1. The Changing Landscape: The View from My Window Charles P. Friedman, PhD Schools of Information and Public Health University of Michigan 1

2. 2 Out the Window, I See…  A proliferation of programs  Increasing confusion about what informatics (and thus informatics education) is and isn’t  And thus, increasing confusion about which of these programs are and are not “informatics”  I am going to try to outline some boundaries

3. 3 What Informatics Is: Three Visions I. Cross-training between a set of basic sciences and a domain II. Pursuit of a “ Fundamental Theorem ” III. “ Tower of Achievement ”

4. 4 Informatics Vision I: Informatics as Cross-training Basic Informational & Behavioral Sciences An Application Domain “ Informatics ” Information Science Computer Science Cognitive Science Organizational Science Implementation Science etc. Health Clinical profession Biology Public Health etc.

5. 5 So an “ Informatician ” is Different… An Application Domain What an Informatician Knows Basic Informational & Computational Sciences What a Scientist Knows What a Clinician or Public Health Practitioner Knows

6. 6 Informatics Vision II: “ The Fundamental Theorem of Biomedical Informatics ”* The “practice” of informatics is the pursuit of information and knowledge resources that seek to make people “better” than they would be if unassisted, and also to explore if they have been successful in that pursuit. Informatics is about people, groups, organizations, cultures—as much as it is about technology. *Friedman CP. A ‘fundamental theorem’ of biomedical informatics. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 16: 169-170, 2009. (+>)

7. 7 Informatics Vision III: The Tower of Achievement* Informatics training touches each level of the tower and the science at each level. Model Formulation System Development System Deployment Study of Effects *Friedman CP. Where ’ s the science in medical informatics ? JAMIA 2: 65-67, 1995.

8. 8 Informatics Isn ’ t…  Scientists or clinicians tinkering with computers  Management of large datasets per se  Deploying and configuring EHRs in pursuit of Meaningful Use, or supporting deployment  The profession of health information management  Anything done using a computer

9. The Changing Landscape… 9 HIT Workforce Programs Certificates Fill ~9 ONC workforce roles Research Programs Doctoral degrees Teaching and research consistent with the Fundamental Theorem and the “Tower” Professional Programs Masters degrees Fill advanced informatics practice and leadership positions consistent with Fundamental Theorem and the “Tower” HIM Programs Bachelors and masters degrees Practice within the bounds of an established profession Not InformaticsInformatics