Academic biomedical informatics has achieved great successes through research contributions over several decades, now reflected in a thriving commercial marketplace for electronic health records and other informatics tools. That very success, coupled with changes in the ability of governments to support research at past levels, is forcing a reconsideration of the directions and emphases for faculty members in informatics academic units. This paper discusses those forces and proposes areas of emphasis that will strengthen the academic discipline as it evolves in the years ahead. The focus is on the role of academic informaticians as practitioners of informatics, as researchers, and as educators.