Landscape of the Health Informatics Workforce: Rapid Response Brief


  • Abstract

    Health informatics is an interdisciplinary field mixing science, innovation, and application. The ever-burgeoning health informatics field creates the need for a workforce distributed across multiple settings that can address the breadth of health information technology (HIT) functions and system interfaces while also keeping up with increasing demand for better integration and improvement of healthcare. However, the boundaries and areas of emphasis for this field are not always clear and frequently change, which creates ambiguity in defining a health informatics workforce. The workforce consists of a collection of professions and roles involved with health informatics at varying levels of administrative responsibility, patient service, and technology focus.

    Using a framework identifying five subdomains of the health informatics workforce, this brief focuses on the clinical informatics and public health, population health and social service informatics subdomains. In addition to shared fundamental knowledge, basic skills, and a core vocabulary related to health informatics, most roles and job titles in the health informatics workforce can be associated with specific learning needs and educational requirements. Multiple pathways to careers in health informatics exist, ranging from continuing education opportunities to targeted education programs typically at the master’s degree level.


  • Authors:

    LeRouge C, Shahir S, Frogner BK

  • Journal/Publisher:

    Center for Health Workforce Studies, University of Washington

  • Edition:

    Apr 2023.

  • Documents:

    Rapid Response Brief

  • Citation:

    Lerouge C, Shahir S, Frogner BK.Landscape of the Health Informatics Workforce: Rapid Response Brief . Center for Health Workforce Studies, University of Washington. April 25, 2923