CCF Reports

Clinical Informatics is the application of data and information technology to improve patient and population health, care and wellbeing outcomes and to advance treatment and the delivery of personalised, coordinated support from health and social care.

A clinical informatician uses their clinical knowledge and experience of informatics concepts, methods and tools to promote patient and population care that is person-centred, ethical, safe, effective, efficient, timely, and equitable. 

You can download the protocol and report for the Core Competency Framework setting out the workings and detailed findings below:

The vast scope and range of activities covered by clinical informatics sometimes makes it hard to provide a short and pithy description of what the Faculty of Clinical Informatics (FCI) does and who we are. 

The Core Competencies Project (CCP) addresses this by identifying the core competencies for an individual to be recognised as a professional clinical informatician. 

The Faculty of Clinical Informatics has been supported in this work by Health Education England’s Digital Readiness (DR) programme and by Prof. Georgina Moulton at the University of Manchester. 

The Core Competency Framework (CCF) describes the knowledge and skills-based competencies for all Clinical Informaticians (CIs) across health and social care.  

The Framework will be used in a wide range of professional and educational activities to:

• Develop accredited courses and qualifications to meet the needs of CIs at all stages of their careers.
• Enable health and care professionals to identify the knowledge and skills they need to become and develop as CIs.
• Enable employers to develop job descriptions and person specifications for appointments to CI roles across health and social care.
• Support professional appraisal and revalidation.
• Develop a standardised approach to the specialism of CI at undergraduate and postgraduate level consistent with national and international standards.

“Congratulations to everyone who has helped the project to reach this important milestone: our academic collaborators, our funders and supporters at Health Education England, the Faculty team and everyone who completed the surveys. Now we can start using the Framework to support and develop clinical informaticians throughout their careers, and reap the benefits in better care for patients.”

Professor Jonathan Kay
 

“We welcome the publication of this important competency framework, which allows us to define the clinical informatics profession and establishes the requirements for entry to the profession and continuing professional development.  We look forward to continuing work with the Faculty to embed these standards, develop the profession and ultimately, enhance care for patients and service users.”

Patrick Mitchell, Director of Innovation and Transformation, Health Education England

Core Competencies Project - Phase 1

Phase 1 of the CCP was undertaken directly by the FCI project team and was presented as three linked reports.

Please download the final summary report or the detailed reports from Phase 1 via the links below:

1. Discovery stage: Develop and define the professional attributes of a clinical informatician – final report (v1.1) [Report A]

2. Validation stage: Phase 1 Report - Validation Study and draft Output Competences for a Clinical Informatician (v1.1) [Report B]

3. Consultation stage: Phase 1 Report – Consultation Exercise and Output Competences for a Clinical Informatician (v1.1) [Report C]