A three-year extension to the Practice Pathway of board certification eligibility for the clinical informatics (CI) subspecialty has been approved by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) for the American Board of Preventive Medicine (ABPM). This is the second extension of the so-called “grandfathering” pathway that allows physicians with a primary boarded specialty to achieve CI board eligibility without formal fellowship training through 2025. This means that physicians who aim to become board-certified in CI will be able to qualify to sit for the board examination by time working in the field or completing “non-traditional” training, the latter of which may consist of a master’s degree from universities with programs approved by the ABPM. This includes our online Master of Science (MS) in Health & Clinical Informatics at Oregon Health & Science University.

Our MS program can be an excellent way to acquire the knowledge and skills for CI practice, especially when an internship or capstone project is pursued that provides experience in real-world CI projects and complements online coursework. The program has a process to pursue and obtain credit for such internship or capstone projects, including in remote settings. For more information about the program and applying, visit our Web site or contact our Admissions Coordinator.

OHSU also offers an ACGME-accredited Clinical Informatics Fellowship that leads to board eligibility as well, which also includes the option of obtaining an MS degree.

Finally, we note that the OHSU Biomedical Informatics Graduate Program is open to all students who are eligible for graduate study (i.e., have a baccalaureate degree), and not only physicians. Our students come from many different backgrounds and our 800+ alumni work in many different careers in healthcare systems, industry, research institutes, government, and more.