Engaging Housestaff as Informatics Collaborators: Educational and Operational Opportunities

Area of Science:

• Medical Informatics
• Healthcare Management
• Graduate Medical Education

Background:

• Housestaff (interns, residents, fellows) are key users of clinical IT systems in academic hospitals.
• Currently, housestaff are often passive recipients of IT changes, not active partners in system improvement.
• Formal initiatives to involve and educate housestaff in health IT are limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish a sustainable forum for housestaff engagement in hospital informatics initiatives.
• To create professional development opportunities for housestaff in clinical informatics.
• To foster active housestaff participation in improving healthcare IT systems.

Main Methods:

• A housestaff-led IT council was established within an academic medical center.
• The council was integrated with existing informatics and graduate medical education leadership.
• It served as a venue for hands-on clinical informatics education across specialties.

Main Results:

• The council recruited 50 members and 5 co-chairs in its first year.
• Over 15 projects were completed, improving clinical systems for over 1,300 housestaff.
• Council leadership influenced hospital governance and became a key resource for housestaff IT input.

Conclusions:

• The council model successfully engaged housestaff as learners, champions, and collaborators in informatics.
• This initiative positively impacted both housestaff members and the academic medical center.
• The low-resource model is highly replicable at other institutions for improved health IT engagement.