RN - Clinical Informatics Specialist

A cover letter is required for consideration for this position and should be attached as the first page of your resume. The cover letter should address your specific interest in the position and outline skills and experience that directly relate to this position.

Are you an experienced nurse with a passion for improving care through research and quality improvement? If you thrive in a fast-paced, highly innovative environment, the Multicenter Perioperative Outcomes Group (MPOG) is seeking professionals like you.

The Multicenter Perioperative Outcomes Group (MPOG) is a consortium of more than 60 health systems participating representing over 150 hospitals from across the United States. MPOG is run by faculty and staff at the University of Michigan Department of Anesthesiology and is part of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigans Collaborative Quality Initiatives (CQI) program. MPOGs registry aggregates electronic health record (EHR) data to investigate variations in care and develop strategies to improve care delivery. Since its inception in 2008, the consortium has developed policies, procedures, and the technical infrastructure required to conduct multicenter research projects, lead quality improvement initiatives, educate caregivers, and guide healthcare administration. The MPOG team includes clinicians, quality improvement experts, software developers, statisticians, and administrators. For more information, please visit https://mpog.org/about/ 

The Clinical Informatics Specialist role will serve to enhance existing efforts to organize and validate clinical data within the MPOG registry. MPOG utilizes clinical phenotypes to identify cases for inclusion in research or quality improvement initiatives. Phenotypes are coded building blocks or algorithms used to sort and organize large data sets. The Clinical Informatics Specialist is responsible for maintaining specifications for and validating existing phenotypes, as well as developing specifications and validating data for new phenotypes. As additional data types are added to the MPOG registry, the Clinical Informatics Specialist provides direction for how data should be mapped, defined, stored, and organized to facilitate future analysis. This role will evaluate the current infrastructure of the MPOG registry and work closely with the MPOG programmers, research, and quality teams to determine a plan for creating specifications for existing phenotypes and prioritize future development.

In addition to analytic skills, this role requires experience in understanding perioperative clinical workflow and documentation patterns. The Clinical Informatics Specialist will need to contact sites to refine mapping of clinical variables and understand possible trends in documentation that could impact how registry data is used. In addition, the role will involve onboarding new sites, guiding their technical and clinical teams through the steps to join MPOG.

What Benefits can you Look Forward To?

• Hybrid work environment (on-site 1-2 days/week + remote work)
• Excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage effective on your first day
•  2:1 Match on Retirement Savings

Data Management

• Review and understand existing data available in the MPOG registry
• Identify gaps in the current registry and create a plan to gather and clean data from a variety of sources (electronic health record, administrative, anesthesia information management systems) to facilitate research and quality improvement projects
• Build relationships with programmers and clinicians to identify and prioritize data cleaning needs.
• Identify and address expected and unforeseen data issues to ensure the accuracy of analytics, ensuring that resulting decisions are made from accurate findings. 
• Collaborate with participating sites to improve data quality and consistency.
• Validate clinical data using an electronic health record.
• Identify patterns and create actionable plans to resolve data discrepancies.

Site Communication & Support

• Serve as a primary point of contact for participating sites to address questions related to registry data requirements, clinical content mapping, and the onboarding process.
• Translate external site data requests into standardized phenotype specifications for MPOG projects.
• Continually assess requests to ensure the proposed criteria align with desired outcomes.
• Demonstrate customer focus and the ability to identify and meet provider and site expectations.

Project Management & Coordination

• Create project management tools for tracking development progress.
• Lead meetings and manage multiple projects independently.
• Effectively communicate and present resource needs to MPOG Clinical Program Manager and Directors.
• Direct and reprioritize tasks in a fast-paced environment to meet deadlines.

• Clinical degree and experience required (e.g., RN, CRNA, MD, PA, or equivalent). Must have worked in a perioperative or acute care clinical setting.
• A Masters degree in Nursing, Health Informatics, Public Health or related field
• Five or more years of hands-on experience analyzing clinical or registry data
• Demonstrated project management skills in a healthcare setting
• Proficient in data analysis tools (Microsoft Excel, Tableau, Power BI, or another interactive data visualization platform) 
• Proven ability to translate clinical data into clear, actionable insights for audiences ranging from frontline staff to senior leadership.

• Proficiency in Epic and/or Cerner documentation systems
• Experience accessing Microsoft SQL Server and reviewing SQL code
• Advanced Microsoft 365 skills including Teams, Excel, Word, and PowerPoint
• Exceptional written and verbal communicator who uses diverse tools to distill complex analytic findings into clear reports and presentations for staff and leadership
• General understanding of ICD-10 and CPT code set
• Detail-oriented with strong passion for data accuracy.
• Exceptional analytical ability to translate external site or registry requests into clear query specifications for programmers, continually validating that the criteria will achieve the intended outcomes and generate data-driven recommendations

Hybrid work environment (on-site 1-2 days/week + remote work)

Michigan Medicine conducts background screening and pre-employment drug testing on job candidates upon acceptance of a contingent job offer and may use a third party administrator to conduct background screenings.  Background screenings are performed in compliance with the Fair Credit Report Act. Pre-employment drug testing applies to all selected candidates, including new or additional faculty and staff appointments, as well as transfers from other U-M campuses.

Job openings are posted for a minimum of seven calendar days.  The review and selection process may begin as early as the eighth day after posting. This opening may be removed from posting boards and filled anytime after the minimum posting period has ended.

The University of Michigan is an equal employment opportunity employer.