Clinical Informatics Fellowship Program

Overview

The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Department of Emergency Medicine (DEM) and Division of Bioinformatics (DBMI), Department of Medicine, seek outstanding applicants for fellowship training in Clinical Informatics (CI). The Clinical Informatics fellowship is a 2-year ACGME-accredited program. While the DEM hosts the fellowship, we accept applicants from all specialties having completed an ACGME-accredited residency. While completing the fellowship program, the candidate is able to clinically practice in their primary board specialty. We have created a unique partnership with DBMI such that our Clinical Informatics fellows have the opportunity to collaborate with National Library of Medicine (NLM) biomedical informatics research fellows to form a research/clinical dyad to study large data sets and operational workflows.

UCSD is a national leader in the field of health information technology (IT) and innovation. UCSD Health has been recognized with a highest-level HIMSS Analytics Stage 7 designation; earlier in 2024, UCSD was awarded a Most Wired Level 10 designation as well. The Department of Emergency Medicine has an established record with extramural funding from the NIH, the RWJ Foundation, a $15.3M Beacon Community grant from the National Coordinator for Health IT, and more recently an Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) $9.5M grant for cybersecurity. The DBMI is home to an NIH-funded National Center of Biomedical Computing and has an NLM grant to support training in a variety of areas including health care and clinical research informatics, translational bioinformatics, and public health informatics. UCSD has a strong presence with artificial intelligence (AI) with the Center for Health Innovation (CHI), where fellows can participate in projects and investigate the many facets of AI implementation in the healthcare space. In addition, there is strong collaboration between the UCSD School of Medicine, UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering (one of the nation's top ranked engineering schools), and the Qualcomm Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology located at UCSD. We also have strong ties to the Veteran's Health Administration health services research unit located on campus.

The successful applicant will have a strong clinical background and interest in pursuing a career in clinical informatics and health IT. In addition, fellows will have the opportunity to work as faculty physicians in UCSD's ambulatory, inpatient or Emergency Departments based on their primary specialty. UCSD is known for its Level 1 Trauma Center, the only regional Burn Center, a Joint Commission-designated Center of Excellence for Stroke, and high-quality programs for STEMI and ECMO.

The DEM has a well-established four-year EM residency program and robust fellowship programs in Toxicology, Hyperbaric Medicine, Pediatric EM, EMS, Ultrasound, and Research. Advanced degrees, including Masters in Advanced Studies, and opportunities to pursue a doctoral program are also separately available, although typically not pursued within the 2-year CI fellowship. The goal of the fellowship is to develop outstanding active operational clinical leaders with expertise in informatics and health IT.

For more information about the clinical informatics subspecialty, please visit the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) website. Other ACGME-accredited programs can be found here.

Program Leadership

James Killeen, M.D., (EM) Program Director (PM)
Brian Clay, M.D., (IM) Associate Program Director (APD)
Robert El-Kareh, M.D., (IM) Associate Program Director (APD); Course Director, DBMI NLM Masters Program
Brian Kwan, M.D., (EM) Associate Program Director (APD); Medical Director for Education Informatics
Christian Dameff, M.D., (EM) Assistant Program Director; Medical Director for Cybersecurity, UC San Diego Health

Core Faculty

Amy Sitapati, M.D., Clinical Professor of Medicine, Chief Medical Information Officer of the Population Health for UC San Diego Health (UCSDH) and Clinical Professor of Medicine in the Division of Biomedical Informatics as well as General Internal Medicine. She serves as the Interim Chief and Chair of the Division of Biomedical Informatics at UCSD
Karandeep Singh, MD., (IM) Joan and Irwin Jacobs Endowed Chair in Digital Health Innovation at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and named as the inaugural chief health artificial intelligence (AI) officer
Michael Hogarth, MD., Clinical Professor of Medicine, Clinical Research Information Officer (CRIO)
Nathan Yung, MD., (IM) Assistant Clinical Professor, Medicine
Ammar Mandvi, MD., (FM) Assistant Clinical Professor, Family Medicine and Public Health

Affiliated Faculty

Christopher Longhurst, M.D., Chief Information Officer
Ramesh Rao, Director, UCSD Division of CALIT2
Zia Agha, M.D., Executive Vice President of Clinical Research and Medical Informatics for the West Health Institute

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Fellowship recruitment timeline?

Recruitment for the following academic year opens in May and applications will be accepted through end of business day on August 26th. Interviews will be scheduled with candidates starting in July and will run through the end of October. The Clinical Informatics Faculty will make their final candidate selections by the end of January.

What is the Duration of the Fellowship?

The ACGME requires a 2 year fellowship.

Important Application Dates

September 30^th - Applications End
October 1^st to Nov 30th - Interviews
Nov 25^th – AMIA Match opens for applicants
Dec 5^th – AMIA Match – Deadline for Applicants’ rank order list
Dec 6^th – AMIA Match – Programs begin entering rank order list
Dec 11^th – AMIA Match – Deadline for Programs’ rank order list
Dec 16^th – AMIA Match Day

How many fellows will be accepted?

We expect to be able to offer slots for 2 candidates per year of the fellowship.

What are the requirements for eligibility?

Fellows must be board-eligible in any clinical specialty. Although the primary training site is UC San Diego Health, rotations are also offered at Rady Children’s Hospital, Veterans Administration Medical Center, San Diego, Western Health Institute, and El Centro Regional Medical Center.

Does the fellowship program accept international applicants?

International medical graduates are eligible to apply to the Clinical Informatics Fellowship if they are US Board eligible in their primary specialty. For more information about the application process for international medical graduates, click here.

I am interested in the UCSD biomedical informatics MS program. Can I do both?

Where the fellowship offers a 2 year full-time experience in applied clinical informatics, the academic MS program is a 2 year full-time program designed for individuals who wish to undertake in-depth study of biomedical informatics with research. It is not feasible to combine the programs. Fellows will have exposure to the BMI students and faculty through seminars and an annual retreat, and fellowship faculty collaborate with MS students on a project basis. However, we recommend that applicants select the program which best fits their career goals, and leadership of both programs are available to discuss the options in more detail.