CHICAGO, February 9 -- Without IT literate clinicians and well trained existing health information specialists, the goal of an improved, interconnected healthcare system may never be met, according to a report released today by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA).

"Currently there is no systematic plan for training the members of the healthcare work force to use IT tools to do their jobs," states Linda Kloss, MA, RHIA, CEO of AHIMA. "Without a work force trained to implement and use technology, such implementations will fail or could even cause harm."

The report, Building the Work Force for Health Information Transformation, outlines a national action agenda to address work force challenges related to electronic health records (EHR) and the nationwide health information infrastructure. The report also contains targeted recommendations to healthcare employers, employees, vendors, government, and professional organizations for preparing the existing health work force to use technology tools and to ensure a sufficient number of well-qualified health information specialists to achieve effective health IT transformation.
Specific recommendations in the report include:
-Federal support for health IT adoption and training and legislation to increase funding for education programs, student recruitment, and faculty training.
-Leadership from employers and health IT vendors for on-the-job training and support for health care workers through incentives and competency-based cost-effective training strategies.
-Development of standardized applied clinical informatics competencies to be embedded in academic curricula and continuing education requirements for all health professions.

"Working together we can educate applied clinical and health informaticians and other needed information specialists, and also support relevant education of patients and the public," said Don E. Detmer, MD, MA, President and CEO of AMIA. "This education agenda is a crucial component of transforming healthcare into a more equitable, safe, effective, timely, patient-centered, and efficient system."

The report is the result of the first-ever Work Force for Health Information Transformation: A Strategy Summit held in Washington, DC this past November which brought together public and private stakeholders from academia, professional associations, provider organizations, business and government. The summit and publication of the report were co-sponsored by AHIMA and AMIA and supported in part by a grant to the Foundation of Research and Education (FORE) of AHIMA from Siemens Medical Solutions, USA Inc.

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