A Survey of Academic and Industry Professionals Regarding the Preferred Skillset of Graduates of Medical Informatics Programs

Abstract

Identification of the skills needed by graduates of medical informatics masters degree programs is needed so that students will know what is desired in the workplace and curriculum designers can assure that courses cover relevant areas. We conducted a mail survey of representatives of the informatics job market to discover what they think is most important. A survey instrument was designed after analyses of job ads and curricula in the U.S. and interviews with representative employers. The survey was mailed to 1000 randomly selected members of AMIA and HIMMS plus EMR vendors. Respondents were asked to rank skills and groups of skills according to perceived utility. The results indicate higher rankings for organizational and interpersonal skills than for more technical credentials. Statistical analysis indicates the existence of relatively few underlying constructs to the skill list.