Creation of a core competency framework for clinical informatics: From genesis to maintaining relevance.

Abstract

The United Kingdom's Faculty of Clinical Informatics (FCI) embarked on the creation of a core competency framework in response to the need to provide support to those working in clinical and health and social care that also hold informatics roles. The work spanned several phases and utilised a mixed-methods approach consisting of interviews, surveys, job listing analysis, expert discussions and a systematic literature review. The work presented here explores the lessons learnt from the process of creating the framework and the next steps for ensuring its use and continued relevance. A core competency framework was generated with six domains, 36 sub-domains and 111 individual competency statements. A discussion and eight key recommendations are presented based on the development of this framework. Definition of the target audience is important to manage scope and define purpose. The use of robust reproducible methods helps to establish a strong evidence base. Competency frameworks should be living documents, ideally presented in an accessible digital form to enable easy use and embedding in other tools (e.g. for accreditation or to search competencies).