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Roadmap for Applicants

Interested in pursuing CI Fellowship?
Read on for specific tips on how to get involved with informatics at your stage of training and an overview of the application timeline.
We also have suggestions on what to consider when looking at various programs.
You can also find check out the AMIA website for another overview. 

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You can learn more about who applies to fellowship in this paper here: 
Characteristics of the National Applicant Pool for Clinical Informatics Fellowships (2018-2020)
and read more about the match here: Creation and Evaluation of a Clinical Informatics Match: Initial Findings.

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Guide authored by: Dong-han Yao, MD, Vince Xiao, Johnny Lo, Adrian Romero, Kevin Smith, Kevin Ly

Medical School

Congratulations on developing an early interest in clinical informatics as a medical student! This is a rapidly growing field at the intersection of clinical care, information technology, and data science that will prepare you for a fruitful career in an increasingly digital healthcare landscape. 

MS3

  • Seeking out opportunities to participate in multidisciplinary projects: Collaborate on potential quality improvement (QI), AI or EHR-based projects with teams that include IT analysts, clinical researchers, or departmental leaders to improve patient care.

  • Exploring national committees and conferences: Explore conferences, subcommittees, and workgroups in AMIA, ACEP, or SAEM. These organizations offer early exposure to the field and provide educational and networking opportunities.

  • Shadowing a physician informaticist or seeking out an informatics mentor: Identify key faculty members or practicing clinical informaticists to gain insights into an informatics career as a practicing physician.

MS4

  • Taking targeted coursework: Enroll in electives or online courses in data analytics, artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), business management, cybersecurity, programming, or health IT to build foundational knowledge of key informatics areas.

  • Leadership and informatics rotations: Participate in rotations specifically focused on informatics leadership and governance in health IT to gain practical experience and executive insights to how to address clinical challenges through informatics solutions. 

  • Away rotations for exposure and networking: If you do away rotations in your core specialty of choice, consider choosing institutions with strong clinical informatics programs to gain perspectives, as different enterprises have different challenges that require unique informatics approaches. 

  • Tracking residencies with informatics focus: Research residencies that support informatics training, such as Epic certifications, resident informatics curriculums, and an established history of sending residents to clinical informatics fellowships. 

    • 3-year programs may provide a loose path/track for interested residents but have limited time for informatics electives/projects. 

    • 4-year programs may offer additional flexibility for informatics (projects, workshops, conferences, etc.), especially through additional elective time. This will likely be very helpful in increasing your informatics experience and portfolio for fellowship applications, and can also give you additional time to explore the specialty if you are not sure. 

M3
M4

Residency

PGY 1
Building Foundations

Your first year of residency will be busy. You should prioritize learning the health system and building clinical knowledge. As you navigate through your new role, you can consider the following to explore further in informatics: 

  • Seek out a local/regional informatics mentor: Identify faculty members within your department or the hosting institution with informatics background to guide you on your informatics journey.

  • Position yourself as the EHR/digital guru: Establish yourself as an expert in using your institution’s electronic health record (EHR) system and common applications (e.g. amion, dictation, etc.), help your colleagues troubleshoot common issues and suggest improvements. 

  • Join national committees and listservs: If you have not already done so as a medical student, consider joining informatics-focused organizations like AMIA (or working groups/subcommittees in ACEP/SAEM) to network with peers and experts. Consider attending informatics-specific conferences to get a better idea for the informatics personality, as well as the type of healthcare problems being solved and scholarly work being done. 

PGY 2
Expanding Your Role

As you refine your clinical acumen, consider the following to expand beyond your typical resident role and venture further into clinical informatics:  

  • Read: Develop foundational knowledge in key areas such as cybersecurity, clinical decision support (CDS), and interoperability through Journal of AMIA and introductory informatics textbooks.

  • Noticing Problems: Reflect on challenges in your daily workflows and consider ways to address these issues through human-centered informatics solutions. Collect these pain points. Think about how processes ought to be done- your fresh perspective as a junior learner that may be uniquely valuable. Ask why inefficient processes are done the way they are- you’ll find that  frequent answers include “it’s always been done that way” or “nobody knows”- which is a perfect way to: 

  • Participate in informatics-related projects: Engage in quality improvement (QI)/patient safety or operational projects that involve informatics tools/IT team.

    • You can also consider working with departmental leaders to develop dashboards, create residency reports, or improve existing analytics tools for clinical and operational metrics.

