our training program

The Boston Children’s Hospital Clinical Informatics Fellowship Program is a two-year, ACGME-approved fellowship aimed at training the future leaders in healthcare informatics. We seek energetic clinicians interested in improving the care of pediatric patients through the use of innovative technology. Graduates of our program will have the skills required to pass the clinical informatics board exam, lead an operational project from start to finish, address pediatric-specific informatics issues such as weight-based dosing and adolescent confidentiality, and launch their careers in applied informatics.

Our fellowship training consists of:

• Clinical Informatics Certificate Program
• Hands on clinical informatics experience at Boston Children’s Hospital
• Harvard Clinical Informatics Combined Lecture Series

Most fellows will also have the opportunity to practice patient care in their primary specialty area (e.g. general pediatrics, pediatric orthopedics, etc.).

We are particularly interested in candidates from pediatric training programs, although we will consider applications from graduates of non-pediatric training programs in certain circumstances (e.g. extensive experience with research in pediatrics).

CHIP

The Boston Children’s Hospital Computational Health Informatics Program (CHIP) is a biomedical research informatics group with a separate National Library of Medicine funded training program. There are numerous opportunities for collaboration between Clinical Informatics fellows and CHIP faculty/trainees, however CHIP is not an ACGME accredited fellowship. Applicants whose focus is on research informatics should consider applying to CHIP in addition to the Clinical Informatics Fellowship program. Click here for more information on CHIP.