Southern California/Arizona and Northern California/Nevada January 2010 Meeting to feature EHR Presentations

Come to Arizona to escape winter!

Nadine Ellero of the U of Virginia will address How One Librarian became Engaged in EMR Activities and Keith Frey, MD, of Mayo Scottsdale will present The EMR: Our Journey to Full Medical Practice Automation. We hope local hospital librarians will bring appropriate IT team members to hear this discussion. We are very much looking forward to this session! Find more info about the meeting in beautiful Glendale, Arizona, January 29-20 here: http://www.mlgsca.mlanet.org/jtmtg2010/invited_speakers.htm

MIS Events at Upcoming Chapter Meetings

From the looks of the MLA Chapter Council site, October is definitely the month for chapter meetings!

In the South Central Chapter, the MIS section will have a Dine Around on Monday, October 19th.

Members attending the 3-by-the-Sea trichapter meeting might want to check out the Best Practices Session on E-Records and PHRs on Wednesday 10/7.

Anyone else planning MIS events at chapter conferences? Are you giving an interesting poster, paper or CE related to medical informatics? Is there a program you’re really excited about? Leave a comment and let other members know.

Maureen 'Molly' Knapp, MA, AHIP

Health IT and Social Media

Interested in how social media is influencing the way that people search for and share health inforamation? Follow the Twitter feed for the "Driving the Adoption of Health IT Through Innovations in Social Media". This one day conference will occur in Washington, D.C. on July 16th, 2009.

Topics include:

• H1N1 Influenza: How Social Media Improves Communication & Collaboration For Public Health
• Drug & Food Safety In The Age Of Social Media and Transparency
• Electronic Health Records: Using Social Media To Drive Health IT Adoption

Announcing the MIS/MLA Career Development Grant

The Medical Informatics Section (MIS)/MLA Career Development Grant provides the recipient with an award in support of a career development activity that contributes to advancement in the field of medical informatics. The list of previous winners may be seen here. The awardee receives $1500 and is presented with a certificate at the MLA annual meeting. Applicants must have an MLS or equivalent degree and are preferably members of the MIS. Applications are due December 1st.

Jury Members
Carrie Iwema, PhD, MLS
(Jury chair 2009-2010)
Information Specialist in Molecular Biology
Health Sciences Library System
University of Pittsburgh

Brooke Billman, MA, AHIP
AZHIN Librarian
Arizona Health Sciences Library
University of Arizona

Cynthia Burke, MLS, AHIP
Reference Librarian
Reference & Web Services Section
National Library of Medicine

Kathy Kerdolff, MLIS, AHIP
Reference Librarian
LSU Health Sciences CenterLouisiana State University

Beth Whipple, MLS
Research Informationist/Assistant Librarian
Ruth Lilly Medical Library
Indiana University School of Medicine

Dr. Blumenthal Speaks!

Interesting interview with Dr. David Blumenthal on how to motivate physicians to adopt technology to manage health information:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124404155221081477.html

For All of You Second Lifers Out There...

A Survey of Health-Related Activities on Second Life:

ABSTRACT
Background: Increasingly, governments, health care agencies, companies, and private groups have chosen Second Life as part of their Web 2.0 communication strategies. Second Life offers unique design features for disseminating health information, training health professionals, and enabling patient education for both academic and commercial health behavior research.Objectives: This study aimed to survey and categorize the range of health-related activities on Second Life; to examine the design attributes of the most innovative and popular sites; and to assess the potential utility of Second Life for the dissemination of health information and for health behavior change.Methods: We used three separate search strategies to identify health-related sites on Second Life. The first used the application’s search engine, entering both generic and select illness-specific keywords, to seek out sites. The second identified sites through a comprehensive review of print, blog, and media sources discussing health activities on Second Life. We then visited each site and used a snowball method to identify other health sites until we reached saturation (no new health sites were identified). The content, user experience, and chief purpose of each site were tabulated as well as basic site information, including user traffic data and site size.Results: We found a wide range of health-related activities on Second Life, and a diverse group of users, including organizations, groups, and individuals. For many users, Second Life activities are a part of their Web 2.0 communication strategy. The most common type of health-related site in our sample (n = 68) were those whose principle aim was patient education or to increase awareness about health issues. The second most common type of site were support sites, followed by training sites, and marketing sites. Finally, a few sites were purpose-built to conduct research in SL or to recruit participants for real-life research.Conclusions: Studies show that behaviors from virtual worlds can translate to the real world. Our survey suggests that users are engaged in a range of health-related activities in Second Life which are potentially impacting real-life behaviors. Further research evaluating the impact of health-related activities on Second Life is warranted.
(J Med Internet Res 2009;11(2):e17)

Pediatrics via iPhone

Read how one doctor is using her iPhone to deliver improved pediatrics services to her patients. Read more here: http://mobihealthnews.com/2401/interview-dr-hodge-the-first-iphone-doctor/

President's Stimulus Law Provides Funds for Informatics Initiatives

President Obama's economic stimulus package includes $17 billion in Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments to health care providers who demonstrate "meaningful use" of healthcare IT in their practices. For now, there is still some debate over what "meaningful use" means. Check out the transcript of a recent hearing sponsored by the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics for a discussion on what "meaningful use" should include.

