CAHIIM Educational Program: Teaching Health Informatics

Prerna Dua, PhD, FAMIA

Dr. Prerna Dua is a Professor in the Department of Biomedical and Health Informatics at the University of Missouri–Kansas City and holds fellowship in American Medical Informatics Association. Her research focuses on developing and applying computational and machine learning methods to analyze large-scale healthcare data for predictive modeling, clinical decision support, and population health improvement. She leads interdisciplinary projects spanning maternal health, chronic disease outcomes, and health disparities, with particular emphasis on explainable AI, fairness, and translational impact. At CAHIIM, she serves as a peer reviewer for Health Informatics program and is a member of Health Informatics Accreditation Council (HIAC). 

Christina Eldredge, MD, PhD, FAMIA

Christina Eldredge, MD, PhD, FAMIA is the Director of Health Informatics Programs for the School of Information at the University of South Florida. She also serves as an adjunct professor at USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, teaching graduate health informatics courses and contributing to medical student education. Dr. Eldredge co-leads the iSchool Health Informatics Research Lab (iSHIRL), where her research focuses on controlled terminologies and metadata standards, particularly in adverse event detection.

She began her career as a U.S. Navy Family Physician, where early exposure to electronic medical records (EMRs) led to her interest in health informatics. She earned a Master’s in Medical Informatics during her Primary Care Research Fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin, followed by a PhD in Biomedical and Health Informatics from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Nationally, Dr. Eldredge serves on the Board of Directors for CAHIIM and the AMIA Academic Forum Executive Committee. She has presented nationally on health informatics education and contributed to the development of accreditation standards and foundational domains in the field. Her contributions earned her recognition as a Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association (FAMIA).

Mohammad Faysel, PhD

Dr. Mohammad Faysel is an Associate Professor of Health Informatics at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. He holds undergraduate and master’s degrees in computer science and a Ph.D. in biomedical informatics. With over 15 years of experience in academic and research settings, his work focuses on advancing health equity through innovative applications of health informatics. His research interests include healthcare information system security, mobile health (mHealth), artificial intelligence in healthcare workforce development, and reducing health disparities—particularly in low-resourced and underserved communities—through informatics-driven solutions.

Dr. Faysel is currently involved in several studies examining stroke disparities using large-scale electronic health record (EHR) data. In addition, he has completed multiple advanced research training programs focused on mobile health, wearable technologies, and telehealth-mediated interventions. These programs aim to strengthen transdisciplinary research capacity and support the development of practical, mHealth-oriented healthcare solutions with real-world impact.

Dr. Faysel is currently serving his second term as a member of the CAHIIM Health Informatics Accreditation Council (HIAC). He has also served as a reviewer of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Annual Symposium, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Annual Conference, and International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) World Congress (Medinfo). Dr. Faysel is an active member of AMIA and HIMSS. He is a Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association (FAMIA).

E. LaVerne Manos, PhD, MSN, RN-BC, FAMIA

LaVerne Manos, is Department Chair of Health Administration & Nursing at A.T. Still University’s College of Graduate Health Studies. She brings many years of leadership in health informatics, health administration, and nursing programs, including roles within CCNE-accredited Doctor of Nursing Practice programs and CAHIIM-accredited informatics degrees. A board-certified nurse informaticist and Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association, Dr. Manos is nationally recognized for accreditation readiness, curriculum innovation, and faculty development across online and hybrid modalities. Her academic leadership is grounded in practical health administration experience leading quality improvement and EHR implementation initiatives. At ATSU-CGHS, she oversees strategic growth, curriculum development, accreditation compliance, and faculty mentorship across DNP and Health Administration programs. Dr. Manos serves on CAHIIM’s Teaching Health Informatics working group, helping translate current informatics competencies and best practices into educator-ready course materials that support high-quality, practice-focused instruction.

Josette Jones, RN, PhD, FAMIA

A mentor and a pioneer in the continually evolving field of health informatics, Josette Jones has focused on preparing students with the skills they’ll need as health informatics professionals. These competencies include patient-centered care, interdisciplinary teamwork, evidence-based practice, and the ability to use informatics to improve the delivery and quality of care.

At IU Indianapolis, she’s been instrumental in the development of graduate curricula in nursing and health informatics, and in developing a certificate program in nursing informatics for the IU School of Nursing, as well as five graduate certificates in health information technology for the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering. Recognizing the increasing role that data and electronic health information play in providing safer, better-quality health care, Jones has improved the curricula and set the direction for health informatics education at the Luddy School in Indianapolis. In 2017, she was appointed to the AMIA Accreditation Committee (AAC) to set the standards for health informatics education.  She was also instrumental in getting the Health Informatics graduate program at IU Indianapolis accredited by CAHIIM in 2018.

Jones is active in the Health Information Systems Society (HIMSS), Alliance for Nursing Informatics, the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), and the American Nursing Association (ANA). 

Velma L. Payne, PhD

Janusz Wojtusiak, PhD

Dr. Wojtusiak, Professor of Health Informatics and Director of the Machine Learning and Inference Laboratory, has expertise that spans machine learning, health informatics, artificial intelligence in clinical decision support and knowledge discovery in medical data, and a wide range of applications of these fields in health care. His particular area of interest is in developing algorithms that derive simple, transparent and usable models from complex health data to predict patient and population outcomes. He studies how to create and evaluate reproducible, unbiased and trustworthy algorithms and models.

Dr. Wojtusiak serves as the Division Director for Health Informatics in the Department of Health Administration and Policy. He oversees undergraduate, master’s and doctoral programs in health informatics. Dr. Wojtusiak teaches several courses focused on machine learning, data mining, artificial intelligence and computing applied in medicine, healthcare and individual/population health.

He authored or co-authored over 100 research publications and presentations and continues to collaborate with multiple national and international institutions.