Pathology Informatics Essentials for Residents

Context: Recognition of the importance of informatics to the practice of pathology has surged. Training residents in pathology informatics has been a daunting task for most residency programs in the United States because faculty often lacks experience and training resources. Nevertheless, developing resident competence in informatics is essential for the future of pathology as a specialty. Objective: To develop and deliver a pathology informatics curriculum and instructional framework that guides pathology residency programs in training residents in critical pathology informatics knowledge and skills, and meets Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Informatics Milestones. Design: The College of American Pathologists, Association of Pathology Chairs, and Association for Pathology Informatics formed a partnership and expert work group to identify critical pathology informatics training outcomes and to create a highly adaptable curriculum and instructional approach, supported by a multiyear change management strategy. Results: Pathology Informatics Essentials for Residents (PIER) is a rigorous approach for educating all pathology residents in important pathology informatics knowledge and skills. PIER includes an instructional resource guide and toolkit for incorporating 1 Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Institute, Center for Pathology Informatics, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio 2 Department of Pathology, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC 3 Departments of Public Health Sciences and Pathology, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville 4 Department of Pathology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 5 Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston 6 Department of Pathology, East Carolina University, Brody School of Medicine, Greenville, North Carolina 7 CAP Learning, College of American Pathologists, Northfield, Illinois 8 Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania * This seminal article reflects a collaboration among the College of American Pathologists, Association of Pathology Chairs, and Association for Pathology Informatics, and will be jointly published by invitation and consent in the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Academic Pathology, and Journal of Pathology Informatics. Published online ahead of print July 6, 2016. Arch Pathol Lab Med. doi: 10.5858/arpa.2016-0199-OA. Corresponding Author: Walter H. Henricks, MD, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Institute, Center for Pathology Informatics, Cleveland Clinic, L21, 9500 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44195. Email: [email protected] Academic Pathology Volume 3: 1–13 a The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/2374289516659051 apc.sagepub.com Creative Commons CC-BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). informatics training into residency programs that vary in needs, size, settings, and resources. PIER is available at http:// www.apcprods.org/PIER (accessed April 6, 2016). Conclusions: PIER is an important contribution to informatics training in pathology residency programs. PIER introduces pathology trainees to broadly useful informatics concepts and tools that are relevant to practice. PIER provides residency program directors with a means to implement a standardized informatics training curriculum, to adapt the approach to local program needs, and to evaluate resident performance and progress over time. Accepted for publication May 4, 2016. Informatics has never been more relevant to the specialty and practice of pathology. Generating and managing information derived from processing, analysis, and interpretation of patient specimens form the core of the mission of pathology to provide information that is crucial to patient care. Over the years, informatics has had multiple definitions. Medical informatics is the science of how to use data, information, and knowledge to improve human health and delivery of health care services. The College of American Pathologists defines clinical informatics as the application of information management in health care to promote safe, efficient, effective, personalized, and responsive care. The domain of pathology informatics includes clinical informatics and extends to involve informationand technology-intensive elements that are unique to pathology. Pathology informatics activities have application at the individual, institutional, community, and population levels. Experience and observation confirm that informatics training in pathology residency programs is often absent, or when offered, inconsistent from program to program and frequently lacking in depth, breadth, and structure, particularly in comparison to more traditional areas of pathology training. To address the need for informatics training in pathology residency programs, 3 organizations—the Association of Pathology Chairs (APC), the Association for Pathology Informatics (API), and the College of American Pathologists (CAP)—convened a joint work group of pathology informatics experts and authorities in pathology graduate medical education (GME). This work group, led by a core team of informatics and education leaders from the 3 organizations, developed and released the Pathology Informatics Essentials for Residents (PIER), a novel and flexible curriculum for educating pathology residents in informatics. PIER offers both a curriculum and instructional process for incorporating informatics training into pathology residency programs. This article describes the rationale for PIER, its development process, the PIER curriculum and Resource Toolkit, and PIER’s companion change management strategy.