Fifty domains of competency in health informatics (from International Medical Informatics Association) including skill level and presence in 71 specialties
| ID | Domain details | Skill level | No. of clinical specialties (%) |
| 1 | Evolution of informatics as a discipline and as a profession. | + | 2 (3) |
| 2 | Need for systematic information processing in healthcare, benefits and constraints of information technology in healthcare. | ++ | 11 (15) |
| 3 | Efficient and responsible use of information processing tools to support healthcare professionals’ practice and their decision making. | ++ | 48 (68) |
| 4 | Use of personal application software for documentation, personal communication including internet access, for publication and basic statistics. | ++ | 50 (70) |
| 5 | Information literacy: library classification and systematic health-related terminologies and their coding, literature retrieval methods, research methods and research paradigms. | ++ | 12 (17) |
| 6 | Characteristics, functionalities and examples of information systems in healthcare (eg, clinical information systems and primary care information systems). | + | 33 (46) |
| 7 | Architectures of information systems in healthcare, approaches and standards for communication and cooperation and for interfacing and integration of component, architectural paradigms (eg, service-oriented architectures). | +++ | 0 (0) |
| 8 | Management of information systems in healthcare (health information management, strategic and tactic information management, IT governance, IT service management, legal and regulatory issues). | + | 10 (14) |
| 9 | Characteristics, functionalities and examples of information systems to support patients and the public (eg, patient-oriented information system architectures and applications, personal health records and sensor-enhanced information systems). | + | 2 (3) |
| 10 | Methods and approaches to regional networking and shared care (eHealth, health telematics applications and interorganisational information exchange). | + | 4 (6) |
| 11 | Appropriate documentation and health data management principles including ability to use health and medical coding systems, construction of health and medical coding systems. | + | 37 (52) |
| 12 | Structure, design and analysis principles of the health record including notions of data quality, minimum data sets, architecture and general applications of the electronic patient record/electronic health record. | + | 4 (6) |
| 13 | Socio-organisationalorganisational and sociotechnical issues, including workflow/process modelling and reorganisation. | + | 0 (0) |
| 14 | Principles of data representation and data analysis using primary and secondary data sources, principles of data mining, data warehouses and knowledge management. | + | 13 (18) |
| 15 | Biomedical modelling and simulation. | +++ | 0 (0) |
| 16 | Ethical and security issues including accountability of healthcare providers and managers and BMHI specialists and the confidentiality, privacy and security of patient data. | + | 17 (24) |
| 17 | Nomenclatures, vocabularies, terminologies, ontologies and taxonomies in Biomedical Health Informatics. | + | 0 (0) |
| 18 | Informatics methods and tools to support education (including flexible and distance learning), use of relevant educational technologies, including internet and world wide web. | +++ | 7 (10) |
| 19 | Evaluation and assessment of information systems, including study design, selection and triangulation of (quantitative and qualitative) methods, outcome and impact evaluation, economic evaluation, unintended consequences, systematic reviews and meta-analysis, and evidence-based health informatics. | +++ | 4 (6) |
| 20 | Principles of clinical/medical decision making and diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. | + | 0 (0) |
| 21 | Organisation of health institutions and of the overall health system, interorganisational aspects and shared care. | + | 5 (7) |
| 22 | Policy and regulatory frameworks for information handling data in healthcare. | +++ | 4 (6) |
| 23 | Principles of evidence-based practice (evidence-based medicine, evidence-based nursing …). | + | 17 (24) |
| 24 | Health administration, health economics, health quality management and resource management, patient safety initiatives, public health services and outcome measurement. | + | 26 (37) |
| 25 | Basic informatics terminology like data, information, knowledge, hardware, software, computer, networks, information systems and information systems management. | + | 0 (0) |
| 26 | Basic IT skills: ability to use personal computers, text processing and spread sheet software and easy-to-use database management systems and ability to communicate electronically, including electronic data exchange, with other healthcare professionals, and internet/intranet use. | ++ | 53 (75) |
| 27 | Methods of practical informatics/computer science, especially on programming languages, software engineering, data structures, database management systems, information and system modelling tools, information systems theory and practice, knowledge engineering, (concept) representation and acquisition, and software architectures. | +++ | 0 (0) |
| 28 | Methods of theoretical informatics/computer science, for example, complexity theory and encryption/security. | +++ | 0 (0) |
| 29 | Methods of technical informatics/computer science, for example, network architectures and topologies, telecommunications, wireless technology, virtual reality and multimedia. | +++ | 1 (1) |
| 30 | Methods of interfacing and integration of information system components in healthcare, interfacing standards and dealing with multiple patient identifiers. | +++ | 0 (0) |
| 31 | Handling of the information system life cycle: analysis, requirement specification, implementation and/or selection of information systems, risk management and user training. | + | 4 (6) |
| 32 | Methods of project management and change management (ie, project planning, resource management, team management, conflict management, collaboration and motivation, change theories and change strategies). | + | 0 (0) |
| 33 | Mathematics: algebra, analysis, logic, numerical mathematics, probability theory and statistics, and cryptography. | +++ | 0 (0) |
| 34 | Biometry, epidemiology and health research methods, including study design. | +++ | 0 (0) |
| 35 | Methods for decision support and their application to patient management, acquisition, representation and engineering of medical knowledge; construction and use of clinical pathways and guidelines. | + | 2 (3) |
| 36 | Basic concepts and applications of ubiquitous computing (eg, pervasive, sensor-based and ambient technologies in healthcare, health-enabling technologies, ubiquitous health systems and ambient assisted living). | +++ | 2 (3) |
| 37 | Usability engineering, human–computer interaction, usability evaluation and cognitive aspects of information. | +++ | 0 (0) |
| 38 | Biomedical imaging and signal processing. | +++ | 5 (7) |
| 39 | Clinical/medical bioinformatics and computational biology. | +++ | 0 (0) |
| 40 | Health-enabling technologies, ubiquitous health systems and ambient assisted living. | +++ | 2 (3) |
| 41 | Health information sciences. | +++ | 0 (0) |
| 42 | Medical chemoinformatics. | +++ | 0 (0) |
| 43 | Medical nanoinformatics. | +++ | 0 (0) |
| 44 | Medical robotics (including AI/expert systems). | +++ | 0 (0) |
| 45 | Public health informatics. | +++ | 0 (0) |
| 46 | International developments.53 | ++ | 0 (0) |
| 47 | Medical Physics51 | +++ | 0 (0) |
| 48 | Informatics teaching.73 | +++ | 7 (10) |
| 49 | ‘Employ new technologies appropriately, including information technology’ (in all General Surgery Curricula). | + | 42 (59) |
| 50 | Proactive approach to new technology (in Clinical Radiology Curriculum). | + | 25 (35) |
Skill levels:
Introductory (+) competencies for novices in BMHI.
Intermediate (++) competencies for proficient learners in BMHI.
Advanced (+++) competencies for specialist knowledge in BMHI.
BMHI, Biomedical Health Informatics.