The American Nursing Informatics Association's (ANIA) annual conference was held on May 10 to 12, 2023, in Louisville, KY. There were almost 300 attendees onsite, and 150 attended virtually. Onsite attendees were able to attend the Kentucky Derby Museum for a reception. The theme of the conference was turning the corner with nursing informatics. The Virginia Saba Memorial keynote speaker was Dr Linda Roussel, who discussed implementation science and practice and the implication for informatics nurses with translational science. One objective of her presentation was to identify key elements of translational science and the integration of future informatics trends. Implementation practice is related to evidence-based practice, and informatics is an essential tool to help translate the evidence into practice.
The other keynote presentation focused on cybersecurity. This engaging presentation was shared by two physicians who also identify as "hackers." Drs Dameff and Tully had several important takeaways including (1) healthcare is dependent on connected technology such as scans, infusion pumps, monitors, pacemakers, and so on, and (2) clinicians trust the technology and do expect these tools to work. Examples of this are unplanned downtimes, alerts, and automated processes. Cyberattacks can impact those technologies and cause patient safety concerns. Examples are ransomware attacks and hackers overtaking medical devices. The final takeaway was that technology-related problems are complex and difficult to fix quickly. We need to be aware of cybersecurity and consider it when something is going wrong. We are so excited that they have already agreed to come back next year!
There were five tracks for the concurrent, on-demand, and poster sessions. The tracks included impact on practice, innovation in practice, leadership strategies, quality improvement and patient outcomes, and role and career development. As such, there were presentations about artificial intelligence, telehealth, social determinants of health, downtime, documentation burden, usability, and leadership. One presentation focused on school nursing and how nursing informatics can improve their practice. An additional presentation was focused on faculty teaching informatics. A toolkit for graduate faculty teaching informatics will be available in the summer for sale in the ANIA online store. In addition to the live sessions, there were 10 prerecorded presentations that were available to view.
All poster presentations were all electronic this year with some prerecorded virtual sessions. In addition, some top-scoring posters were offered onsite with the opportunity to ask questions of the presenters. There were various informatics topics that made for some great presentations. The virtual presentations were offered twice for a half an hour each. There were two onsite viewing sessions offered that lasted an hour each and was a great way to get more engagement with members.
The closing session was presented by Dr Rebecca Love, who spoke about the evolution of informatics nursing from the time of Florence Nightingale. She held a mini hackathon where attendees in small groups talked briefly and came up with a common problem and worked on innovative solutions to the problem.
In addition, there were several preconference workshop sessions available. One was related to data visualization and the application of a variety of methods to provide the best data visualization to indicate the most important attributes of the data to show new insights. Data visualizations can assist in communicating the data story more persuasively. Other sessions were related to the use of process improvement charts, improving writing skills, SQL for beginners, and a nursing informatics certification review course. The preconference sessions were well attended and added opportunities for members.
The annual business meeting and member luncheon was held on Friday, and all the officers and board members provided updates. The immediate past president was thanked for her service and presented with a crystal gavel. There was even a rap song performed by the treasurer with the lyrics about nursing informatics created by ChatGPT. Abstracts are currently being accepted for the 2024 annual conference in Chicago. Go to https://www.ania.org/eventsformoreinformation.