Another outcome of the stimulus package is the creation of two advisory committees - the Health IT Policy Committee and the Health IT Standards Committee. These committees were established to make policy recommendations for an interoperable health IT system to David Blumenthal, National Coordinator For Health IT.

Google Health Continues to Fix Bugs in Its PHR

In a recent post on the Official Google Blog, Roni Zeiger, MD, Product Manager of Google Health discussed a common error that people encounter when downloading data from their medical record into their Google Health Account. The confusion occurs when hospitals use ICD-9 codes that may not be an accurate description of the patient's diagnosis. Read more here about how Google Health is working to correct this error.

Medical Informatics - Continuing Education

There are numerous educational options in informatics. They range from in-person courses from the Medical Library Association and the week-long intensive Woods Hole BioMedical Informatics course to online courses through the American Medical Informatics Association’s 10X10 program. Below is a brief list of informatics classes, tutorials and distance learning opportunities.

Medical Library Association:

Informatics courses currently listed in the Medical Library Association Continuing Education Clearinghouse on Informatics are:

Bioinformatics Primer

Clinical Genomics: From Bench to Bedside

Incorporating Informatics into the Curriculum

Informatics and EHR: Envisioning the Future

Information Insecurities: How Secure is Secure Enough?

Making Sense of Protein Sequences

Woods Hole:
BioMedical Informatics Course Overview (Woods Hole)
These week-long survey courses are designed to familiarize individuals with the application of information science and computer technologies in health care, biomedical research, and health professions education. Through a combination of lectures and hands-on computer exercises, participants will be introduced to the conceptual and technical components of medical informatics.

AMIA 10 X 10 Program

The AMIA 10x10 uses curricular content from existing informatics training programs and other AMIA educational initiatives with a special emphasis toward programs with a proven track record in distance learning. The content will provide a framework but also cover plenty of detail, especially in areas such as electronic and personal health records, health information exchange, standards and terminology, and health care quality and error prevention.

Courses available from:

Oregon Health & Science University – Registration to open July 2009

Stanford University

University of Alabama at Birmingham – Registration to open June 2009

University of Cincinnati

University of Illinois at Chicago

University of Minnesota School of Nursing – Registration to open June 2009

NOVA Southeastern University

University of West Florida

A short course in informatics is available from the University of West Florida

Introduction to Medical Informatics

An overview of the interdisciplinary nature of Medical Informatics that should be of interest to physicians, nurses, health care administrators, medical librarians, IT techs and others. To meet your scheduling needs, this course is taught completely online, with an emphasis on the real world interaction between medicine and technology and not on theory. Every effort is made to provide practical and up-to-date examples of issues and interesting emerging technologies for the student.

NCBI Education

Online tutorials available on:

BLAST QuickStart: Example-Driven Web-Based BLAST Tutorial

PSI-Blast Tutorial

Identification of Disease Genes: Example-Driven Web-Based Tutorial

Opportunities for Training and Education Sponsored by the National Library of Medicine

MIS Blog Guidelines

Scope of MIS Blog
Primarily, topics should be related to the field of medical informatics, especially the role of librarians in this field. Topics can include new articles, relevant legislation, new research, and upcoming conference and educational opportunities. The goal of the blog is to provide a forum for discussion and sharing developments in the field.

Posting to the MIS Blog
All MIS officers may post directly to the blog, and will have Blogger “Author” privileges. This means that they can create and edit their own posts. The blog editor (the one person with “admin” access to Blogger) will be able to write blog posts, moderate comments, and edit or delete other blog posts and comments. The editor may gather a group of interested MIS members to act as frequent blog posters. These blog posters will have Blogger “author” privileges, allowing publishing and editing of their own posts. Any MIS member may submit a piece to the blog editor to be posted, if the item falls within the scope of the blog it will be posted.

Commenting on MIS Blog posts
Anyone may post a comment on any MIS Blog post. Anonymous comments are not permitted. The comments will be moderated simply to avoid spam, not to edit content. If comments become dramatically off-topic, the blog editor will privately inform the commenter of the scope of the blog. Inappropriate comments will be removed immediately.
Both blog posts and comments should follow the MLA Task Force on Social Networking Software Guidelines for Bloggers: http://sns.mlanet.org/blog/blog_guidelines.php

MIS Blog Editor
The blog editor is responsible for installing and maintaining the blog software, along with monitoring posts and comments.

