Clinical Informatics Fellowship FAQs

We open applications a year before the start date, i.e. every July for positions starting the following July. You may begin applying to our program when ERAS opens for applications for the July application cycle.

If you are graduating from your residency program in June/July, you can apply starting July 1 of the preceding year, so the optimal time to apply is at the beginning of your final year of residency. 

Not at all! If you are a physician who is currently in clinical practice and want to formally train to be a clinical informatician, as long as you are board-certified in your clinical specialty and have completed your residency from an ACGME-approved training program, you are most welcome to apply too!

We participate in the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS), and accept all applications only through ERAS. We are listed under MD Fellowship –July Cycle >Clinical Informatics (Internal Medicine). Our ACGME ID is 1394014001.

Not yet. All the CI programs agreed last year to make their selections on the same day, but we are still a new and upcoming specialty, so we are not part of NRMP.

Yes, if you are board-eligible or certified in a primary specialty, and completed your residency program from an ACGME-accredited residency program.

We have a CI fellowship admission committee at DMICE that decides who to admit to the fellowship program. Committee members start reviewing applications in July and decide who to bring in for interviews. Once the interviews are complete, the committee meets to rank applicants. All CI programs have agreed to make their offers to selected candidates on the same day, usually in December.

The logistics associated with organizing an interview are typically more complex than those involved with organizing a clinical specialty interview, because we want applicants to meet not only with program leadership but also with our faculty who are scattered across Portland. Since 2020, these interviews have been virtual.

Also we want candidates to connect with folks from their clinical specialty, and since we accept candidates from all clinical specialties, organizing meetings with relevant clinical faculty can become complicated very quickly. Additionally candidates may want to meet with specific DMICE faculty whose work they are interested in, and we try to accommodate their requests.

We start the interview planning process early in the recruitment year, and plan on a total of 3-4 interview days between August and December.

What I am trying to say in a somewhat long-winded way is that we will need more lead time to schedule your interview than a typical clinical fellowship program would, so apply early to make sure we can accommodate you if the admission committee approves to invite you for an interview!

You will meet with program leadership and then expect to be interviewed by a bunch of informatics faculty. You will also connect with clinical faculty so that you get a sense of the folks you will be working with to fulfill your clinical practice requirements. If there are academic or learning activities on the day you interview, you are welcome to join us!  At the end of the day you get to hang out with our current fellows, and then you are done with the interview. It's a busy and long day, but then which fellowship interview isn't?

CI fellows are full time GME house staff at OHSU. Details of house staff benefits are here .

If you think you already meet the requirements for taking the CI board exams, you should contact the American Board of Preventive Medicine (ABPM) to see if you are eligible. If you are not eligible for grandfathering, the only way to become board certified in clinical informatics is to complete the 2-year fellowship.

CI requires diplomates to maintain their primary specialty board certification. If you are ineligible for board certification in your primary specialty, or your certification has lapsed, we urge you to contact us before applying so that we can determine if you are eligible.

ACGME requires CI fellows to be full-time in the specialty, and so at this time you cannot combine subspecialties at the same time. You can, however, complete subspecialty training in a different discipline before or after your CI training. So for example, if you are an internist, you can apply for a CI fellowship after completing subspecialty training in a fellowship such as cardiology or gastroenterology.

We do have opportunities for residents to do an "away" CI rotation at OHSU. However, unlike clinical electives, the CI rotation tends to be bespoke, and individualized to the resident's needs. If you wish to come to OHSU for a CI rotation during your residency, please contact Lauren Ludwig at ludwigl@ohsu.edu so that we can determine how best to meet your learning goals.

CI rotation opportunities for medical students are very limited. Please contact Lauren Ludwig at ludwigl@ohsu.edu to inquire about your options.

At this time, we do not have the process for international rotations set up.

The short answer is "yes". The long answer is that Portland is a very unique place to live. There are a multitude of things to do, both outdoors and indoors. Want to spend the day at the beach? It's just an hour or two away. The mountains? Ditto. Visit a volcano? Sure. Hike the gorgeous Columbia Gorge? Yep. Take a cable car to work? Why not, it's a free ride with your OHSU ID. Whether you are into arts and culture, microbrews, the great outdoors, eclectic cuisine, bicycling, sustaining the environment, Magic the Gathering, geocaching, good coffee, or you are just looking for a place where you can flourish, then Portland should probably be on your shortlist of "best places to live". Even during the winter, when it rains incessantly. But the summers more than make up for it.