ANI announces the appointment of Carole A. Gassert,RN, PhD, FACMI, FAAN, associate professor and associate dean for information and technology, University of Utah College of Nursing, as its new co-chair. Gassert will represent AMIA and joins Joyce Sensmeier, MS, RN, BC, CPHIMS, FHIMSS, who represents HIMSS as the other co-chair of ANI. The co-chairs are responsible for the management of the property and business of ANI and work closely with the ANI governing directors and steering committee. Gassert replaces Connie White Delaney, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI, dean and professor, School of Nursing, University of Minnesota, who had served 2 years on the steering committee.
Gassert has directed the Nursing Informatics program at the University of Utah since October 2002. In her position as associate dean, information and technology, she focuses her efforts on numerous informatics projects that have been implemented in the College of Nursing. Dr. Gassert is a long-standing advocate for NI, working to establish NI as a specialty within nursing and developing the first NI graduate program in the world at the University of Maryland. She spent 6 years in the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the federal government, where she served as an informatics nurse consultant to the Bureau of Health Professions and the Division of Nursing and Senior Distance Learning Advisor for HRSA before accepting employment at the University of Utah. Dr. Gassert is an informatics expert in NI curriculum, NI competencies, telehealth, and informatics policy and has served in numerous roles in AMIA's NI initiatives.
Gassert accepts her new role with a sincere appreciation of what has been accomplished to date, and a positive outlook toward the future.
"We are delighted to have the leadership of Dr. Gassert as co-chair of ANI," said Karen Greenwood, AMIA executive vice president. "She is a champion for nursing informatics and an innovator in the field. Her dynamic leadership and vision will create a path to move towards our goal to improve and impact patient safety and the quality of health care delivery and access."
SAVE THE DATE: 2007 AMIA SPRING CONGRESS
Mark your calendar for a can't-miss event in the informatics community. AMIA is heading to Orlando and intends to build upon the recent success of its annual spring gatherings one more time! The 2007 AMIA Spring Congress will be held May 22 to 24, 2007, at the Swan and Dolphin Resort in Orlando, FL. The Spring Congress promises to draw on the expertise of informatics' professionals from across the spectrum of the discipline and provide focused content in 5 topic areas. The AMIA Spring Congress highlights several specific areas of endeavors within the field of informatics that will play a pivotal role in the transformation of the health system in the United States and abroad. Program themes speak directly to how informatics and the use of health information technology can catalyze advances in clinical care, public and population health, and translational research informatics.
AMIA has produced 5 distinct tracks to highlight these domains:
* Clinical Decision Support
* Nursing Informatics
* Personal Health Records
* Public Health Informatics
* Translational Research Informatics
Track learning objectives of the NI track include:
* identify the maximal role of NI for supporting nurses as patient advocates, care coordinators, and communicators
* describe the uses of informatics to improve nursing clinical and operational outcomes
* describe best practice and future directions for using informatics to integrate evidence into practice
The early bird member rates for this conference (available through March 16, 2007) are $545 for regular, retired, corporate, and institutional members; and $395 for student members.