How should we create clinical data workers at scale?

The sick, siloed, sick care system of systems is gradually becoming a data industry that masquerades as a healthcare system taking care of patients.

The digitization of increasing consolidated vertically integrated delivery systems demands more clinical data workers who can speak both languages without an accent. and clinicians who can speak AI, and are data literate and dextrous.

Academic medical centers and hospitals are struggling to upskill their students, trainees and staff and hire those with the necessary competencies in sick care data science in the face of a war for talent by big tech.

To meet that demand, edupreneurs are offering some products.

Health care is constantly changing, as big data analytics and advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence are now being applied in the health care field. These high-tech changes hold the potential to transform patient care. In response to these changes, an international team of scientists has published a perspective paper, describing the competencies of clinician-data-scientists and addressing the challenges in training these health care professionals. Their perspective paper was published in the journal Health Data Science on August 8, 2022.

The competencies overlap with entrepreneurial competencies.

Here are some considerations:

1. Data literacy and dexterity is a core skill to win the 5th and 6th industrial revolutions and education and training should be offered at scale as early in childhood education as feasible
2. We will need to train people not interested in going to college
3. Data literacy and dexterity should be a mandatory course in all medical schools and other healthcare professional schools and be an additional ACGME competency requirement
4. Professional Science Masters programs can fill the gaps
5. Master's programs in clinical data science are already offered in several institutions
6. A Masters in Clinical Data Science (MCDS) will be the new MPH or MBA for those applying to medical school.
7. The new academic medical center triple threat will be clinician-technologist-entrepreneur
8. The knowledge, skills, attitudes, and competencies of MCDS programs are evolving to meet the rapid pace of technological change
9. Technical skills will be table stakes. Teamwork, collaboration, communication skills and understanding the nuances of sick care are key.
10. There will be problems reconciling technologist-clinician culture clashes
11. Intelligent innovation informs innovation intelligence and vice versa. They are two sides of the continuous quality improvement coin
12. AIntrepreneurship is a core component of CDS education, training, and development. This commentary presents initial concepts and content that the Steering Committee feel may be important to a draft Code of Conduct framework for use in the development and application of artificial intelligence (AI) in health, health care, and biomedical science.
13. Data science will be the new doctor killer replacing premedical organic chemistry courses

If you have seen one postgraduate MCDS initiative, you have seen one initiative. Every institution will approach the problem in different ways depending on the assets and capabilities on the ground. Each will experiment and hopefully share their results with others.

"The core competencies of a clinician-data-scientist should include a fundamental understanding of health data, training in epidemiology, statistics, bioinformatics, and computer science, combined with an understanding of continuous health care improvement frameworks, socio-technical system challenges, and advanced skills in inter-disciplinary communication and collaboration," said Dr. Mai Wang, from the National Institute of Health Data Science, Peking University. The researchers believe that with a strong understanding of health care and the ability to identify knowledge gaps in medical practice, clinician-data-scientists will play critical roles in data science research projects."

Ultimately, finding the right product-market fit will be rewarded with a competitive advantage and better outcomes.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs on Substack