The Health Information Technology Public Utility Act of 2009 Introduced

The Health Information Technology Public Utility Act of 2009 would:

• Create a new federal Public Utility Board within the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT to direct and oversee formation of this HIT Public Utility Model, its implementation, and its ongoing operation.
• Implement and administer a new 21st Century Health IT Grant program for safety-net providers to cover the full cost of open source software implementation and maintenance for up to five years, with the possibility of renewal for up to five years if required benchmarks are met.
• Facilitate ongoing communication with open source user groups to incorporate improvements and innovations from them into the core programs.
• Ensure interoperability between these programs, including as innovations are incorporated, and develop mechanisms to integrate open source software with Medicaid and CHIP billing.
• Create a child-specific Electronic Health Record (EHR) to be used in Medicaid, CHIP, and other federal children’s health programs.
• Develop and integrate quality and performance measurement into open source software modules.

Recent articles from PubMed about the EHR

Are there patient disparities when electronic health records are adopted?

J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2009 May;20(2):473-88

Using nationally representative samples of visits from the 2005-2006 National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys and the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys (N=39,343), this study examines whether electronic health record (EHR) systems have been adopted by primary care physicians or providers (PCPs) for poor minority patients at the same rate as by the PCPs for wealthier non-minority patients. Although we found that electronic health record adoption rates varied primarily by type of practice of the PCP, we also found that uninsured Black and Hispanic or Latino patients, as well as Hispanic or Latino Medicaid patients were less likely to have PCPs using EHRs, compared with privately-insured White patients, after controlling for PCPs' practice type and location, as well as patient characteristics. This finding reflects a mixture of high and low EHR adopters among PCPs for poor minority patients.
PMID: 19395843 [PubMed - in process]

Evaluation of a Physician Informatics Tool to Improve Patient Handoffs.

J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2009 Apr 23;
Authors: Flanagan ME, Patterson ES, Frankel RM, Doebbeling BN

OBJECTIVE To facilitate patient handoffs between physicians, the computerized Patient Handoff Tool (PHT) extracts information from the electronic health record to populate a form that is printed and given to the cross-cover physician. OBJECTIVES were to: 1) evaluate the rate at which data elements of interest were extracted from the electronic health record into the PHT, 2) assess the frequency for needing information beyond that contained in the PHT and where obtained, 3) assess physician's perceptions of the PHT, 4) identify opportunities for improvement. DESIGN Observational study. MEASUREMENTS This multimethod study included content coding of PHT forms, end of shift surveys of cross-cover resident physicians, and semi-structured interviews to identify opportunities for improvement. Thirty-five of 42 internal medicine resident physicians participated. Measures included: 1264 PHT forms coded for type of information, 63 end-of-shift surveys of cross-cover residents (residents could participate 2 times), and 18 semi-structured interviews. RESULTS For objective 1, patient identifiers and medications were reliably extracted (>98%). Other types of information--allergies and code status--were more variable (<50%).>The Relationship between Electronic Health Record Use and Quality of Care over Time.

J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2009 Apr 23;
Authors: Zhou L, Soran CS, Jenter CA, Volk LA, Orav EJ, Bates DW, Simon SR

OBJECTIVE Electronic health records (EHRs) have the potential to advance the quality of care, but recent studies have shown mixed results. We undertook the present study to examine the extent of EHR usage and how the quality of care delivered in ambulatory care practices varied according to duration of EHR availability. METHODS We linked two data sources: a statewide survey of physicians' adoption and use of EHR and claims data reflecting quality of care as indicated by physicians' performance on widely used quality measures. Using four years of measurement, we combined 18 quality measures into 6 clinical condition categories. While the survey of physicians was cross-sectional, respondents indicated the year in which they adopted EHR. In an analysis accounting for duration of EHR use, we examined the relationship between EHR adoption and quality of care. RESULTS The percent of physicians reporting adoption of EHR and availability of EHR core functions more than doubled between 2000 and 2005. Among EHR users in 2005, the average duration of EHR use was 4.8 years. For all 6 clinical conditions, there was no difference in performance between EHR users and non-users. In addition, for these 6 clinical conditions, there was no consistent pattern between length of time using an EHR and physicians' performance on quality measures in both bivariate and multivariate analyses. CONCLUSION In this cross-sectional study, we found no association between duration of using an EHR and performance with respect to quality of care, although power was limited. Intensifying the use of key EHR features, such as clinical decision support, may be needed to realize quality improvement from EHRs. Future studies should examine the relationship between the extent to which physicians use key EHR functions and their performance on quality measures over time.
PMID: 19390094 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Financial performance of primary care physician practices prior to electronic health record implementation.

Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2009 Apr;22(2):112-8
Authors: Fleming NS, Becker ER, Culler S, Cheng D, McCorkle R, Ballard DJ

While electronic health records (EHRs) are being widely implemented across the nation, few empirical data are currently available regarding their potential impact on financial performance and resource use. HealthTexas Provider Network is implementing a networkwide EHR, providing a unique opportunity to describe and evaluate fiscal effects. We conducted a retrospective, longitudinal observational study of financial performance related to inputs and income- and productivity-related outputs for the 33 primary care practices (July 2002-April 2006). Models for each outcome were constructed to test for a linear trend over time, adjusted for practice characteristics. F tests based on these models were used to determine the effect of each adjustor and to determine existence of a trend in each outcome. The observed staff per physician full-time equivalent (FTE) (3.6) was similar to staffing ratios reported for other primary care-only practices, while observation of 4692 work relative value units per physician FTE annually was higher than reported nationally. Significant monthly trends were identified for three of the outcome measures. During the pre-EHR baseline period, staffing ratios were equivalent to and physician productivity greater than reports available for these measures nationally or in other settings. Identification of time trends in three measures will allow these to be accounted for in the model used to evaluate the financial performance impact of EHR implementation.
PMID: 19381309 [PubMed - in process]

Managing terminology assets in electronic health records.

Stud Health Technol Inform. 2009;143:507-12
Authors: Abrams K, Schneider S, Scichilone R

Electronic Health Record (EHR)systems rely on standard terminologies and classification systems that require both Information Technology (IT) and Information Management (IM) skills. Convergence of perspectives is necessary for effective terminology asset management including evaluation for use, maintenance and intersection with software applications. Multiple terminologies are necessary for patient care communication and data capture within EHRs and other information management tasks. Terminology asset management encompasses workflow and operational context as well as IT specifications and software application run time requirements. This paper identifies the tasks, skills and collaboration of IM and IT approaches for terminology asset management.
PMID: 19380984 [PubMed - in process]

Strategies to Increase Familiarization and Acceptance of Electronic Health Records among Health Professionals and Consumers.

Stud Health Technol Inform. 2009;143:419-25
Authors: Burdyny C, Findlater S, Caron MP, Ajaz M

There are many reasons an organization may choose to implement electronic health records. The challenge is to acknowledge the benefits and deficiencies of the electronic health record, to understand the driving forces for implementation and the barriers to it, and to effect change in the workplace and consumer behaviour. Indeed, one challenge is the determination of the organizational stance with regard to these factors. If all of these factors are seriously considered and the risks to implementation measured, a successful implementation should ensue.
PMID: 19380971 [PubMed - in process]

Health Literacy Conference Announcement

The Institute for Healthcare AdvancementProudly Announces its8th Annual Health Literacy Conference:

"Health Literacy: Bridging Research and Practice"
May 7-8, 2009 ¤ Hyatt Regency Irvine ¤ Irvine, California

From the http://www.iha4health.org/ website:

"The Institute for Healthcare Advancement's Eighth Annual Health Literacy Conference, "Health Literacy: Bridging Research and Practice," will be held May 7-8, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency in Irvine, CA.

Click here to be put on an e-list to receive information for the conference as it becomes available, including a Call for Poster Abstracts, Health Literacy Award nominations, a conference brochure, and registration information as we get closer to the conference.

Join us for 2 days of information, clinical tips, and skill-building sessions on recognizing and communicating effectively with your patients with low literacy skills.

Questions? Call us at (800) 434-4633. Thanks for your interest.

--The IHA Health Literacy Conference Team"

PHR Conference Announcement

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE CONFERENCE
Individual Registration - $195 (late registration May 1 at $295); Government employees complimentary

Friends of the National Library of Medicine
2009 Annual Conference

Personal Electronic Health Records:
From Biomedical Research to People’s Health

May 20 - 21, 2009

National Institutes of Health, Natcher Conference Center
9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Maryland

Reflecting the NIH mission, the National Library of Medicine and the non-profit Friends of the NLM have organized this conference to develop and promote new information and knowledge regarding the critical and recent developments in health information technology. The conference is structured to offer cross-cutting perspectives from government, industry, health centers and research, and to align closely with the priorities of the current Administration around the development and widespread implementation of personal electronic health records. Please visit www.fnlm.org for additional information on the conference.

