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Program Leadership:
Raman Khanna, MD, MAS, Program Director
Leo Liu, MD, Assoc. Program Director (Education), Site Director UCSF Stanyan
Shobha Sadasivaiah, MD, Assoc. Program Director (Recruitment), Site Director SF General
Julia Adler-Milstein, PhD, Chief, Division of Clinical Informatics & Digital Transformation
Mary Whooley, MD, Site Director, SF VA
Sara Murray, MD, Site Director, UCSF Health (Adult)
David Robinowitz, MD, MHS, MS, Site Director, UCSF Health (Pediatrics)
Administrative Staff:
Jennifer Lee, Program Manager
Address:
UCSF Clinical Informatics Fellowship
School of Medicine
University of California, San Francisco
Campus Box 0131
10 Koret Way, Office K319
San Francisco, CA 94143-0131
Phone:
415.476.4806
Email:
jennifer.lee3@ucsf.edu or raman.khanna@ucsf.edu
Program Description
Summary
The UCSF Clinical Informatics Fellowship is a two-year ACGME-accredited program designed to train physicians to become leaders in clinical informatics. The fellowship prepares graduates to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and equity of healthcare through the effective design, implementation, and evaluation of health information systems.
Fellows gain hands-on experience working with UCSF Health and affiliated partners, engaging in enterprise-level informatics initiatives that span inpatient, ambulatory, population health, and digital innovation domains.
Program Aims
- Develop expertise in the application of informatics principles to clinical care delivery.
- Lead and evaluate health information technology initiatives across complex healthcare systems.
- Advance data-driven quality improvement, patient safety, and health equity.
- Prepare fellows for board certification in Clinical Informatics.
The fellowship combines experiential learning with formal didactics and scholarly work. Core curricular elements include:
- Clinical Decision Support
- Electronic Health Record (EHR) Optimization and Governance
- Data Analytics and Clinical Data Science
- Quality Improvement and Patient Safety
- Digital Health and Innovation
- Health Information Exchange and Interoperability
- Leadership and Change Management
Fellows complete a mentored scholarly project and are encouraged to present their work at national meetings and publish in peer-reviewed journals.
Eligibility
Per ACGME policy, all prerequisite post-graduate clinical education required for initial entry or transfer into ACGME-accredited programs must be completed in ACGME-accredited residency programs, or in Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC)-accredited or College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC)-accredited residency programs located in Canada and be eligible for a California medical license. The UCSF Clinical Informatics Fellowship is not able to sponsor H1-B visas for clinical fellowship training.
Duration and Appointment
The fellowship is a two-year full-time program.
Application Process
Applications are submitted through ERAS. Applicants must submit a completed application, curriculum vitae, personal statement, and letters of recommendation in accordance with AMIA and ACGME requirements. The program participates in American Medical Informatics Association Match Program (AMIA).
Accreditation
The Clinical Informatics Fellowship is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). For more information regarding our accreditation, please contact raman.khanna@ucsf.edu.
First year of fellowship
The first year of fellowship is more structured, by design. UCSF provides a baseline level of knowledge, experience, and skills to all 1st year fellows to set them up for success during the rest of their fellowship. Required activities during the 1st year:
- Participate in Weekly UCSF didactics
- Take Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics courses in Clinical Informatics
- Complete Epic training specifically designed for CI fellows
- Complete Epic SQL training, get access to Clarity database, write at least 1 query
- Obtain access to deidentified clinical data through the information commons
- Attend Monthly UCSF Health Informatics Grand Rounds (HIGR)
- Participate in National Clinical Informatics lectures
- Attend UCSF informatics governance meetings related to the EHR, APIs, security, etc.
- Organize the Bay Area Medical Informatics Symposium (with Stanford)
- At minimum, meet monthly with an assigned mentor for project/career guidance (rotates q3 months)
- Triage IT tickets/Best Practice Alerts/Ordersets
- Obtain Lean training
The above requirements are only part of a fellow's learning experience, most of which is experiential and project-based. Fellows find projects in a variety of ways, including:
- Personal areas of interests
- Division/Department/Health system needs
- Ongoing projects/research with faculty members
- Attending informatics related governance meetings such as the APeX Clinical Content Committee
- Taking over/expanding upon previous fellow projects
- National networking through BAMIS, ACIF, AMIA, and AMDIS organizations
- Collaborating with outsides groups such as incubators at Berkeley, and Data Science Students at the University of San Francisco
- Assessing emerging technologies
The first three months of fellowship tend to have more coursework and classes and networking with our world class informatics faculty and begin projects; time to develop and complete projects that align with their career interests and goals follows soon thereafter.
Second year of fellowship
By the 2nd year of fellowship, our fellows will have developed a strong foundation and skillset in clinical informatics, with focused interests. Many required activities from the 1st year become optional in the 2nd year, allowing more time to focus on the completion of major projects and skill development, networking, and job hunting. In addition, fellows in the 2nd year are responsible for coordinating Health Informatics Grand Rounds—an excellent opportunity to learn and network in addition to promoting and enriching the UCSF Health Informatics experience.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the core requirements for the fellowship in terms of coursework, didactics, clinical responsibilities, etc?
Fellows are required to attend weekly didactics, journal club, grand rounds and other similar meetings. Fellows do a maximum of 20% clinical time, and when board eligible/board certified and approved by their departments, can practice medicine independently, i.e., as attendings. While the fellowship will help with introducing fellows to the different groups and faculty they may be interested in working with, it is up to the fellows to connect with the faculty to request work on specific projects tied usually related to their clinical specialty. The majority of training takes place in year 1 with year 2 of the fellowship focusing on projects.
Are there any daily or weekly responsibilities (clinical or administrative or other) for the fellows?
Fellows are expected to manage their clinical, didactic, and project time with help available from CIF faculty if needed. On a quarterly basis, they will check in with fellowship leadership to see what their progress is. Please see the Milestones for Clinical Informatics fellowships. The typical day will depend heavily on what projects you decide to work on.
Is there an opportunity to take supplemental coursework?
Fellows often do decide to take supplemental coursework, either at UCSF or online. The fellowship covers the cost of TICR courses and has a limited discretionary fund that fellows can use with approval for other courses.