The Clinical Informatics fellowship offered by ChristianaCare provides fellows with a learning environment that includes robust technologies and inventive, original clinical IT implementations. ChristianaCare is a forward-looking organization with innovative systems and strategies and academic support for clinical IT in the form of analytics, the ChristianaCare Value Institute, and the ChristianaCare Center for Health Innovation. A strong academic faculty and a broad curriculum allow Clinical Informatics fellows to interact and work closely with clinical departments, technology experts, IT vendors, and community-based Health Information Exchanges.
ChristianaCare has a broad and deep digital platform. The Cerner EMR platform has served the acute care setting for more than twenty years; it has recently replaced GE Centricity in the ambulatory areas. The Health Catalyst Enterprise Data Warehouse and advanced analytics platform is the third generation at ChristianaCare. There are more than 650 IT systems currently in place at ChristianaCare. ChristianaCare was a founding member of the Delaware Health Information Network (DHIN) a statewide Health Information Exchange (HIE) that celebrated its tenth anniversary. More than 95 percent of all digital results across the state of Delaware pass through the DHIN, and all hospitals in the state transmit Admission/Discharge/Transfer (ADT) notifications. ChristianaCare receives real-time regional HIE messages from Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, D.C., Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.
An important focus of the Clinical Informatics curriculum is the implementation, optimization, and workflow re-engineering for the Cerner EMR. This important foundational experience provides trainees with the framework on which IT vendor management, cyber security, IT budgets and accounting, resource management, quality and safety, workflow redesign, and countless other skills will be developed.
First-year (junior) fellows begin their schedule with a twelve-week Inpatient rotation. This rotation is designed to familiarize fellows with the ChristianaCare hospitals and various committees, and organizational structure. Fellows will participate in EMR implementation projects that are relevant to the inpatient venue of care and will be exposed to departmental systems such as perioperative systems, lab information systems, physician documentation, medical records, nursing systems, medication administration systems, and other areas. The first year includes a three-month ambulatory rotation and scheduled block for clinical decision support, data analytics, and population health. The fellows’ committee membership will begin with the first inpatient rotation and will continue through the 2-year schedule. In addition, the didactic Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) Graduate Certificate in Bioinformatics Program is a 15-credit program that will begin early in the first year and will continue through the second year.
Second-year (senior) fellows have rotations in quality and safety, data visualization, data security/privacy, and pediatric informatics. The remainder of the second year will offer electives and a three-month capstone rotation with the Value Institute during which time they will finalize their scholarly research that has been ongoing through the two years.