Please find a selection of sessions and speakers listed below:

*Electronic Health Record and Economic Recovery David Cutler, PhD, Harvard University
Biomedical Research and Electronic Health Record George Hripcsak, MD, MS, Columbia University

*Our Search for the Best Personal Health Electronic Health Record Alfred Spector, PhD, Google

*Health Records and Systems Interoperability Daniel S. Pelino, IBM and Dan Drawbaugh, UPMC

*Microsoft Experience with Electronic Health Records James Mault, MD, FACS, Microsoft Health Solutions Group

*Patient Access to Electronic Health Records Rich Umbdenstock, FACHE, American Hospital Association

*New Initiatives in Personalized Health Information Clement McDonald, MD, National Library of Medicine

*Ethical and Legal Issues of Personal Health Records Arthur Caplan, PhD, University of Pennsylvania

*If We Were Starting Now: What is Needed for the Electronic Health Record of the Future? Donald Lindberg, MD, National Library of Medicine

Conference Co-Chairs:

Andrew Balas, MD, PhD Jonathan Perlin, MD, PhD, MSHA, FACP, FACMI
Dean, College of Health Sciences, Old Dominion University Chief Medical Officer and President, Clinical Services, HCA, Inc.

For more information, please contact Sarah Pease at 202.719.8060 or spease@oai-usa.com.

Medical Informatics Section Programs for MLA 2009

Colleen Cuddy, Chair-elect, has arranged for the Medical Informatics Section to sponsor two programs and co-sponsor a third at the 2009 MLA Annual Meeting in Hawaii.

With Top Tech Trends III: Technology Fusion, co-sponsored by the Educational Media and Technologies Section, this popular program returns on Monday, May 18 at 10:30 AM for its third year, with technology trend spotters in health sciences libraries offering their latest insights, opinions, and criticisms on where technology is leading us next.

In a related effort, Eric Schnell continues to maintain a Facebook group for MLA Technology Trends <http://usc.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2464357736> to support a collaborative exchange among those interested in the field; the group currently has 195 members. Being an Informationist, or, Why Are You Working in the Library, is a contributed papers session being co-sponsored by the Molecular Biology and Genomics SIG on Sunday, May 17 at 11 AM; four contributed papers have been chosen to represent the breadth of the informationist role in the context of medical libraries.

The Educational Media and Technologies Section is the sponsor of a contributed papers session on Resources for Disaster and Remote Access Regions, being co-sponsored by the MIS and two other sections. This program is about providing information resources in times of disaster and identifying innovative approaches to information delivery in remote geographic regions.

2009 AMIA Summit on Translational Bioinformatics - March 15-17, 2009

Upcoming Conference Announcement:

For full information about this conference, please visit the official conference website:
http://summit2009.amia.org/

The 2009 AMIA Summit on Translational Bioinformatics, will be held March 15-17, 2009, in San Francisco, California, at the Grand Hyatt San Francisco. Conducted in close partnership with the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB), this meeting will be an indispensible gathering for translational bioinformatics research and development worldwide.

Registration: AMIA invites registrants to take advantage of the advance registration discount rates. The deadline for advance registration is March 2, 2009 (11:59 pm ET).



Program Information: Use the Searchable Program (under the "Program" tab above) to find detailed information on sessions, presenters and posters. See below for session topic tracks.

• Track 1: Informatics Methods for the Analysis of Molecular and Clinical Measurements


• Track 2: Computational Approaches to Finding Molecular Mechanisms and Therapies for Disease


• Track 3: Relating and Representing Phenotypes and Disease


• Track 4: Dissecting Disease Through the Study of Organisms, Evolution, and Taxonomy


• Track 5: Informatics Concepts, Tools, and Techniques to Enable Integrative Translational Research


• Track 6: Informatics Methods in Genetics Discoveries and Clinical Practice
  

Apply for a Sewell "Librarian Learning Partnership"

From the Sewell Fund website:

The goal of The Grace and Harold Sewell Memorial Fund, Inc. (the Fund) is to increase librarians’ identification with medical and health care professionals. Medicine for the 21st Century underlines the key role of information resources in raising the quality of health care.(1) Librarians experienced in managing knowledge and teaching informatics can supply quality information by becoming ongoing members of the health care team. Immersion in the health care environment is necessary for librarians to understand how health care professionals solve problems individually and through consensus.

Learning Partnerships: Toward New Information Perspectives "Wonderful program. There are not enough such immersion opportunities for librarians."
– Neil Rambo, UW Health Sciences Libraries, 9/22/06

The Grace and Harold Sewell Memorial Fund plans to fund two, paid, 12-month, Learning Partnerships placing experienced librarians/informationists within leading health care and/or research organizations for the purpose of both partners gaining a greater understanding of how best information sciences can be effectively applied in each environment.

