About the Fellowship
The Clinical Informatics Fellowship at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is an ACGME-accredited program that consists of 24 months of clinical informatics training across a variety of clinical disciplines and care environments. The fellowship is hosted by the Department of Pediatrics and administered by the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and fellows will spend up to 20% of their time in their primary specialties in order to maintain their clinical skills.
Fellows will be exposed to a variety of inpatient, outpatient, and diagnostic (radiology and pathology) medical specialties. Additionally, they will interact with key non-clinician members of the health care enterprise, especially within the areas of pharmacy and information systems/data security. Through these experiences, the fellows will gain a knowledge of the landscape of health care systems and an appreciation of how these entities interact in order to impact health care outcomes.
During the second year of training, fellows will complete a scholarly project that applies their skills and potentially serves as a starting point for future work. Upon successful completion of the fellowship program, fellows will be eligible for Board certification in clinical informatics offered by the American Board of Preventive Medicine. We are currently recruiting prospective fellows to begin training in July 2025.
Program Fast Facts
- ACGME Accredited: Yes
- 2 fellows accepted each year
- Duration: 24 months
- Postgraduate training required: Completion of a primary residency program
- Must be eligible for California medical license
- Citizenship: U.S. Citizens, Permanent Residents, or Visa Eligible
- Salary Minimums for 2023-2024:
- Post Graduate Year 4: $78,531
- Post Graduate Year 5: $81,677
- Post Graduate Year 6: $84,712
- Post Graduate Year 7: $87,652
- Post Graduate Year 8: $90,592
- Post Graduate Year 9+: Please contact gme@chla.usc.edu
- Benefits Include: Health, vision, dental and life insurance, 14 weekdays of paid vacation + 6 protected personal days, yearly educational stipend, monthly meal stipend, 401(k) matching up to 3%, and annual housing stipend.
How to Apply
The Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Clinical Informatics Fellowship Program accepts applications via the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) and participates in the AMIA Clinical Informatics Fellowship Match. CHLA’s clinical informatics fellowship welcomes applicants from all specialties. If you are interested in applying, please submit your application through ERAS.
Application requirements include:
- ERAS application submitted
- Curriculum Vitae
- Three letters of recommendation (program director letter preferred plus 2 additional letters)
Personal statement related to clinical informatics including research/career goals and how clinical informatics will enhance your opportunities in your chosen field - Medical school transcript
- ECFMG Certification if graduated from a medical school outside the U.S. and Canada
- Medical Student Performance Evaluation (Dean’s Letter)
- USMLE Scores (Steps 1, 2, 3) or COMPLEX (DO equivalent)
Training Overview
Individualized Learning Plan
The fellows will develop an individualized learning plan with 2-3 goals that will be reviewed with the program director every 6 months. Fellows will be able to choose their elective rotations based on their individual areas of interest. This allows them to experience an advanced exposure within areas of interest specific to their primary specialty. Additionally, the fellows will choose their focus area for their scholarly projects with the aim that their project will, at a minimum, build their bona fides in their area of interest and, at a maximum, lead to lifelong scholarly activity within their area of interest. These individualized experiences occur within a program that allows them to demonstrate proficiency in all required competencies for the Clinical Informatics Fellowship.
Rotations
All rotations occur at CHLA and will enable fellows to attain the core competencies necessary for the successful practice of clinical informatics. Through their core and elective rotations, the fellows will have exposure to different types of clinical and health information systems. This includes but is not limited to the Cerner Millennium EHR, laboratory information system in pathology, radiology information system and PACS, pharmacy information systems, and anesthesia and critical care-related information systems.
- Rotation Block Diagram (download pdf)
Core rotations include:
- Informatics Essentials Boot Camp
- Clinical Informatics: Acute Care (Introductory)
- Clinical Informatics: Ambulatory Care (Introductory)
- Clinical Decision Support
- Pathology Informatics (Introductory)
- Departmental Information Systems
- Data Governance, Management and Acquisition
- Biomedical Informatics Research Project
- Health Information Exchange and Standards
- Leadership Competencies for Informatics Professionals
Electives include:
- Cybersecurity
- Innovation and Digital Transformation
- Clinical Informatics: Acute Care (Advanced)
- Clinical Informatics: Ambulatory Care (Advanced)
- Pathology Informatics (Advanced)
- Clinical Bioinformatics and EHR Genomics
Didactics
Fellows will participate in weekly didactics that will cover core content on the Clinical Informatics Board certification exam as well as additional specialized topics. Fellows will participate in clinical informatics presentations and journal clubs mentored by faculty. They will also be encouraged to identify external speakers for invitations to departmental grand rounds and encouraged to attend external webinars. Additionally, fellows will be encouraged to complete the AMIA Clinical Informatics Board Review Course (CIBRC) Online during their second year. Each year, fellows will have the opportunity to attend national meetings and symposia, including the American Medical Informatics Association Annual Symposium.
Research and Scholarly Activity
Fellow scholarly activity should include at least one of the following:
- Peer-reviewed funding and research
- Publication of original research or review articles
- Presentations at local, regional, or national professional and scientific society meetings
Longitudinal Research Project
The fellows will be required to conduct a longitudinal research project to integrate their knowledge and prior experience in a clinical setting that poses real-world clinical informatics challenges. Fellows will be able to take advantage of a longitudinal exposure over the course of the fellowship at the CHLA rotation site. Thus, they may be exposed to common clinical informatics challenges that affect multiple medical specialties and care environments. Each fellow will actively participate as a member of an interdisciplinary team and will be expected to actively analyze problems and plan and implement recommendations for the team. The fellows will identify a long-term assignment in response to these challenges as part of their longitudinal scholarly project.
For more information, contact Program Administrator Leticia Diaz at ldiaz@chla.usc.edu or 323-361-6328.