Educating clinicians about health informatics and digital health

The Australasian College of Health Informatics aims to provide advice to educators who want to incorporate health informatics and digital health learning into degrees for future and current clinical health professionals.

ACHI encourages evidence-based educational reforms of this kind, especially in professions where clinical Boards work within the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency or under the New Zealand Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act to accredit educational programs and providers.

The information on this page has been compiled by ACHI’s Education Committee, as a starting point for teaching staff development, design of curriculum and assessment, and preparing degree (re)accreditation standards and documentation.

Notably, the Certified Health Informatician Australasia Health Informatics Competencies Framework (2013) has been developed by ACHI, the Health Informatics Society of Australia and the Health Information Management Association of Australia. A revised and updated version is scheduled to be released in 2019 and will be linked here when available. http://www.healthinformaticscertification.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/CHIA-competencies-Framework_FINAL.pdf

Other resources that itemise capabilities, competencies and curriculum are listed below. This is a selective list of reputable sources published since 2015. It includes work done internationally, for interprofessional learning or specific health professions.  This list is current at July 2019.

ACHI listing does not imply endorsement of any particular resource, or assurance of its suitability for any particular educational program.


Association of Public Health Laboratories. (2017). strengthening informatics competencies in the laboratory workforce. https://www.aphl.org/conferences/proceedings/Documents/2017/Annual-Meeting/51Informatics%20Curriculum%20combined.pdf

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation. (2015). Informatics Standards for Nurses and Midwives. http://anmf.org.au/documents/National_Informatics_Standards_For_Nurses_And_Midwives.pdf

Brunner, M., McGregor, D., Keep, M., Janssen, A., Spallek, H., Quinn, D., … & Solman, A. (2018). An ehealth capabilities framework for graduates and health professionals: mixed-methods study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 20(5), e10229. https://www.jmir.org/2018/5/e10229/

Digital Health Canada. (n.d.). Learning objectives and the core health informatics education modules. https://digitalhealthcanada.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/DigitalHealthCanada-Education-Modules-Learning-Objectives.pdf

EU-US eHealth Collaboration Workforce Development Workgroup. (2015). Health Information Technology COMPetencies HITCOMP. http://hitcomp.org/introduction/

Gauthier, C., Bastianutti, J., & Haggège, M. (2018). Managerial capabilities to address digital business models: the case of digital health. Strategic Change, 27(2), 173-180.

Hilty, D. M., Maheu, M. M., Drude, K. P., Hertlein, K. M., Wall, K., Long, R. P., & Luoma, T. L. (2017). Telebehavioral health, telemental health, e-therapy and e-health competencies: the need for an interprofessional framework. Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science, 2(3-4), 171-189.

Hübner, U., Shaw, T., Thye, J., Egbert, N., Marin, H. F., & Ball, M. J. (2016). Towards an international framework for recommendations of core competencies in nursing and inter-professional informatics: The TIGER Competency Synthesis Project. In Medical Informatics Europe (pp. 655-659). https://www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/pdf/10.3414/ME17-01-0155.pdf

Jidkov, L., Alexander, M., Bark, P., Williams, J. G., Kay, J., Taylor, P., … & Banerjee, A. (2019). Health informatics competencies in postgraduate medical education and training in the UK: a mixed methods study. BMJ Open, 9(3), e025460. https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/3/e025460

Li, S., Bamidis, P. D., Konstantinidis, S. T., Traver, V., Car, J., & Zary, N. (2019). Setting priorities for EU healthcare workforce IT skills competence improvement. Health Informatics Journal, 25(1), 174-185.

McGregor, D., Rohne, I., Solman, A., Shaw, T., Yeung, W., Jones, A., … & Linehan, T. (2018). Curriculum resource co-design and development for a digital health workforce and digital health ready graduates. Health Education in Practice: Journal of Research for Professional Learning, 1(2). https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/HEP/article/view/13054/11925

Martin, L. G., Warholak, T. L., Hincapie, A. L., Gallo, T., Kjos, A. L., & Task Force on Informatics, A. J. (2019). Health informatics competencies for pharmacists in training. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 83(2), 6512.  https://www.ajpe.org/doi/pdf/10.5688/ajpe6512

Morrison, C., & Rooney, L. (2017). Digital Skills for Health Professionals. Scotland Digital Health & Care Institute. https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/64302/1/Morrison_Rooney_DHCI2017_Digital_Skills_for_Health_Professionals.pdf  

Pontefract, S. K., & Wilson, K. (2019). Using electronic patient records: defining learning outcomes for undergraduate education. BMC medical education, 19(1), 30.

Public Health Informatics Institute. (2016). Applied Public Health Informatics Competency Model. https://www.phii.org/sites/default/files/resource/pdfs/Applied%20Public%20Health%20Informatics%20Competency%20Model.pdf

Thye, J., Shaw, T., Hüsers, J., Esdar, M., Ball, M., Babitsch, B., & Hübner, U. (2018). What are inter-professional ehealth competencies?. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 253, 201-205. http://ebooks.iospress.nl/publication/50056

UK National Health Service. (2019) The Topol Review: Preparing the healthcare workforce to deliver the digital future.  https://topol.hee.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/HEE-Topol-Review-2019.pdf

Valenta, A. L., Berner, E. S., Boren, S. A., Deckard, G. J., Eldredge, C., Fridsma, D. B., … & Manos, E. L. (2018). AMIA Board White Paper: AMIA 2017 core competencies for applied health informatics education at the master’s degree level. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 25(12), 1657-1668.https://academic.oup.com/jamia/article/25/12/1657/5145365

Valenta, A. L., Meagher, E. A., Tachinardi, U., & Starren, J. (2016). Core informatics competencies for clinical and translational scientists: what do our customers and collaborators need to know?. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 23(4), 835-839. https://academic.oup.com/jamia/article/23/4/835/2201104

Wholey, D. R., LaVenture, M., Rajamani, S., Kreiger, R., Hedberg, C., & Kenyon, C. (2018). Developing workforce capacity in public health informatics: core competencies and curriculum design. Frontiers in Public Health, 6, 124. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2018.00124/full


To suggested additions to this list, or to make further enquiries about the work of ACHI’s Education Committee, please email Secretary@achi.org.au.