We are currently soliciting applications for librarians/informationists for our 2009/2010 Learning Partnerships. Host organizations will present a learning environment, a series of activities, and access to organizational leaders which will allow the librarian/informationist to more fully understand the nature of the organization’s work, its decision-making processes, the clients served and the health care issues addressed. The librarian/informationist will participate in team settings designed to utilize their skills and knowledge in non-traditional ways. Immersion is the goal and expanded knowledge the anticipated result for both partners. To read about past Learning Partnerships, click here.

Key 2009/2010 Learning Partnership Dates:
Librarian Applications Available: February 2009
Librarian Applications Due: April 15, 2009
2009/2010 Recipients Announced: Early June 2009

Election Results and Other Announcements

The election results are in, and I'm pleased to announce the following officers for 2009/2010:

Elizabeth (Beth) Whipple, Chair-Elect
Maureen (Molly) Knapp, Secretary-Treasurer

As decided by the MIS executive board, Kathy Kerdolff will serve as the MIS nominee to the MLA Nominating Committee.

We wish to thank Bette Sydelko for her willingness to run for secretary-treasurer and also for all the excellent work she is doing as our current Secretary-Treasurer.

Thanks also to the other MIS Nominating Committee members (Susan Lessick and Lisa Traditi) and to all of you who voted.

For the MIS Travel Grant Awards, I'm pleased to announce that we had 10 applicants and after tallying points according to the established criteria, we determined that the 3 grant winners are:

Laura Barrett
Doug Varner
Beth Whipple

Their checks for $350 each will be presented at the MIS Business Meeting.

Thanks to Bette Sydelko for helping me in the grant award process.

We look forward to seeing you all in Hawaii!

Janis Brown

Top Technology Trends on Facebook!

Eric Schnell has created a Facebook group for the MIS Top Techology Trends. This group is hugely popular with over 200 members! Check out what everyone is saying. Eric describes the group as:

"A space for librarians, MLS students, LIS faculty, or anyone else interested in discussing technology trends related to libraries - specifically medical and health sciences libraries. Also includes discussions on technology successes and failures, strategies that librarians can use to communicate and implement emerging technologies, and how technology is changing the library profession."

You join the group here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=23825262322#/group.php?gid=2464357736

AMIA Liaison Report

American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA)

The AMIA 2009 Annual Symposium was held November 8 – 12, 2008 in Washington, DC, on Biomedical and Health Informatics: From Foundations to Applications to Policy. The symposium offered papers, posters, and invited panels, as well as tutorials and continuing education. Birds of a feather sessions, a new feature this year, provided informal sessions where people with common interests could discuss specific topics that had been solicited from prospective conference attendees.

AMIA received about 900 submissions for paper, posters, and panels. After review committees accepted proposals, a committee categorized the submissions as foundational contributions of novel informatics methods or practical reports of the applications of informatics and then sorted the submissions into themes; the 2008 meeting included 11 themes. The AMIA conference includes a mix of broad, over-arching topics, as well as specific research results. Many presenters were students in informatics graduate programs, so there seemed to be more research papers than at typical MLA meetings. Further information about the symposium can be obtained on the AMIA web site .

Other AMIA meetings include AMIA Summit on Translational Bioinformatics , which will be held March 15-17, 2009, in San Francisco, California; and the 2009 AMIA Spring Congress , which will be held May 28 – 30, 2009, Orlando, Florida.

AMIA continues to work towards its objective of training 10,000 healthcare professionals by the year 2010 through its 10x10 program. Karen Albert, an MLA member, has completed the certificate program and found that it broadened her horizons and led to a promotion. Another regular AMIA activity includes visiting legislators to discuss issues in informatics. This year, Medical Informatics Section member, Douglas Varner participated in AMIA’s Capitol Hill day.

Only a handful of medical librarians attended the AMIA Annual Symposium, and a few of those who have become active AMIA members are currently not in the MLA directory. This meeting was the first AMIA meeting I have attended in several years, but as before I found it to be stimulating to learn about new technologies in patient care, informatics methods being used to develop diagnostics and therapeutics, and policies related to health informatics. Attending AMIA meetings helps to get a better understanding of the milieu in which we work and would be beneficial to other MLA members. The AMIA annual symposium rotates between Washington, DC and other cities, and the smaller summits and congresses are also held in various cities, so MLA members should take advantage of the opportunity to attend when AMIA is in a nearby city.

MOTION

This report is informational and requires no action by the Board of Directors.

Janis F. Brown
MLA Representative to AMIA
January 9, 2009

Government Relations Committee Mid-Year Report

Medical Library Association
Medical Informatics Section

Government Relations Committee
Mid-Year Report 2008-2009
Submitted by Doug Varner

AMIA Hill Day

On September 11th, 2008 I attended the AMIA Capital Hill Day which provided opportunities for information professionals to meet with U. S. Congressional Staffers.

