1. Preparing for Informatics Careers
and Trends in the Age of
Meaningful Use
Nawanan Theera-Ampornpunt, MD, PhD
Kai Zheng, PhD
Yang Gong, MD, PhD
Jennifer Boehne, PharmD, MHI, MPH
David C. Kaelber, MD, PhD, MPH

2. Student Working Group Career Panel
• Annual tradition organized by Student WG
• Born: AMIA 2002 Annual Symposium
• Present viewpoints on informatics career
opportunities and professional development advices
to students and early-career professionals
• Have become one of the hallmarks of the Symposium
for student attendees over the years

3. This Year’s Career Panel
• “Meaningful Use” creates a boost for career
opportunities
• Featuring panelists with experience from academia &
industry
• Panelists also from different professional
backgrounds (technical vs. clinical/health),
recognizing different career trajectories
• Panelists asked to discuss HIT trends & implications
for students

4. Some Questions to be Answered
• How was your experience from when you first entered
the field until now?
• What factors or experience played a key role in your
informatics career?
• Given your background and work setting, what do you
think are the upcoming trends in HIT and informatics?
• What implications do these trends have for current
informatics students and trainees?
• In this age of Meaningful Use, how should these students
prepare and ready themselves for the coming career
opportunities and trends?

5. Panel Format
• First round (60 minutes)
▫ Each panelist allotted 15 minutes
• Open questions from audience
(15-20 minutes)
• Second round (10 minutes)
▫ Each panelist offers brief closing comments

6. Panelists
Academia, Health Background
• Yang Gong, MD, PhD
• Associate Professor
• School of Biomedical Informatics
The University of Texas Health Science
Center at Houston

7. Yang Gong
UTHealth
yang.gong@uth.tmc.edu
Thursday, December 05, 2013
International Ballroom West
Washington Hilton, AMIA 2013

8. Experience since entered the field

 Learning along evolution of informatics definitions
in healthcare
 medical informatics, health informatics, clinical
informatics, consumer informatics, public health
informatics, etc.
 Experiencing through professional conferences:
 AMIA, MEDINFO, HIMSS, AHIMA, etc.
 Meeting peers (students and professionals)
 Exchanging views and opinions

9. Clinical Informatics

 Human factors
 Human-computer interaction in health information
systems
 Clinical decision support
 Case-based reasoning
 Health data display
 Patient safety
 Reporting errors
 Learning from errors

10. Key factors in informatics career?

 Collaboration
 Health informatics is a team work by nature
 Large scale research project
 Regional, national, or international effect
 Coordination
 Research
 Teaching
 Academic services

11. Trends in HIT and informatics?

 Interprofessional education (IPE) in healthcare
 A continuous interaction and knowledge sharing
between interdisciplinary team, including health
informatics to explore and solve education and care
issues while optimizing patient participation.
 Patient safety and healthcare quality
 Reducing medical errors
 Improving quality and effectiveness

12. Implications of trend for current
informatics students and trainees

 Get an early exposure to health informatics
 Apply health informatics to HIT practice
 Demonstrate quality improvement and value of
meaningful use
 Disseminate outcomes of clinical effectiveness

13. Suggestions for preparing career
opportunities and trends?

 Be active in health informatics community
 Student WG
 Newsletter
 Student competitions
 Mentorship program
 Student volunteership at professional conferences
 Get experience and defray cost
 conference registration
 Accommodation and flights

14. Panelists
Industry, Health IT Vendor
• Jennifer Boehne, PharmD, MHI, MPH
• Medication Safety Officer/Manager
• University of Louisville
(KentuckyOne Health)
• Formerly worked for Epic Systems
Corporation

15. Jennifer Boehne
RPh, PharmD, MHI, MPH
Doctorate in Pharmacy – University of MN
Pharmacy Residency
Masters In Health Informatics – University of MN
Pharmacy Informatics Fellowship
Masters in Public Health – Harvard

16. My Experiences
•
•
•
•
Joint Programs – JD, MBA, MHI, MPH
Residency Programs – PGY1 & PGY2
Fellowships
Work
“Life is short ‐ Do Something you enjoy!”

