The American Medical Informatics Association embarked on the path to more clearly outline the role that chief clinical informatics officers play and the skillsets they need to succeed.

 “The CCIO role has not been well defined nor has the role been derived from a clear set of expectations, skillsets, or educational standards,” AMIA said in a new report. “Organizational position descriptions vary significantly.”

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The term CCIO, in fact, can encompass chief medical informatics officers, chief nursing informatics officers, even chief pharmacy informatics officers and chief dental informatics officers, AMIA found.

AMIA recommended that, to achieve a desirable skillset, CCIO’s should focus on skillsets including: an operational understanding of informatics, deep knowledge of clinical specialties, management and leadership skills, understanding of clinical decision support principle, as well as the technology chops to put available and emerging tools to work.

What’s more, future education and training should reflect the specific skillset of the discipline and must be guided by changing day-to-day informatics challenges.

“The knowledge required to be a successful CCIO is and will be constantly changing. While today knowledge of MU and ICD-10 are important, other topics will take their place soon,” AMIA noted. “This constant change of required knowledge, changing regulations, novel technology, and new software solutions demands a dedication and commitment to lifelong learning by CCIOs.” 

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