An interesting idea. For me, the real question is “Is this sort of approach, which harks back to the guilds of old, really something that will work well in the 21st century?”
I’d suggest that establishing this sort of ontological structure might usefully be contrasted with a flattening of the hierarchy. There’s quite a diverse ‘surface’ that needs to be covered, and people may have exceptional skills in some areas that don’t stack up into the traditional structure you’ve sketched. So #1 is a big ‘If’, which makes #2 and #3 moot.
I think if we’re to be inflexible in the face of the change that’s happening, we run the risk of making ourselves obsolete quite quickly.
Jo, I agree with you that the traditional hierarchy doesn’t work for clinician informaticians (or, more broadly, digital health specialists). A matrix or network won’t work either because there are too many relationships.
Australia has taken the approach of designing personas, which is the current way of thinking about roles and relationships. I don’t think it works because, as you say, of the diversity in these roles.
If we start with the nature of the work, we might be onto something. For example, if a person belongs to a clinical profession and does informatics work (separate from everyday digital work that is part of their professional practice), their overall work is hybrid. If a person doesn’t belong to a clinical profession, e.g., is a bioengineer, and does informatics work in a clinical context, their work is also hybrid. If a person does only informatics work in a clinical context, can they be called a clinical informatician?
Therein lies the rub - are we creating a career pathway determined by roles or by the work that people do? Do we need to use Bayesian logic to depict careers in clinical informatics?
Great points Karen. I think going back to fundamentals is useful here; what is the specific work that is done by clinical informaticians currently? How does effectiveness differ between those with a broader skillset/ experience? What are the specific skills and experiences that make individuals more effective at certain pieces of clinical informatics work? I think the answer to the various capabilities required for different tiers of informatics roles lies within those answers, as well as considering work that is not/ cannot be done currently due to a skills/ capability gap (and the things that would bridge this gap).