Approximately 40 people attended the event – I was the only representative from the Medical Library Association.

The day began with a breakfast meeting in which Representative Wu (D-OR) spoke to the group. Rep. Wu has sponsored H.R. 1467 – “10,000 Training by 2010 Act” which is currently passed through the House on the Suspension Calendar. This bill requires the Director of the National Science Foundation to award competitive grants for basic research relating to innovative methodologies for improving health care information systems. In addition the bill provides federally funded grants to improve undergraduate and Master’s degree programs in health care information systems. AMIA supports full passage of this bill.

For the remainder of the day the group was divided into smaller groups of 4-5 people. Each group was presented with a schedule for meeting with staffers from various Senate/House Committees and staffers from the offices of individual congressional members.

My group met staffers from the following Committees/Offices:

o U.S. House Science and Technology Committee
o U.S. House Ways and Means Committee
o Office of U.S. Rep. Van Hollen (D-MD)
o U.S. House Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee
o Office of U.S. Sen. Mikulski (D-MD)
o U.S. House New Democrat Coalition

The meetings consisted of educating staffers on the purpose/activities of AMIA and asking how AMIA would be able to assist staffers and U.S. Congressional members with pending legislation. Members of my group focused on H.R. 6357 – “PRO(TECH)T Act” sponsored by Rep. Dingell (D-MI). One of the provisions of this bill mandates integration of more stringent privacy and security provisions into healthcare information systems and processes and the introduction of consent into most healthcare operations. AMIA does not support the passage of this bill due to a consensus opinion of the majority of AMIA members that requiring individual consent for each and every treatment, payment and health care operation activity would slow the delivery of care, diminish quality and impose enormous new costs in the system – without providing any actual benefit in the safeguarding of health information.

Respectfully submitted,

Doug Varner
Government Relations Committee

MIS Section Planning Grid

MLA Planning Grid

Section: Medical Informatics Section

Goal 1: Recruitment, Membership and Leadership in the Profession

Objective 1: Increase section membership and involvement of members in the section

1. Locate and encourage previous MIS members to return to the section


2. Send letters to new members and encourage active participation in their section


3. Contact members via e-mail with a link to join the listserv and Website/blog


4. Invite members to participate in section committees

Objective 2: Provide a slate of qualified candidates to elect a Chair-Elect and submit a candidate from MIS for the Nominating Committee nominee

Who, Expertise Needed:
*Membership Committee - Sadie Honey & Jeanette de Richemond, Co-Chairs
*Nominating Committee - Janis Brown, Immediate-Past-Chair/Nominating Committee Chair

Time Needed:
*Throughout the year
*Completion before February 15 deadline to announce election results

Resources Required:
*Quarterly MIS membership lists from MLA
*Listserv to solicit volunteers for committees and to announce election and election results
*Surveymonkey (or other online survey tool) to conduct election

Product Outcome:
*Listserv with up-to-date members
*Increased membership
*Increased number of members involved in committees
*Effective new leaders

Evaluation:
*Track number of total members and new members for reporting in Mid-Year and Annual Reports
*Track number of members participating on committees
*Well-qualified candidates running for office




Goal 2: Life Long Learning

Objective 1: Provide relevant and interesting programs at the annual conference in Hawaii, 2009

1. Sponsor a third round of the invited speaker panel on Top Technology Trends expanding on the range of topics covered, and continuing the use of a Google jockey and the audience response system


2. Sponsor a contributed paper session on Being an Informationist

Objective 2: Promote continuing education relevant to medical informatics

1. Identify existing MLA CE courses relevant to medical informatics and post to the MIS web site to encourage members to attend


2. Identify medical informatics areas not already covered by MLA CE courses and encourage members to submit course proposals


3. Solicit other ideas for courses of interest to members

Objective 3: Encourage use of social networking tools so members can gain familiarity with these tools and understand their value

1. Invite members to join the Technology Trends Facebook group established by Technology Trends invited speaker Eric Schnell

Who, Expertise Needed:
*Program Committee - Colleen Cuddy, Section Chair-elect/Program Chair Continuing Education Committee
*Kathel Dunn, Chair
*Eric Schnell, Facebook group creator

Time Needed:
*Throughout the year responding to MLA Program deadlines
*Complete CE course inventory by October to identify potential topics for new CE courses
*Invite members to submit CE proposals on informatics topics throughout the year

Resources Required:
*MLA Program Planning resources
*MLANET CE information
*Facebook site

Product Outcome:
*High quality programming at the annual meeting
*List of MLA CE courses of potential interest to section members
*Facebook group

Evaluation:
*Number of members in the Technology Trends Facebook Group
*Development of new CE courses related to medical informatics
*Number of attendees at section-sponsored programming

Goal 3: Advocacy


Objective 1: Work with MLA to award the Medical Informatics Section/MLA Career Development Grant to one individual

Objective 2: Donate to the Donald A.B. Lindberg Research Fellowship Fund and to other worthy conferences, grants, etc.

