Special Issue on Informatics Education: The need for expanded educational opportunities in clinical informatics for pediatric trainees

Pediatric healthcare has nuances not encountered in the delivery of adult medicine. In order to support these unique pediatric workflows, pediatric healthcare providers need to be involved in the development of pediatric focused health information systems. Unfortunately, not enough pediatrics are training in clinical informatics with only 31 clinical informatics fellows listing pediatrics as their primary specialty between 2016-2024. This is leading to a void in practicing pediatric clinical informaticists which is supported by the fact that only 320 clinical informaticists in the United States are pediatricians. Increased focus on cultivating the next generation of pediatric clinical informaticists is required. Contributing factors to the low attrition of pediatricians into clinical informatics training include the lack of clinical informatics specific content on the American Board of Pediatrics exam, and the small number of pediatric specific clinical informatics fellowship programs. Collaborative approaches are needed to ensure that enough pediatricians are trained in clinical informatics by 1) increasing trainee awareness of and interest in clinical informatics, 2) increasing pediatric trainees’ knowledge of core clinical informatics concepts and 3) supporting the careers of future pediatric informaticists.

Publication History

Received: 12 March 2024

Accepted after revision: 06 June 2024

Accepted Manuscript online:
07 June 2024