Since achieving CHIA certification in 2016, the credential has played a significant role in my professional development and ongoing contribution to the health informatics sector. The certification provided formal recognition of my knowledge and expertise, strengthening my credibility with colleagues, stakeholders, and healthcare organisations. It has also reinforced my commitment to maintaining contemporary knowledge of emerging technologies, digital health strategies, information governance, and data-driven healthcare improvement.
Over the past decade, CHIA certification has supported my career by demonstrating a commitment to professional standards and lifelong learning. It has informed my teaching practice in postgraduate health informatics, digital and virtual health, and provided a strong foundation for applying best-practice principles to real-world healthcare challenges. More than a professional credential, it has served as a catalyst for continuous learning, professional recognition, and active participation in advancing health informatics across the sector.
That spirit of inquiry led me to undertake a PhD exploring Digital Health Competencies for Health Service Managers, a topic born from observing the rapid digital transformation occurring across healthcare systems and the growing expectations placed on managers to guide, govern, and optimise digital health initiatives.
While a number of competency frameworks exist to guide management development, the evidence was inconclusive as to whether these frameworks adequately captured what is actually required to lead in a digitally transforming healthcare environment. This gap motivated me to pursue empirical research that could support workforce development, education, policy, and organisational capability building, ultimately strengthening the readiness of healthcare managers to navigate ongoing change and improve health service outcomes.
My findings revealed that the digital competencies managers need span eight major themes: applying digital system knowledge; data management; change, project and risk management; supporting digital development; vendor management and negotiating; governance, security and decision making; contextualising digital system functionality; and digital agility and shared digital language.
Two priorities stood out above the rest. The first was competence in digital data management and security. Personal health information is an indispensable asset that underpins clinical decision making and must be managed with accuracy, timeliness, and sensitivity as it follows the patient journey. The second priority was the practical management of digital technologies. Decision making in digital environments is shaped by the quality and provenance of data available, which in turn depends on a manager’s digital health literacy and their ability to keep pace with a rapidly evolving technology landscape.
My experience as a CHIA-certified professional significantly influenced both the direction and perspective of this research. The CHIA framework provided a valuable lens through which to understand the knowledge, skills, and capabilities required to operate effectively in complex, digitally transforming health environments, and it highlighted just how significant the gap was for health service managers in this space. Many of the competencies my research identified aligned closely with established health informatics domains, including digital health governance, information management, data and analytics, privacy and security, and digital transformation leadership. At the same time, the research made clear that health service managers need an expanded set of competencies beyond what existing frameworks had defined.
Completing a PhD while remaining actively engaged in professional practice offered a unique opportunity to bridge academic inquiry with the realities of healthcare delivery. This dual perspective reinforced a view I now hold strongly: successful digital transformation is fundamentally a people-centred endeavour, not a technology-driven one. Leaders who possess strong digital capabilities are better positioned to make informed decisions, manage risks, and realise the benefits of digital investments.
The research also deepened my appreciation of the strategic role workforce capability plays in achieving sustainable digital transformation. Health service managers sit at a critical point in organisations, responsible for translating strategy into operational outcomes, and their ability to do so effectively depends on the digital competencies they carry with them. Building digitally confident leaders is not just a workforce development priority. It is essential to the future sustainability, resilience, and performance of our healthcare systems.
For me, the journey from CHIA certification to PhD completion has been a reminder that leadership, digital capability, and professional development are deeply interconnected. I hope this research contributes something useful to that ongoing conversation and encourages others in the health informatics community to keep connecting research, policy, education, and practice in the work ahead.
Dr Mark Brommeyer is a Certified Health Informatician Australasia (CHIA) and holds a PhD in Digital Health Competencies. He is an active contributor to the health informatics community and teaches in postgraduate health informatics, digital and virtual health.
You can read more about Mark’s published work as follows:
Brommeyer, M., Whittaker, M., Mackay, M. & Liang, Z. (2025). Digital Competencies for Health Service Managers and Health Service Implications for Australia. Health Information Management Journal, pp.1-13. www.doi.org
Brommeyer, M., Whittaker, M. & Liang, Z. (2024). Organizational Factors Driving the Realization of Digital Health Transformation Benefits from Health Service Managers: A Qualitative Study. Journal of Healthcare Leadership, pp.455-472. www.doi.org
Brommeyer, M., & Liang, Z. (2024). Digital competencies for health service managers: educating for transformation. Studies in health technology and informatics, 318. www.doi.org
Brommeyer, M., Bichel-Findlay, J., Tarabay, T., Schaper, L., O’Driscoll, D., & Butler-Henderson, K. (2024). The Australian Health Informatics Competency Framework: Conceptual Design, Framework Development, and Certification Delivery. In MEDINFO 2023—The Future Is Accessible: Proceedings of the 19th World Congress on Medical and Health Informatics (pp. 1211-1215). www.doi.org
Brommeyer, M., Whittaker, M., Mackay, M., Ng, F. & Liang, Z. (2023). Building health service management workforce capacity in the era of health informatics and digital health–a scoping review. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 104909. www.doi.org