Principal Clinical Informatics Advisor

The ideal candidate will lead multi-disciplinary teams with a variety of health and non-health related backgrounds to develop solutions that serve the federal governments’ efforts to provide the best healthcare to Veterans and modernize their data and technology infrastructure. Successful candidates will ensure that these multi-disciplinary teams consider the unique aspects of clinical informatics in their problem-solving activities.

CGEM employees are expected to work on multiple projects, cross-pollinate good ideas across the government, and continuously learn. We are truly an interdisciplinary department that thrives on having adaptable and diverse skillsets to support comprehensive analysis and to drive analytical, evidence-based decision making with our sponsors. We value people who can bring unique perspectives, experiences, and who are driven to learning novel technologies. Our department works to solve problems in the public interest, and in partnership with the government. We also actively conduct independent research in areas of interest to our government partners.

Job Responsibilities

• Work with VA and Veterans Health Administration (VHA) staff to provide strategic and operational support and subject matter expertise based on an understanding of government challenges and priorities, clinical care, healthcare administration, and electronic health record systems that support these functions.

• Advise VA/VHA leadership and stakeholders as they seek to modernize their clinical and health data and technology infrastructure, to improve timeliness, and quality of health care services provided to Veterans.
• Evaluate, troubleshoot, and make recommendations to improve various clinical workflows and processes surrounding the use of technology.
• Apply broad experience and unique professional knowledge of health and clinical informatics principles, clinical systems lifecycle, and healthcare operations, change management principles, and industry standards at the point of care to inform decision making for VA/VHA.
• Draft, review, and/or manage the development of technical products, such as research papers, briefing papers/reports, environmental scans and recommendations for that will provide value and address our government sponsor’s knowledge gaps and challenges.
• Manage important or complex small effort or larger effort, appropriately delegating to and coordinating with others.

• Support multi-site, multi-agency, and multi-stakeholder initiatives to help advance key national health objectives.
• Interact with senior leaders of federal healthcare agencies, think creatively, and guide approaches to solutions based on a clinical understanding of challenges the government faces.
• Develop reports and presentations for both lay and clinical audiences that effectively communicate findings and promote recommendations to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
• Use project management and business principles to support and/or lead multi-disciplinary teams with a variety of health and non-health related backgrounds, develop solutions that serve VA/VHA’s efforts to modernize their healthcare operations and technology infrastructure.

Required Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in a clinical discipline (e.g., nursing, respiratory therapy, social work, etc.) or healthcare informatics, with at least eleven years of relevant experience in clinical and applied informatics, including at least two years of management experience.
• Applicants selected for this position will be subject to a government security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information or applicants who are eligible for security clearances.
• Must be a US citizen and capable of obtaining and maintaining VA Suitability.

Required Skills/Knowledge:

• Knowledge of contemporary hospital/clinical practices and healthcare operations.
• Applied expertise working with clinical and health information systems, and/or EHR standards.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Experience providing translation between information technology experts and clinical experts.
• Experience working in the healthcare industry, and direct knowledge of terminology, clinical roles, administrative roles, and national healthcare organizations.
• Experience working with healthcare technology systems such as EHRs, Health Information Exchanges (HIEs), interface engines, use of cloud storage, interoperability, or other clinical systems including LIS, CDS, RIS, PACS or ADT.
• Ability to interpret data analysis into clinically relevant information, knowledge, and wisdom to inform decision making and recommendations.

• Excellent organizational skills and ability to work independently.

Preferred Qualifications:

• MD or PhD in nursing practice or other clinical discipline (e.g., respiratory therapy, social work, etc.) or healthcare informatics, with at least eleven years of relevant experience in clinical and applied informatics.

• Clinical, quality, process improvement, project management, public health or clinical informatics credentials strongly preferred.
• Experience working with Oracle Cerner EHR.
• Clinical experience as a nurse, nurse practitioner, physician’s assistant, physician, pharmacist, etc.
• Experience working with VA or VHA.
• Understanding of a Veteran’s healthcare journey and associated challenges.

• Experience applying business, project management, consulting tools and principles; advisory or consulting experience strongly preferred.
• Understanding of training program structures designed to teach clinicians how to use new technology or updates to existing technology, in addition to building an informatics team to support ongoing sustainment and system maintenance.
• Understanding and application of change management, organizational design, and user centered design principles, preferably applied to EHR implementations.
• Experience leading projects, groups, and teams.
• Experience leading the development of a technical deliverables, report, white paper, etc.; providing documentation of analyses, information preparation, project management support, deliverable preparation (reports, presentations).

• Experience interpreting clinical (or health-related) data sets and applying findings to influence decision making.
• Proficiency in data visualizations.
• Knowledge of cyber and information technology security.
• Knowledge of and experience with natural language processing.
• Knowledge of clinical quality measures and clinical decision support systems.

• Familiarity with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) and privacy policies that must be addressed when handling Protected Health Information (PHI) or Personally Identifiable Information (PII).