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The AMIA Health Informatics Review Course was created with a grounding in the actual work and knowledge base health informatic professionals defined. The Health Informatics Delineation of Practice is proprietary research conducted by AMIA. No other AMIA Health Informatics Certification (AHIC) exam preparatory course has access to this information. Individual lectures within each unit and module comprise the Health Informatics Essentials series of review course content.

The Health Informatics Delineation of Practice

The Health Informatics Delineation of Practice was developed during the 2018 health informatics practice analysis conducted by AMIA and is described in Gadd CG, Steen EB, Caro CM et al. Domains, tasks, and knowledge for health informatics practice: results of a practice analysis. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2020;27(6):845-852. doi:10.1093/jamia/ocaa018.

 

Module Overview

 

ARC Units, Modules, and Lectures Based on Domains of Health Informatics Practice

These lectures offer fundamental knowledge and skills that provide health informaticians with a common vocabulary, basic knowledge across all health informatics domains, and understanding of the environment in which they function.

  • Key Aspects in the Discipline of Health Informatics
  • Fundamental Informatics Concepts, Models, and Theories
  • Conceptual Frameworks
  • Computer Programming Fundamentals and Computational Thinking
  • Fundamentals of Data, Databases, and Analytics
  • Knowledge Management and Information Science
  • Basic Epidemiology and Bio-statistical Methods and Principles
  • Ethics and Practice in Health Informatics

  • Implementation Science and Evidence-based Practice
  • Theories on Implementation, Adoption, and Effective Use of HIS
  • User-centered Design Principles

  • Vocabularies, Terminologies and Nomenclatures
  • Data Taxonomies and Ontologies
  • Development and Use of Transaction Standards

  • The Health System, Lecture 1
  • The Health System, Lecture 2
  • Key Regulatory, Policy and Economic Frameworks in Healthcare Delivery and Financing
  • Forces Shaping Healthcare Access, Delivery, and Quality

Unit 2: Enhancing Health Decision-making, Processes, and Outcomes

These lectures focus on how to support and enhance decision-making by clinicians, patients, and public health professionals; analyze existing health processes and identify ways that health data and HIS can enable improved outcomes; evaluate the impact of HIS on practice; pursue discovery and innovation in HIS and informatics practice.

  • Clinical Decision Support Principles and Practices
  • User-centered Design Principles
  • Decision Science
  • Development and Use of Clinical Decision Support Standards
  • Common and Emerging Data Used in Individual and Population Health
  • Risk Stratification and Adjustment
  • CDSS Legal, Regulatory, and Ethical Issues

  • Continuous Improvements and Innovation Healthcare Frameworks
  • Business Analysis
  • Problem Identification and Systems Analyses within Complex and Dynamic Systems
  • Quality Improvement Principles and Practices
  • A LHS Approach to CDS Measure Development and Evaluation

  • Process Modeling
  • Workflow Analysis and Re-engineering
  • Clinical Data and Workflow Processes
  • Care Coordination Concepts and Tools

  • Quality Performance, Regulatory, and Public Health Measures – Part I
  • Quality Performance, Regulatory, and Public Health Measures – Part II
  • Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
  • Clinical and Financial Benchmarking Sources
  • CMS Standards Initiatives and Informatics

Lectures in this unit review how to plan, develop or acquire, implement, maintain, and evaluate health information systems that are integrated with existing information technology systems across the continuum of care, including clinical, consumer, and public health domains, while addressing security, privacy, and safety considerations.

  • Introduction to Health Information Technology (HIT)
  • Cloud-based SaaS vs On-premise Health Information Technology Services
  • Health Information Systems Components and Department Sub-systems
  • Information Systems for Public Health and Population Health
  • Multiple Functions of Health Information Systems
  • Multiple Roles Supported by Health Information Systems
  • The Health Information Technology Market – Current State and Emerging Technologies
  • Health Information Technology Safety Models and Frameworks

  • System Development Life Cycle
  • Evaluation and Selection of an Information System
  • Implementation, Testing and Rollout of Information Systems
  • Systems Thinking - Principles and Unintended Consequences
  • System Workarounds and Preventive Measures

  • The Need for Interoperability
  • Seven Layers of Interoperability Architecture
  • Health Data Exchange Standards
  • Terminology Standards
  • Health Information Exchanges
  • Health Information Exchanges, Data Aggregation and Population Health

  • Causes and Impacts of HIS Downtimes
  • Preventing and Mitigating HIS Downtimes, and Downtime Recovery Procedures
  • Ransomware and Other Hacking Concerns

  • The Digital Front Door
  • Telehealth During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic
  • Connecting Medical Devices to HIS

  • Security, Privacy, and Confidentiality Regulations - HIPAA
  • Data Security Standards, Threat Identification and Mitigation Strategies
  • User Types and Roles for Access Control
  • Health Information Communication Channels

This unit focuses on how to establish and maintain data governance structures, policies, and processes; acquire and manage health-related data to ensure its quality and meaning across settings; -and utilize it for analysis that supports individual and population health and drives innovation.

  • Current Landscape of Health IT: Legislation Supporting and Promoting Data Sharing
  • Common Components for Data-sharing Agreements
  • Data Provenance and Integrity
  • Data Stewardship

  • The Data Life Cycle
  • Data Dictionaries and Metadata Repositories
  • Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL)
  • Disparate Data Sources
  • Data Validation Importance
  • Relational and Non-relational Database Designs
  • Data and Information Architecture

  • Clinical Data Registries and Decision-making
  • Health Information Exchange (HIE) Data Architectural Models
  • HIEs, Patient-matching Algorithms and Data Harmonization

  • Specialized and Emerging Data
  • Management of Specialized and Emerging Data
  • Integrating Emerging Data Sources into Business and Clinical Decision-making

  • Query Tools and Techniques
  • Descriptive and Inferential Statistics
  • Computing the Slope and Intercept in Linear Regression
  • Various Regression Models
  • Bayesian and Classical Statistical Methods
  • Claims Data - Analytics and Benchmarks

  • Introduction to Advanced Analytics Models
  • Design Considerations for Advanced Analytics Models
  • Using Natural Language Processing to Analyze Clinical Narrative
  • Precision Medicine and its Relationship with Informatics
  • An Introduction to Spatial Data and Analysis
  • Data Visualization

Lectures in this unit review how to build support and create alignment for informatics best practices and lead health informatics initiatives and innovation through collaboration and stakeholder engagement across organizations and systems.

  • Key Principles of Leadership
  • Leadership In Practice
  • Organizational Culture
  • Change Management
  • Institutional Governance of HIS

  • Consensus, Conflict Management, Negotiation
  • Building Effective Teams
  • Stakeholder Engagement
  • Project Management Fundamentals
  • Project Management Tools
  • Group Decision-Making Processes

  • Environmental Scanning
  • Strategic Planning
  • Organizational Innovation

  • Business Planning and Budgeting
  • Basic Managerial and Cost Accounting Concepts
  • Revenue Cycle
  • Cost Analysis Methods and Techniques

  • Competency Development and Assessment
  • Effective Communication
  • Fostering the Future: Coaching, Mentoring, Championing, Cheerleading

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