Become an AMIA Certified Health Informatics Professional
For over 35 years, American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) members have been leading the effort to transform healthcare through informatics practice, research, and education. AMIA is committed to advancing the field, supporting informatics professionals, and promoting informatics best practice to assure that health data and information technology are used most effectively to promote health and health care.
AMIA established the AMIA Health Informatics Certification (AHIC) program to address the needs created by the growing number and expanding role of health informaticians and the concomitant increased impact of their work in healthcare delivery, public health, and consumer health.
AMIA seeks to provide a customer-focused certification process that meets the highest standards for certification program quality as defined by certification program accreditation criteria (i.e., National Commission for Certifying Agencies and ANSI/ICE).
AMIA established the Health Informatics Certification Commission (HICC) to manage the program with impartiality and objectivity. The HICC is independent and autonomous with respect to certification and recertification decisions, policies, and procedures. To ensure the integrity of the AHIC certification program and its exams, there is a strict firewall between the HICC and certification staff (on one side of the firewall) and AMIA education staff, Education Committee members, course developers and instructors, and the Board of Directors (on the other side of the firewall).
Program Mission
The AHIC Program is dedicated to enhancing and promoting the health informatics profession by providing the premier health informatics credential program. The AHIC program accomplishes this mission by establishing standards for professional practice; creating a fair, valid, and reliable examination process by which professionals can demonstrate their knowledge and skill; granting certification to those who meet the program’s standards; and communicating the value of the credential to employers and other key constituencies.
AHIC Overview
AHIC was created by and for health informaticians. AHIC enables health informatics professionals to demonstrate competence and commitment to excellence. It is intended for individuals seeking to document mastery of health informatics knowledge and readiness to apply this knowledge to real world healthcare challenges. AHIC provides health informatics practice benchmarking and competency criteria that support health informatics professionals and organizations that hire them. Further, by supporting the use of best health informatics practices, AHIC is expected to strengthen the healthcare system and protect public safety.
AHIC is intended for professionals who
- come from a range of educational and training pathways including, but not limited to, dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, public health, health informatics, and computer science
- use informatics concepts and tools to design solutions to complex problems or identify opportunities for improvement in health care, public health, or consumer health at the individual, unit, organization, or system level
- have health informatics experience that includes critical thinking and analysis; independent decision-making; project management; managing personnel, resources or partner relationships; leading or supporting teams; policy development; or strategic planning
AHIC assesses competence of health informatics professionals whose work may impact organizational performance or affect public safety. As a result, the AHIC program emphasizes operational, rather than research-focused dimensions of informatics.
The AHIC process involves 3 major elements -- eligibility determination, examination to assess competence, and recertification requirements. Pursuant to best practice, the 2019 Health Informatics Practice Analysis and resulting Health Informatics Delineation of Practice underpin AHIC eligibility criteria and the AHIC Outline of Exam Topics. An individual who meets the AHIC eligibility criteria, passes the AHIC exam, and fulfills recertification requirements is known as an AMIA Certified Health Informatics Professional or ACHIP™.
