Vanderbilt Clinical Informatics Center Education Strategy: To Infinity and Beyond!

Abstract

Background The Vanderbilt Clinical Informatics Center (VCLIC) is based in the Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI) and operates across Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and Vanderbilt University (VU) with a goal of enabling and supporting clinical informatics research and practice. VCLIC supports several types of applied clinical informatics teaching, including teaching of students in courses, professional education for staff and faculty throughout VUMC, and workshops and conferences that are open to the public.

Objectives In this paper, we provide a detailed accounting of our center and institution's methods of educating and training faculty, staff, students, and trainees from across the academic institution and health system on clinical informatics topics, including formal training programs and informal applied learning sessions.

Methods Through a host of informal learning events, such as workshops, seminars, conference-style events, bite-size instructive videos, and hackathons, as well as several formal education programs, such as the Clinical Informatics Graduate Course, Master's in Applied Clinical Informatics, Medical Student Integrated Science Course, Graduate Medical Education Elective, and Fellowship in Clinical Informatics, VCLIC, and VUMC provide opportunities for faculty, students, trainees, and even staff to engage with Clinical Informatics topics and learn related skills.

Results The described programs have trained hundreds of participants from across the academic and clinical enterprises. Of the VCLIC-held events, the majority of attendees indicated through surveys that they were satisfied, with the average satisfaction score being 4.63/5, and all events averaging a satisfaction score of greater than 4. Across the 20 events VCLIC has held, our largest audiences are DBMI, HealthIT operational staff, and students from the medical and nursing schools.

Conclusion VCLIC has created and delivered a successful suite of formal and informal educational events and programs to disseminate clinical informatics knowledge and skills to learners across the academic institution and health care system.

Keywords

medical informatics - Graduate Medical Education - medical students - academic medical centers

Protection of Human and Animal Subjects

There was no human subjects research approval required for any data collection related to this manuscript. Data were collected for quality improvement reasons only.

Publication History

Received: 23 May 2024

Accepted: 30 September 2024

Accepted Manuscript online:
17 October 2024

Article published online:
26 February 2025

• References

• 1 NLM's University-based Biomedical Informatics and Data Science Research Training Programs. Accessed April 24, 2024 at: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/ep/GrantTrainInstitute.html
• 2 Lehmann CU, Gundlapalli AV, Williamson JJ. et al. Five years of clinical informatics board certification for physicians in the United States of America. Yearb Med Inform 2018; 27 (01) 237-242
• 3 Hersh W, Williamson J. Educating 10,000 informaticians by 2010: the AMIA 10 × 10 program. Int J Med Inform 2007; 76 (5-6): 377-382
• 4 AMIA 10 × 10 Virtual Courses. AMIA - American Medical Informatics Association. . Accessed April 24, 2024 at: https://amia.org/education-events/amia-10×10-virtual-courses
• 5 Denny JC, Giuse DA, Jirjis JN. The Vanderbilt Experience with electronic health records. Semin Colon Rectal Surg 2005; 16 (02) 59-68
• 6 VCLIPS. Vanderbilt Clinical Informatics Center. Accessed April 24, 2024 at: https://www.vumc.org/vclic/vclips
• 7 InformaticCon Fall. Vanderbilt Clinical Informatics Center; 2022. Accessed April 24, 2024 at: https://www.vumc.org/vclic/informaticcon-fall-2022
• 8 InformaticCon Fall. Vanderbilt Clinical Informatics Center; 2023. Accessed April 24, 2024 at: https://www.vumc.org/vclic/informaticcon-fall-2023
• 9 Mize DE, Osterman TJ. A unified approach to clinical informatics education for undergraduate and graduate medical education. AMIA Annu Symp Proc 2023; 2022: 766-774
• 10 AMIA Health Inforamtics Core Competancies for CAHIIM. Accessed April 19, 2024 at: https://www.cahiim.org/docs/default-source/about-cahiim/history/final-amia-health-informatics-core-competencies-for-cahiim.pdf?sfvrsn=fed062b8_4,%202022
• 11 Gadd CS, Steen EB, Caro CM, Greenberg S, Williamson JJ, Fridsma DB. Domains, tasks, and knowledge for health informatics practice: results of a practice analysis. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2020; 27 (06) 845-852
• 12 MS in Applied Clinical Informatics (MSACI). Vanderbilt University. . Accessed April 29, 2024 at: https://medschool.vanderbilt.edu/biomedical-informatics/msaci/
• 13 McCoy AB, Russo EM, Johnson KB. et al. Clinician collaboration to improve clinical decision support: the Clickbusters initiative. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2022; 29 (06) 1050-1059
• 14 Internal Medicine Residency Clinical Scholars in Informatics Pathway—Wake Forest School of Medicine. Wake Forest University School of Medicine. . Accessed April 30, 2024 at: https://school.wakehealth.edu/education-and-training/residencies-and-fellowships/internal-medicine-residency/curriculum-overview/clinical-scholars-in-informatics-pathway
• 15 Kohn MS, Topaloglu U, Kirkendall ES, Dharod A, Wells BJ, Gurcan M. Creating learning health systems and the emerging role of biomedical informatics. Learn Health Syst 2021; 6 (01) e10259