I briefly considered a fellowship in clinical informatics after completing my Internal Medicine and Genetics and Genomics training. However, I already completed a Masters in clinical research and the program I looked into was heavily focused on EHR-based efforts, which wasn't my cup of tea. Kudos to those interested in this training—I do think there's a specific need at IT-physician interfaces, it just wasn't for me.
I think you're incorrectly assuming that because collecting samples is simple and reports are generated quickly, there isn't extensive 'data wizardry' involved in genetic testing. I can order a colonoscopy or an MRA, but I won't fool myself into thinking that means either procedure is simple to perform or interpret.
Genetic testing is exceptionally complex. In fact, there's so much to this that goes into testing that there's two separate fellowships that cover the process from start-to-finish. First is the clinical medical geneticist and team, but second and perhaps more interesting to the OP is the LGG-trained doctors who oversee, run, and interpret the genetic tests while creating the final reports
If you have interest in clinical informatics - why not at least explore Laboratory Genetics and Genomics (LGG) fellowship pathways. If you are interested in AI but perhaps less excited about EHR-based efforts, this might strike a balance for you. Directors of clinical genetics labs (hospital/private/for-profit companies) are now required to be LGG-fellowship trained. These are the 'data wizards' who are always behind-the-scenes. Training is open to MDs, DOs, and PhDs - it's a well-defined and pragmatic training program and could be of interest to you.
My responses were geared toward OP's perception that a CI-trained physician could be occupying a hybrid patient-facing, bench, tech, and policy role—serving as a geneticist, informaticist, translational research scientist, implementation manager, and public health physician all at the same time, which is absurd. I hope my response is clear that there is no one specialty that supersedes all others and does not respect the clear boundaries between professionals, especially in a neoliberal bureaucracy like medicine where roles are defined increasingly conservatively.
The subtext, in my opinion, was a latent anxiety around the increasing specialization of physicians broadly, and a student's wish to be protected from an anticipated future where generalist care will become increasingly devalued. They are looking ahead in hopes of building a monopoly around their niche in practice.
Of course, in a specialty that is ostensibly not "medicine" the way we would normally describe it, that creates questions like "OK...what illness do you suspect you will cure with your superuser Epic skills?" More broadly, one might ask why someone would want to become a physician at all if their ideal job involves virtually all admin work and zero patient care. A lot of these fellowships
are open to PhDs, which begs the question as to why someone interested in such a field would choose not to go down the path of least resistance through the academic route, which is a cheaper and more common vehicle to doing that work.
Despite the technical/practical answers to OP's questions, I think those fundamental existential questions undergirding OP's curiosity are actually really important for professionals to discuss. We are feeling pressure to look forward to subspecialization because job security/
relative compensation really feels that fragile right now—within a profession that actually could not be any more essential to sustained human life and flourishing.
That is a real problem, and it's not just morale. It's all about the promise medicine makes to students: endure the brutal training, and you'll never have to endure again. We now live in a world where physicians regularly boo-hoo cry on the internet about how poor and depressed they are. And they're real people, not supermodels in scrubs. No longer haunted by Grey's Anatomy applicants, the profession broadly needs to combat the
"medical school is a cult" ideology. I don't necessarily agree, but it's out there and people are listening.
We, as applicants, expect compelling reasons not to believe that...and lacking a response manifests in thousands of neurotic individuals hoping to be all things to all people to minimize the possibility of having a negative experience.
Anyway, I'm into psychiatry.
