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Informatics Careers Take Shape

Medical informatics -- a broad term encompassing a wide swath of careers, from mining genetics databases for disease clues to maintaining electronic patient records in a clinic. Between those two extremes of basic and applied knowledge lie two nascent, rapidly expanding subfields: translational research informatics and clinical research informatics. The former involves helping to move new tests and treatments from the lab to the clinic and the latter focuses on improving information flow during clinical studies.

Translational and clinical research informatics "are just solidifying as fields, and there's a lot of work out there to be done, a lot of opportunities." Peter Embi, University of Cincinnati said. Already, some 40to50 master's degree and Ph.D.-level medical informatics programs operate in the United States, says William Hersh, chair of the Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology at OregonHealth & Science University in Portland. The aims, goals, and structures of the graduate programs vary widely, but Hersh says all emphasize bridging information technology and medicine.

There is no traditional training path into medical informatics, notes Eric Perakslis, vice president for research and development informatics at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development L.L.C. in Titusville, New Jersey. In fact, if you talk to 10 people in medical informatics, you'll probably hear 10 different stories about how they got there. Physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and computer engineers all find their way into the field.

Informatics nurses are involved in a wide variety of job responsibilities relating to IT. Nearly all play a significant role in user education, system implementation, user support, workforce analysis and gaining buy in from end users.

At academic medical centers, research informatics offices often operate in a service role, says Atul Butte of Stanford. Clinical departments and study investigators act as the customers. "Everyone [doing research] needs help organizing and analyzing data," he says. But for individuals who specialize in translational research informatics, like he does, Butte also sees expanding opportunities "to step out of the service role into a more scientific role."

Given the huge quantities of genomic and proteomics data now being collected by research hospitals, professionals skilled in sifting that data for important signals can generate new knowledge of their own.

Knowledge of biostatistics, database operation, and computer programming are also important skills, Butte and others say. Butte notes that for a career in translational research informatics, knowledge of genetics and proteomics is just as important as the computer skills, especially as data-management software matures and becomes standardized.

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Source: Science Magazine, Brian Vastag, 1/22/10