17. Upcoming Trends in HIT & Implications
• Collaboration – Patients, Providers, Portals,
PHRs
• Personalized CDS
• Drug monitoring – Home, POS & PDMP
• Home monitoring – Vitals
• Pharmacogenomics

18. Be prepared!
• Get involved in professional organizations
– AMIA: Student WG+
– Healthcare, IT, etc.
• Experiment & Experience in uncertain economy
– Volunteer
– Shadow
– Internships
– Residencies
– Fellowship
• Data Dissemination Planning

19. Jennifer Boehne
RPh, PharmD, MHI, MPH
jjboehne@gmail.com

20. Panelists
Industry, Healthcare Organization
• David C. Kaelber, MD, PhD, MPH
• Chief Medical Informatics Officer
The MetroHealth System
• Center for Clinical Informatics
Research and Education
The MetroHealth System
• Case Western Reserve University

21. Preparing for Informatics Careers and
Trends in the Age of Meaningful Use
David Kaelber MD, PhD, MPH, FAAP, FACP
Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Case Western Reserve University
Chief Medical Informatics Officer and Director of the Center for Clinical
Informatics Research and Education
The MetroHealth System
MetroHealth and Case Western Reserve University, affiliated since 1914,
partners in advancing patient care through research and teaching.

22. Perspective on Informatics
• Rapidly growing in size
• Rapidly growing in expectations
• “Digit revolution in healthcare”
• What is/are the “killer applications”
• Where is the real value
MetroHealth and Case Western Reserve University, affiliated since 1914,
partners in advancing patient care through research and teaching.

23. Key Career Factors
• Volunteering
• Networking
• Talking to lots of people
• Reputation
• “Right place, right time”
• “Trailbraizer”
MetroHealth and Case Western Reserve University, affiliated since 1914,
partners in advancing patient care through research and teaching.

24. Trends
• Informatics credentials
• Informatics definition/role consolidation/clarification
• Increasing reliance on health IT
“Its just a tool”
MetroHealth and Case Western Reserve University, affiliated since 1914,
partners in advancing patient care through research and teaching.

25. Implications
• Think about credentials (AMIA 10X10, informatics
degree, informatics board certification, ???)
• Obtain training/experience in multiple areas:
–
–
–
–
–
clinical care
evaluation/statistics
leadership
operations/business
technology
• Participate in “practical” projects
MetroHealth and Case Western Reserve University, affiliated since 1914,
partners in advancing patient care through research and teaching.

26. Words of Wisdom
• Find your passion
• Find mentors
• Network
David Kaelber
(david.kaelber@case.edu)
• Volunteer (gain experience)
• Develop a plan (early) (know it will change)
MetroHealth and Case Western Reserve University, affiliated since 1914,
partners in advancing patient care through research and teaching.

27. Panelists
Academia, Technical Background
• Kai Zheng, PhD
• Associate Professor of Health
Management and Policy, School of
Public Health
• Associate Professor of Information,
School of Information
• University of Michigan

28. Interdisciplinary Challenges
Interdisciplinary Publishing
(presentation, presentation, presentation!)
!
Community & Identity
(where your roots are)
Preparing for Informatics Careers and Trends in
the Age of Meaningful Use
!
kai zheng, associate professor
school of public health, school of information
!
Distinct Promotion Expectations
(be careful when selecting external reviewers)
1
2
Sciences behind
Physics, Aerodynamics, Material science
!
Mechanical engineering, Electrical/Electronic engineering
!
Ergonomics, Cognitive ergonomics, Industrial design
!
Industrial engineering, Operation management
!
…
3
4

29. Without the underlying sciences
5
Without health informatics
6
Interdisciplinary Challenges
Interdisciplinary Publishing
(presentation, presentation, presentation!)
!
Community & Identity
(where your roots are)
Questions?
kzheng@umich.edu
!
Distinct Promotion Expectations
(be careful when selecting external reviewers)
7
8

30. Acknowledgments
• Rui Zhang, MS, ST-WG Chair-Elect (2013)
• Sashank Kaushik, MD, Member-at-Large
(Resident-Fellow)
• Ryan Shaw, PhD, RN, Member-at-Large
(Doctoral - PhD)
• Tiffany Kelley, PhD, MBA, RN, Immediate
Past Chair
• Saif Khairat, PhD
• ST-WG Executive Committee