Clinical Informatics Fellowship

[questionquestion100]

I see a lot of new Clinical Informatics fellowships opening up in the past few years, and I'm wondering is this 2-year fellowship worth it? Can anyone offer any insight into these fellowships, such as what kind of offers are you getting after training, what the job market is like, and such?

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[chessknt]

No scenario where it would ever be financially worth it unless you have tech connections and plan to get some kind of equity stake in Epic with it or something to become worth 10+ figures

 

[CptNemo]

Yup, guessing the vast majority would not derive any financial benefit from this. I would only do it if you have a very specific plan or interest: like what was mentioned or if you have connections and want to be a chief medical information officer (this won't happen early in your career anyways).

 

[Fpg1245]

Yup, guessing the vast majority would not derive any financial benefit from this. I would only do it if you have a very specific plan or interest: like what was mentioned or if you have connections and want to be a chief medical information officer (this won't happen early in your career anyways).

And most of the ones out there don’t have this qual anyway.

 

[mszzeta]

I see a lot of new Clinical Informatics fellowships opening up in the past few years, and I'm wondering is this 2-year fellowship worth it? Can anyone offer any insight into these fellowships, such as what kind of offers are you getting after training, what the job market is like, and such?

You will be a top expert in Epic. Very important skill!

 

[DrMetal]

I see a lot of new Clinical Informatics fellowships opening up in the past few years, and I'm wondering is this 2-year fellowship worth it? Can anyone offer any insight into these fellowships, such as what kind of offers are you getting after training, what the job market is like, and such?

Yet another un-necessary fellowship. What next, I have to be BC'd in 'clinical informatics' to become an Epic superuser?

[part of my PhD was in computational science and informatics]. The problem with this field, is that it can be very broad (mine was applicable to chemistry, drug discovery only). What exactly are you looking to become an expert in, EMRs? Databases? Machine Learning? Supercomputing?

The good news is: there's a lot of educational programs that cover such topics, more specifically tailored to your end goal, and you can do them part time. The end result may be a certificate, or even a Masters. They're not always cheap, but you don't have to give up your day job's earning potential (as you would with a fellowship). Look around your local universities, maybe even junior colleges.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

Good grief, these informatics fellowships are 2 years long?

I’m struggling to wrap my head around what gets covered in these that could possibly take 2 years to learn, when you can do a whole subspecialty (rheumatology among others) in the same amount of time, or geriatrics/palliative etc in 1 year.

To OP: the vast majority of doctors that I’ve encountered with this qualification just end up in academia doing whatever actual specialty they trained in, with this on the side as a tiny sliver of their day to day work. My residency outpatient clinic preceptor spent 90%+ of his time as an academic general internist, and informatics in whatever spare time he had (which wasn’t much).

 

[questionquestion100]

Thanks for the replies. My goal is to eventually obtain a CMIO / CHIO position. How hard would it be to obtain these positions?

 

[clibby]

I did a CI fellowship and they are all very different. Some are more academic focusing on research and can help you advance an academic career, some focus on operational work and can fast track you to admin, and some get you integrated into the startup world. The reason they really do need to be 2 years is that the lifecycle of the projects are anywhere from months to years, so you would not learn the health system, nevermind get the exposure needed to lead a project in just one year. However, the clinical commitment and required work varies from program to program as they may be funded differently.

For me, I did the fellowship and the way it was structured I basically made the same as I would as an attending with all the benefits of being a W2 resident. My fellowship was funded by the IT department, so all my clinical work was paid like an attending. Each fellowship is funded differently and there may be some flexibility, so if you are pursuing it, if financials are a concern, it is something to consider when evaluating programs.

Depending on your goals it may or may not be worth it, but it is exceptionally rare to come out of fellowship as a CMIO these days. That takes years of building relationships to be able to affect the change needed to be trusted in that role. Most graduates look to get 10-30% informatics (+/- a title) or assistant medical director time as a buy down from their clinical work and if they succeed there, they move up into ACMIO roles, medical director roles, etc. Some do go off into the startup world, but not sure how much CI helps them there.