The UNC Hospitals Clinical Informatics Subspecialty Fellowship Program received accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) in April 2019 and will welcome its 2nd class of incoming fellows this July. The program will host a virtual information session for residents, fellows, faculty, and medical students who are interested in the subspecialty on May 18th at 7 PM. Those who are interested may register here.
Clinical informatics became formally recognized as a medical subspecialty in 2011 with its first diplomates granted in 2013. Physician informaticians collaborate with health and information technology professionals to analyze, design, implement, and evaluate information and communications systems that enhance individual and population health outcomes, improve equitable and patient-centered care and patient safety, and strengthen the clinician-patient relationship. Drs. Arlene Chung (Internal Medicine and Pediatrics), Donald Spencer (Family Medicine), and Carlton Moore (Internal Medicine) were among the first in the nation to become certified in the new specialty.
Physicians, who are board-eligible or certified in their primary medical specialty (i.e., internal medicine specialties, pediatric specialties, family medicine, emergency medicine, etc.), can become certified in the medical subspecialty of Clinical Informatics through the American Board of Preventative Medicine through the completion of the two-year ACGME-accredited fellowship program.
The UNC Hospitals Clinical Informatics Subspecialty Fellowship Program will be accepting two fellows each application cycle. Each fellow serves as an Assistant Lead Informatics Physician at UNC Health, and are embedded within the award-winning, internationally renowned Information Services Division (ISD) while maintaining an active clinical practice in their primary medical specialty as a Clinical Instructor in the UNC School of Medicine. Applications will be accepted via ERAS beginning July 5th for a start date of July 1, 2022.
Arlene E. Chung, MD, MHA, MMCi, FAMIA, Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, serves as the founding fellowship director and led the program through initial accreditation with commendation from the ACGME. Dr. Chung also serves as the Associate Director of the Program on Health & Clinical Informatics at the UNC School of Medicine, the Medical Informatics Director of Digital Health Innovation and Patient Engagement for UNC Health, and Medical Director of Population Health Informatics at UNC Health Alliance.
Program leadership also includes Associate Program Directors: Drs. Donald Spencer, Carlton Moore, and Kimberly Shoenbill. Dr. Carl Seashore (Pediatrics) and Drs. Spencer, Moore, Shoenbill, and Chung are core faculty for the program. For additional information about the program, contact Dr. Chung at cifellowship@med.unc.edu.