Medical Informatics Longitudinal Curricular Theme Plan Bethany Ballinger, M.D. Nadine Dexter, M.L.S., D-AHIP Michael Garner, M.L.S. 1

Background What is Medical Informatics? Informatics is more than information technology, it is the development and application of IT systems to problems in health care, research, and education. (Masys et al., 2000) It is the rapidly developing scientific field that deals with resources, devices and formalized methods for optimizing the storage, retrieval and management of biomedical information for problem solving and decision making. (Shortliffe, 1995) The fundamentals of informatics include: communication, knowledge management, decision support and the management of clinical information, without which clinicians cannot be truly effective. As practitioners attempt to keep abreast of the burgeoning information base – there are nearly 10,000 randomized controlled trials annually – it has become clear, as David Eddy has said, that the complexity of health care “exceeds the inherent limitations of the unaided human mind.” (Millenson, 1997) References: 1.Masys DR, Brennan PF, Ozbolt JG, Corn M, Shortliffe EH. Are medical informatics and nursing informatics distinct disciplines? The 1999 ACMI Debate. J Am Med Inform Assoc. May-Jun 2000;7(3): Shortliffe E. Biomedical informatics: computer applications in health care and biomedicine. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Springer; Millenson M. Demanding medical excellence: University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL;

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10 Medical Informatics - Longitudinal Curricular Theme FOCUS OF MEDICAL INFORMATICS COMPETANCIES The competencies of the longitudinal curricular theme (LCT) are centered around the following 10 competency domains: 1.Identification of information resources available from the Health Sciences Library holdings. 2.Demonstrate the ability to retrieve and selectively refine information in databases. 3.Utilize bibliographic software (ex: Endnote) to organize information. 4.Demonstrate the ability to utilize mobile devices and determine which mobile software is best suited to various tasks. 5.Apply Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) principles to clinical scenarios. 6.Demonstrate the ability to use electronic health records (EHRs) to retrieve, input and use clinical information. 7.Filter, evaluate and reconcile information, demonstrating the ability to critically review a published research report. (Journal Club) 8.Demonstrate knowledge of patient (and physician) confidentiality concerning the legal, ethical and medical issues surrounding patient documentation, including confidentiality and data security. (HIPPA) 9.Demonstrate knowledge of copyright and intellectual property issues, especially with regard to materials that are retrieved electronically. (Plagiarism) 10.Demonstrate how to formulate a clinical question or formal hypothesis for specific clinical questions. (Formulating a PICO question).