  • Develop technical skills: While not strictly necessary, building technical proficiency in applications, tools and programming languages such as SQL, R, or Python to analyze data and contribute meaningfully to projects can be helpful.

  • Work with Epic/Cerner analysts: Collaborate on EHR optimization projects to address pain points in your specialty’s workflow.

  • Plan to present at and attend conferences: Prepare to share your work at local, regional, or national conferences as a senior resident, as informatics projects often require significant lead time.

  • Take on more active roles in committees: Increase your involvement in local, regional, or national committees to build your leadership skills and network with other professionals.

PGY 3-4
Deciding and Preparing to Apply

  • Continue projects and exploration from before

  • Research/Projects:

    • Try to finish up projects and ease up on starting new projects as you ramp up to application season

    • Remember that quality generally trumps quantity. It is generally better to be able to talk about a few completed projects in detail and demonstrated impact, rather than an exorbitant number of recently started or unfinished projects

    • Begin to weave a cohesive narrative for your interests in informatics, and tie them to projects and activities you’ve participated in the past. Use this to help decide what projects to take on in the last year(s) of residency. 

 

  • Relevant Conferences: 

    • Epic Expert Group Meetings (XGM) 

    • AMIA Clinical Informatics Conference (CIC)

    • Epic User Group Meetings (UGM) 

    • AMIA Annual Symposium 

    • Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)

    • Any regional or national conference for your home specialty! 

Attending 

Experience

No matter what stage or phase of life you are in, Clinical Informatics offers an opportunity for anyone who is interested. 

It is actually relatively common to have years of experience before coming back to fellowship for Clinical Informatics. This is unlike other clinical specialties where often you might graduate from residency straight into a fellowship

Experiencing  work in your primary specialty as an attending is actually advantageous for CI work as you have additional insights into workflow processes, limitations and opportunities in a modern healthcare system. 

Completing a fellowship at this phase of your career may seem like a demotion for 2 years but in fact can accelerate the remainder of your career pathway into opportunities in leadership or allow for dedicated FTE towards some more technical work that you may enjoy like building tools in the EHR or having more insight on governance boards. 

Timeline of Fellowship Application Process: 

Feb – April

approx 18 months before desired start

  • If you are able to plan your final year’s block schedule, try to place easier rotations for interview season (September through November).

  • Identify your letter of recommendation authors to give them an early start.

  • If you have a specific program you want to be at, reach out to current fellows/program leadership to set up a meeting to discuss how you can maximize your chances to match there, or to explore the possibility of an away rotation. 

  • Start drafting your personal statement. 

April – June

  • April/May:

    • Start to research programs and keep a running list or spreadsheet of pros/cons, salary, expected clinical time, etc.

    • Finalize and notify your letter of recommendation authors if you haven’t yet.

  • June:

    • Request for your ERAS Fellowship token for the July Application Cycle.

    • Register at MyERAS.

    • Finalize your personal statement.

    • Start submitting documents to the ERAS Fellowship Documents Office (EFDO) because they can take up to five (5) business days to process to ERAS after they are uploaded.

    • ERAS photos will usually update at midnight EST of the day you upload.

 July 

1 year before desired start

  • Early-mid July: 

    • Submit your ERAS application (programs will not be able to access your application and documents until mid July so you can submit any time before then- any submissions after that deadline will be time stamped)

  • Late July: 

    • Early interview invites will start to roll in.

August – November

  • The bulk of interview invites will occur in late July through late September (with the final invites trickling in throughout October). Interviews will start in August but most will occur September through November.

  • As you go on your interviews, think about some important questions to consider (see end of section). 

  • During November, you should go on Second Looks (some programs offer help with setting up in-person site visits) and schedule additional interviews with other faculty/staff if you want more information.

  • Start to make multiple iterations of your rank list based on different factors that are important to you until you’re happy with your final list.

  • Sign up for an AMIA student membership so that you can participate in the match

December

  • Early December:

    • Finalize your rank list and submit.

    • Send a letter of intent to your #1 program before the programs’ deadline if you want.

  •  Mid-December:

    • Congratulations on making it to the Match!

    • Start to compile licensing documents if you aren’t already licensed in the state you matched in

Evaluating Fellowship Programs:
Factors, questions, considerations you should keep in mind when deciding on clinical informatics fellowship programs

What is fellowship like?

Read about what a typical fellowship experience might feel like. Your experiences may differ slightly based on location and previous experiences. Unlike other clinical specialties, it does not hurt you to come back to fellowship after years of attending experience, in fact it may be advantageous.

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