The need for a skills-focussed applied healthcare informatics curriculum

Experience with Information Systems (IS) staff, interactions with healthcare senior management, and discussions with faculty and students have led us to the conclusions that few healthcare organizations have conceptualized and articulated an optimal organizational role for IS (particularly for IS leadership). In this paper we will describe the multi-polar, often conflicting "expectations" faced by many of today's healthcare IS departments, and define a set of useful and sustainable institutional model roles for IS. Then, we will formulate the set of challenges which IS professionals in these roles must be prepared to address. We will use this to propose a challenge-oriented, skills-based, methodology-focussed curriculum in Applied Healthcare Informatics, and delivery mechanisms that suit potential candidates.