As the year closes, I’ve noticed how “wrap-ups” have become popular across digital platforms. If you're not familiar with this trend, Saturday Night Live recently did a parody of it, which you can view by clicking here, caveat emptor.
Inspired by this trend—and some experiments with AI chatbots—I wanted to share some things I’ve learned this year about Clinical Informatics, both from my own work on this blog, and from the feedback these tools provide.
1. Clinical Informatics: The System’s "Shock Absorber"
Clinical Informatics isn’t just a technical specialty or a bridge between IT and clinicians. It’s an organizational function that absorbs and redistributes stress, helping health systems remain resilient. CMIOs and informatics teams are embedded in governance and risk containment by preventing system failures—not just improving usability.
2. Upstream Work Matters Most
The hardest and most valuable informatics work happens before the build: clarifying intent, resolving ambiguity, and surfacing hidden constraints. Success is about getting the direction right, not just moving quickly.
The hardest and most valuable informatics work happens before the build: clarifying intent, resolving ambiguity, and surfacing hidden constraints. Success is about getting the direction right, not just moving quickly.
3. Governance = Safety
Governance isn’t bureaucracy—it’s a clinical safety mechanism. Good governance makes decisions auditable and survivable, acting as a guardrail against unintended harm. This connection to patient safety is often missing from standard informatics curricula.
4. Bridging Policy and Reality
Clinical Informatics lives in the gap between clean policy language and messy clinical realities. It translates regulations into workflows clinicians can actually use, protecting organizations from accidental non-compliance. This is operational ethics in action.
5. Documentation Problems are Design Problems
Issues like note bloat and checkbox fatigue usually aren’t clinician failures - they’re system design problems. Good documentation design respects clinical cognition and clarifies intent for multiple audiences.
Issues like note bloat and checkbox fatigue usually aren’t clinician failures - they’re system design problems. Good documentation design respects clinical cognition and clarifies intent for multiple audiences.
6. Navigating Power Gradients
Success in Clinical Informatics means translating across power structures - Clinicians, Executives, Regulators, IT, and Finance. To help people hear and understand - tone, timing, and framing often matter as much as technical accuracy.
Success in Clinical Informatics means translating across power structures - Clinicians, Executives, Regulators, IT, and Finance. To help people hear and understand - tone, timing, and framing often matter as much as technical accuracy.
7. AI: Governance First
AI challenges in healthcare are rarely technical; they’re about governance, accountability, and workflow. Decision rights and exception handling are essential for mature informatics practice.
8. CMIOs, CNIOs, and Clinical Informatics Make Decisions Survivable
The CMIO’s and CNIO's job isn’t to make every decision perfect, but to help ensure decisions support good patient care and are explainable, reversible, and defensible over time. This approach reduces moral injury and values pacing over novelty.
A final thought for 2025 (from AI) :
The CMIO’s and CNIO's job isn’t to make every decision perfect, but to help ensure decisions support good patient care and are explainable, reversible, and defensible over time. This approach reduces moral injury and values pacing over novelty.
A final thought for 2025 (from AI) :
Applied Clinical Informatics, as I practice and write about it, is not primarily about technology. It’s about organizational translation, governance as safety infrastructure, and making clinical decisions survivable in complex systems.
With that - I wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year, and here's to 2026!
Remember : This blog is for educational and discussion purposes only - Your mileage may vary.
Have any feedback, comments, or insights from your own experiences this year? Feel free to share them in the comments below!
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