What Is a Clinical Informatics and How to Become One

By ZipRecruiter Marketplace Research Team

Clinical informatics is a field within the discipline of information technology. The purpose of clinical informatics is to implement technology and theories in order to collect, store, and modify clinical information and electronic records to improve patient care and information sharing among healthcare professionals. Clinical informatics investigates the most efficient and user-friendly ways data can be organized, structured, shared, and accessed. It has practical implications for healthcare provision throughout the industry, including at hospitals, clinics, and military and research facilities.

The qualifications to get a clinical informatics job vary based on the level of the position. Most careers in this field require at least some postsecondary education, training, and experience. Potential starting points include completing a certificate program in electronic health records and working in the industry. More involved paths include getting an associate degree in information technology or a bachelor’s degree in healthcare IT, nursing, or healthcare administration. Some employers accept clinical certification and work experience in lieu of a 4-year degree. Nurses should be registered. Important skills to develop for careers in clinical informatics include technical competence, strong analytical thinking, and good written communication.

Careers in clinical informatics include jobs such as clinical informatics specialists or analysts, healthcare IT professionals, as well as nursing, pharmacy, nutrition, or clinical informaticists. Each of these positions has different duties, but many of their responsibilities overlap or contribute to the work of others in the field. Nurse informaticists, for example, work as a go-between for informatics specialists and nurses and study information so that developers can design new tools for nurses to collect information. Meanwhile, a clinical informatics specialist ensures that technology or databases work properly so clinicians can easily access data.