Is there a Health Informatics Career Structure?

As a relatively new professional discipline HI is not yet formally recognised. Consequently a HI career structure is yet to be developed. Once a HI workforce is characterised it will be easier to identify education and training needed to most effectively implement health information technologies (eHealth). This is a prerequisite to the documentation of a well defined set of competencies, certification of fitness to practice, shared professional identity, life long commitment and a code of ethics. The International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) has adopted such a code. Work is underway nationally and  internationally to document an agreed set of Health Informatics competencies.

The Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZCO) [1] does not recognise Health Informaticians as an occupational group. Coding Clerks and Health Inormation Managers are identified.

The concept of occupation’ is based on the concepts of ‘skill level’ and ‘skill specialisation’. An ‘occupation’ is defined by ANZCO as ‘a set of jobs that require the performance of similar or identical sets of tasks’. The similarity of tasks is defined in ANZCO as ‘a function of the level and specialization of skill required to perform those tasks. Skill is defined as the ability to competently perform the tasks associated with an occupation’.