Update on informatics-focused certification and accreditation activities

Informatics as a field is maturing both in the range of educational programs and the number and type of positions for informatics professionals. Although there has been an expansion of the traditional masters and PhD programs, there are an increasing number of novel programs serving the entire pipeline—high school students, college students, medical students and professionals. For professionals, we see new positions in which informatics is a key component—C-level decision makers, practitioners implementing these systems, and related informatics professions seeking education to help lead their organizations. AMIA has been leading the way to assure the public that educational programs that teach informatics have high quality programs and are teaching the science and practical use of informatics through our accreditation activities. AMIA has also been working to develop new ways to recognize informatics expertise through certification and testing. It is important we understand the distinctions between certification for individuals, and accreditation for programs because certification and accreditation inspires discussion and debate due to the standard-setting nature of the work. Certification is usually a designation or credentialing process that demonstrates a qualification that an individual can perform a specific position, professional role, or set of tasks. Accreditation is a rigorous evaluation and monitoring peer review process assuring that education programs and institutions meet professional standards of academic and operational integrity and quality. Both convey an assurance that a standard of quality is met, but the difference between accreditation and certification is accreditation is intended for institutions, organizations, or programs and certification typically applies to individuals. Charles Friedman, PhD, FACMI, Chair of the Department of Learning Health Sciences at the University of Michigan Medical School, and Chair of the AMIA Academic Forum developed a visual tool to frame the current state of activities in certification and accreditation. In September 2014, AMIA partnered with the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM) to revise accreditation standards for masters’ degree programs in health informatics. AMIA has appointments on the CAHIIM Board of Directors and the Health Informatics Council that accredits programs. The financial and volunteer investments by AMIA and our members will provide an accreditation pathway that is aligned to the health informatics training programs and members of our Academic Forum. The intent is to assure that these programs are of high quality and can provide informatics training to meet the needs the healthcare community. The second part of maturing the field is in developing personal certification, analogous to programmatic accreditation. The Advanced Interprofessional Clinical Informatics Certification (AICIC) is the next step of certification for informatics professionals. Practically, AICIC is a companion certification analogous to the clinical informatics credential for board-eligible physicians authorized through the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS). The ABMS examination is restricted to a subset of clinical informaticians—a problem cited in March 2009 JAMIA editorial calling for interprofessional “clinical informatics certification for other members of the clinical team” to compliment the forthcoming physician certification by leveraging the Clinical Informatics Core Content. In 2014, AMIA asked former President and CEO Don Detmer, MD to assemble a work group of informaticians representing health professions societies who possess strong clinical informatics perspectives. I am now leading the work group and staff through the process to review the core content, draft eligibility requirements, identify an entity to host, offer, and maintain a clinical informatics examination. The accreditation and certification processes in medicine are also noteworthy for the momentum and enthusiasm for clinical informatics. In 2014, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) approved its first group of Clinical Informatics Fellowship Programs with Stanford University, University of Illinois Chicago, Oregon Health and