Creating a National Digital Health Clinical Informatics Fellowship Program: A Pathway to the Future

Start Date

29 March 2022

End Date

18 December 2023

Project Participants

Tags: clinical informatics, digital transformation, education and training, health system, health system infrastructure, interoperability, professional development, workforce

Opportunity

As health systems become increasingly digital and data-driven, Australia needs clinicians who can bridge clinical practice, information, technology and healthcare transformation. Yet there was no way for clinicians to enroll in a program that allows them to prospectively work towards a nationally recognised fellowship, similar to other clinical specialties.

This project aimed to fill that gap and lay the foundations for a nationally recognised Clinical Informatics Fellowship, a pathway through which clinicians could build, demonstrate and receive professional recognition to become an accredited expert in digital health.

Project Objectives

The project aimed to establish the foundations for clinical informatics to become an acknowledged and recognised profession in Australia and to foster a large, diverse and well-connected workforce of clinical informaticians capable of leading digital transformation across health and care.

The project sought to:

explore opportunities for a national Clinical Informatics Fellowship
review national and international digital health education and clinical informatics pathways
undertake broad stakeholder consultation
develop a draft Fellowship model and high-level curriculum
establish an implementation, governance and operationalisation approach.

The ultimate goal of this program was to create a national program for a clinical fellowship with the Australian Institute of Digital Health (AIDH).

Publications

End-user PublicationPublished 21st March 2024Clinical Informatics Fellowship Program Build Phase 1: Stakeholder Engagement Report
Full Publication

Final Outcomes

The project produced the intended evidence base, including reviews of national and international digital health tertiary offerings and applied clinical informatics education,

Extensive consultation and participatory design brought together clinicians, healthcare leaders, universities, professional associations, regulators and international clinical informatics experts to define an evidence-based fellowship pathway that would be rigorous, practice-focused, accessible across disciplines and aligned with nationally recognised health informatics competencies.

The project delivered a co-designed Fellowship model and implementation approach, comprising formal education, mentoring, industry engagement, practice-based project work, and a final assessment.

Further work was identified around sustainability, higher education recognition, continuing professional development (CPD), and the relationship with existing AIDH Fellowship pathways.

Impact and Benefits

The project culminated in the creation of a credible foundation for professionalising Australia’s clinical informatics workforce. It established a shared vision, competency basis and practical pathway for developing clinicians who can combine clinical knowledge with digital health, data, leadership and transformation capabilities.

That foundation has subsequently moved toward implementation with the announcement in April 2026 that the Clinical Informatics Fellowship will move from concept to reality in 2027 with AIDH, supported by Australian Government funding.

Find out more about the Clinical Informatics Fellowship – AIDH

For Australia’s health system, the long term benefit will be a pipeline of clinicians able to help ensure that investments in digital health technology are clinically informed, safely implemented and translated into better health and care.