CHIA-NZ Working Group

Share |

Background about CHIA

The Certified Health Informatician Australasia (CHIA) program provides third party accreditation for health informatics professionals. It has been operating in Australia for over three years and was developed by the Health Informatics Society of Australia (HISA), the Australasian College of Health Informatics (ACHI) and the Health Information Management Association of Australia (HIMAA). At inception, it was titled “Australasia” to cater for future interest from countries in addition to Australia. The program has evolved and matured, and at the end of January 2018 comprised 327 certified practitioners from 572 applicants. This included 8 certified New Zealanders, from 13 applicants. The core elements of the certification involve applicants being assessed for eligibility (based on defined criteria), and if accepted, having 90 days to prepare and sit for an online examination. Candidates have two chances to pass the examination and become certified. On passing the exam, the applicant becomes a Certified Health Informatician Australia and is able to use the CHIA postnominals. CHIA is valid for 3 years and individuals recertify by gaining 60 CPD points over a 3 year period.

Purpose of working group

The CHIA New Zealand working group (WG) has been formed to prepare an assessment for the HiNZ board as to the viability and feasibility of HiNZ offering the CHIA certification within New Zealand.

It is envisaged that, should CHIA-NZ progress, that HiNZ would need to establish a committee for the high level professional entity for evaluation, development and delivery of the CHIA examination for the New Zealand region of Australasia. Some members of the working group may be eligible to join that committee, but this is not a requirement of membership of the working group, as the skills required differ.

Accountability

The Chair of the working group (WG Chair) is appointed by the HiNZ board, and reports to the HiNZ Chair.
The CHIA-NZ WG Chair for 2018 is Michael Hosking.

Responsibilities and functions

By 30 August 2018, the WG Chair will deliver to the HiNZ Chair a detailed assessment as to the viability of offering the CHIA certification within New Zealand.

The proposal will include:

evaluation of market demand required to justify investment for CHIA-NZ development and whether this is achievable within specified timelines (including evaluation of current statistics on CHIA alumni and how this could translate into expected uptake in NZ)
financial impact assessment (an evaluation of current HISA costs and benefits of running the CHIA; the estimated initial and ongoing investment required by HiNZ to develop an NZ version of CHIA)
proposed operational requirements (suggested roles and responsibilities; the workflow and hours required to develop and validate NZ specific content - questions, supporting materials; ongoing review and maintenance of the content)
scenarios of possible models for CHIA in NZ
a recommendation as to which model is most viable, given HiNZ’ financial and logistics constraints
estimated timeframes for the development and longevity of the proposed scenario

Membership of CHIA-NZ working group

Potential members may be nominated by the HiNZ board or by the working group chair. Before a nominated member is appointed to the WG, they need to be approved by the HiNZ Chair. Membership of the working group should include at least one CHIA NZ alumni. Members will be eligible to sit on the working group for up to 1 year. A maximum number of six individuals will form the working group at any one time.

The current CHIA-NZ Working Group members are: