Medical Work & Activities - Employment at EHR Vendor. Would this be considered clinical?

[MusicDOc124]

I worked for an EHR vendor and am wondering how to categorize my employment there for W&A.

While I was employed by this company, I acted in two separate roles at various healthcare organizations:
- project management/IT consulting
- software training (including training physicians and physician educators) + at-the-elbow support to clinicians when software went live in the clinics and hospitals

I worked with a few of the modules they offer, all of which deal with the care of patients, including ambulatory care, the patient portal, monitoring large population-health initiatives, and tracking social services for children, families, and people with developmental disabilities.

Does this time qualify as "Paid Employment - Medical/Clinical" or "Paid Employment - Not Medical/Clinical" for W&A?
Can I list these separate roles as two different items in W&A?

This is not medical/clinical.

It's semantics at best. Obviously being loose with this, but could a security officer say they have patient care experience just because they're security at a hospital instead of a night club or store? No. The majority of people are patients somewhere, so can someone working as a waiter/waitress say that they took care of patients regarding their nutrition? No. You worked for an IT company and supported people learning it how to use the technology so that they could care for patients, but you were not in the direct care of a patient.

Other people may feel differently, but if I saw this, I'd question other things listed on the app.

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[Mr.Smile12]

Thanks for your response.

Is there an explanation of what "Medical/Clinical" vs. "Not Medical/Clinical" is? Though I was not in direct care to a patient in both roles, I believe these experiences are different and more relevant to a medical school application and career in healthcare, than say being a waiter. Based on your response, it sounds like they'd have the same weight/merit. It doesn't say "Paid Employment - Patient Care" or "Paid Employment - Non-Patient Care."

Additionally, given how these two roles differed, would you recommend listing them together or separately?

They're both "Paid Employment - Not Medical/Clinical." Sorry, it's no different if you were trying to teach a physician how to use a stethoscope or a BP cuff properly. Err on the humble side and not on the side where faculty reviewing your application think you're fluffing up your numbers. You could check with AMCAS if you want a definition.

 

[MusicDOc124]

Medical/clinical would be experience as a medical assistant, EMT, medic, corpsman, nurse, tech, PA, NP, volunteer taking BPs and other vitals in a clinic, etc. Medical doesn’t mean simply relates to medicine, it means direct patient care where what you do involves you talking to/working with a patient for the purpose of actual care provided to them by you.

 

[MusicDOc124]

Though I was not in direct care to a patient in both roles, I believe these experiences are different and more relevant to a medical school application and career in healthcare, than say being a waiter.

Additionally, given how these two roles differed, would you recommend listing them together or separately?

relevant to healthcare is different than patient contact.

there is no harm to me for listing them separately. Just don’t double dip the numbers since they are under the same umbrella.

 

[lord999]

With some grain of salt as patient transporters and orderlies (the big guys that keep me from getting my head kicked in by a SMI patient who cannot help the situation). The instructions for AMCAS have always been vague on this issue as clinical research has been considered Medical/Clinical even though it is not bedside.

I'd personally use two criteria, but the official AMCAS position (Page 44) is more general. The two criteria are:
1. Clinical - Did this experience directly change the prognosis of a named patient in any way if no one did the activity? This means even for the humble patient transporter, someone has to wheel them down to the Radiology section or the prognosis changes to be worse, but is not necessarily decision-making.

2. Medical - Did this experience lead to a direct change in the way care is provided or decision-making even without direct patient contact? So, I would view clinical research that is not at the bedside or someone on the back office end who is putting together crash carts or such to be medical even if not clinical. This also covers work like public health laboratory analysis (where you are definitely not working with patients directly but does have impact if not done but not specific to an individual patients).

It's possible to argue 2 from that position, but very tenuous. I'd take @MusicDOc124 's advice and be humble about it. No, that really isn't.

I will take a different position and more specific position than @MusicDOc124 on one matter, which is the the company representing for collaboration. So, if you ever meet Medical Device reps (who are generally beloved in the hospital), their work does directly affect patients in a direct manner when they come in with the implants and such and help supervise the installation in patients. It's definitely direct patient-care but it is not decision making. But to the original example, the link is tenuous as there is no direct change in patient care or decision-making just teaching someone the system, that's just the business. Now, if you're retraining them on the new workflow or working with them to design templates or note patterns, I'd probably chalk that to medical myself even if not direct care as it does have decision-making consequences for providers and patients. Teaching does not rise to the level for me, but collaboration and consultation can.

 

[Goro]

Thanks for your response.

Is there an explanation of what "Medical/Clinical" vs. "Not Medical/Clinical" is? Though I was not in direct care to a patient in both roles, I believe these experiences are different and more relevant to a medical school application and career in healthcare, than say being a waiter. Based on your response, it sounds like they'd have the same weight/merit. It doesn't say "Paid Employment - Patient Care" or "Paid Employment - Non-Patient Care."

Additionally, given how these two roles differed, would you recommend listing them together or separately?

"Clinical" means involved with patients.

What you did was not clinical.