Introduction

The Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM) is an accrediting organization which has independent authority in all actions pertaining to accreditation of educational programs in health informatics and health information management. CAHIIM is recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).

Public Interest

CAHIIM serves the public interest by operating in a consistent manner with all applicable ethical, business and accreditation best practices. Accreditation is a voluntary, self-regulatory process by which nongovernmental associations recognize educational programs found to meet or exceed standards for educational quality. Accreditation also assists in the further improvement of these educational programs as related to resources invested, processes followed, and outcomes achieved.

CAHIIM and its sponsoring organization(s) cooperate to establish, maintain, and promote appropriate standards of quality for postsecondary educational programs in health informatics and health information management to provide competent, skilled professionals for the healthcare industry.

CAHIIM develops and adopts Accreditation Standards that are the basis for programmatic review and evaluation of degree granting programs in Health Informatics and Health Information Management. The Standards provide the expectations and requirements needed to establish a well-developed quality program.

Bachelors of Science in Health Informatics

Accreditation Standards

CAHIIM welcomes public comments, edits, changes and feedback for the Bachelors of Science in Health Informatics (BSHI) accreditation standards. There will be two open periods for public comment. The first comment period will open September 19, 2022.  In addition to the open comment periods, CAHIIM will also sponsor an Open Forum to discuss the Standards.

The Baccalaureate Informatics Standards were developed by the CAHIIM Bachelors of Science in Health Informatics Standards Workgroup and the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Bachelor Accreditation Committee.

Comments from stakeholders were collected during the first public comment period, which took place from September 19 - November 18, 2022, as well as an open hearing, which was held on November 3, 2022.

The workgroup reviewed all comments, from the first comment period and the open hearing, and considered each comment as it related to an individual standard, the standards as a whole, and CAHIIM accreditation requirements. As a result of the comments received, some standards were modified.

A 2nd open comment period concluded on January 6, 2023.  Comments are currently being reviewed and will be taken into consideration for the final version of the BSHI accreditation standards.

CAHIIM would like to thank those who participated in the open comment periods and the open hearing.

The final BSHI accreditation standards will be available here once finalized and approved.

Standards with Comments (after 1st comment period)

Bachelors of Science in Health Informatics

Foundational Curricular Components

AMIA Academic Forum requests feedback on draft foundational concepts for baccalaureate degree programs seeking to create or accredit an undergraduate degree in health informatics.

AMIA held a public comment period for these proposed concepts, which ended on November 5, 2022.

Health Informatics Competency Driven Education

Programs are encouraged to review their health informatics curriculum and compare current curriculum content with AMIA’s core competencies (Foundational Domains). The AMIA Foundational Domains are intended to be used for health informatics curriculum development and accreditation assessment for masters level graduate education in health informatics education.

For the purposes of CAHIIM Accreditation, students in the health informatics discipline should have working knowledge and competency of these foundational domains as they define and affect the practice of health informatics. The program graduate is expected to demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that exist in the following domains:

• Health
• Information Science and Technology
• Social and Behavioral Science
• Health Information Science and Technology
• Human Factors and Socio-technical Systems
• Social and Behavioral Aspects of Health
• Social, Behavioral, and Information Science and Technology Applied to Health
  Professionalism
• Interprofessional Collaborative Practice
• Leadership

As with all other health professions, the work of health informaticians affects the health, safety, and effectiveness of those working and being cared for within the system of health care delivery.