How well does a biomedical informatics curriculum map to health information management knowledge clusters? Analysis of a program.

The disciplines of health information management (HIM) and biomedical informatics (BMI) have many historical differences from the content of their educational programs to the level offered (i.e., graduate vs. undergraduate). As the adoption of the electronic health record (EHR) grows, however, the two fields share increasingly similar interests, competencies, and educational programs. In our effort to establish an HIM track in our BMI graduate program, leading to Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA) certification, we had to compare our BMI curriculum with the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) knowledge clusters. We present the results of our analysis, which provide insights into the similarities and differences between such curricula. These results show that existing BMI courses met several of the knowledge clusters, which means that only a few additional courses need to be developed.