Objective 3: Determine appropriateness of providing some funding for some members to attend MLA ’09 in Hawaii and implement the award if agreed upon.

Objective 4: Promote members by publicizing their activities at the annual conference and other national level activities on the section web site

Who, Expertise Needed:
*Laura Barrett, Section Chair
*Janis Brown, Section Immediate Past Chair
*Bette Sydelko, Section Treasurer
*Other section officers and members

Time Needed:
*Time dependent upon MLA awards timeline
*Throughout the year

Resources Required:
*MIS listserv for publicizing information about the grant (at the jury’s discretion)
*MIS web site for posting grant recipient names and projects funded and member activities
*MIS funds
*MIS membership list

Product Outcome:
*Funded grants for career development activity that will contribute to the advancement in the field of medical informatics. Updated section web site
*Transfer of funds to appropriate account
*Plan for providing funding for MLA ’09
*Announcement of members’ national activities

Evaluation:
*Ask award recipients to summarize their grants.
*Posting of award recipients on section web site within one month of announcement



Goal 4: Creating and Communicating our Knowledge

Objective 1: Make revisions to the MIS web site, specifically incorporating a section on technology trends and other changes to improve navigation, and keep the site updated

Objective 2: Initiate a section blog by developing policies and procedures, and implementing the blog

Objective 3: Work with the Social Networking Task Force to coordinate work on the development of blog and wiki guidelines and best practices.

Objective 4: Update history of the section from 1998 to the present

Who, Expertise Needed:
*Web committee - Nic Cecchino, Chair/Web master
*MIS Blog Committee - Jaime Blanck, Chair
*History of the Section Task Force -Marcia Henry
*Eric Schnell, Facebook group creator

Time Needed:
*Throughout the year
*Complete history update

Resources Required:
*Section web site
*Social networking sites

Product Outcome:
*Updated web site
*Revised history posted on section web site
*MIS blog

Evaluation:Ease of use of web site
*Activity on the blog

2008-2009 Mid-Year Report Has Been Released

The 2008-2009 Mid-Year Report detailing MIS section business and accomplishments is now available.

MEDICAL INFORMATICS SECTION
2008-2009 Mid-Year Report

Goal 1: Recruitment, Membership and Leadership in the Profession

Janis Brown, Immediate Past Chair, worked with the MIS Nominating Committee (including Susan Lessick and Lisa Traditi), to identify one candidate for the Chair-elect position and two for the office of Secretary/Treasurer. Elections will be held through Qualtrics (a web-based survey tool licensed by Janis’s institution) beginning in early January. In an effort to improve awareness of the section, MIS participated in and contributed $200 towards the Section Shuffle event at the MLA 2008 conference. The MIS also awarded an iPod Nano to the winner (selected by lottery) of its Section Shuffle technology quiz contest, designed to elicit contact information from potential new members. The member interest survey conducted using SurveyMonkey by Janis Brown during her term as Chair, was utilized to identify members for this year’s Section committees. Laura Barrett, Chair, and Marie Ascher, Membership Committee Chair, spoke and distributed information about both MLA Section and AHIP membership at the New York/New Jersey Chapter, MLA Fall Meeting held November 6, 2008 at the NYU Medical Center.

Goal 2: Life Long Learning

Colleen Cuddy, Chair-elect, has arranged for the MIS Section to sponsor two programs and co-sponsor a third at the 2009 MLA Annual Meeting in Hawaii. With Top Tech Trends III: Technology Fusion, co-sponsored by the Educational Media and Technologies Section, this popular program returns for its third year with technology trend spotters in health sciences libraries offering their latest insights, opinions, and criticisms on where technology is leading us next. In a related effort, Eric Schnell continues to maintain a Facebook group for MLA Technology Trends (http://usc.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2464357736) to support a collaborative exchange among those interested in the field; the group currently has 195 members. Being an Informationist, or, Why Are You Working in the Library, is a contributed papers session being co-sponsored by the Molecular Biology and Genomics SIG; four contributed papers have been chosen to represent the breadth of the informationist role in the context of medical libraries. The Educational Media and Technologies Section is the sponsor of the program Resources for Disaster and Remote Access Regions, a contributed papers session being co-sponsored by the MIS. This program is about providing information resources in times of disaster and identifying innovative approaches to information delivery in remote geographic regions.

Goal 3: Advocacy

In addition to its contributions to other worthy programs such as the Donald A.B. Lindberg Research Fellowship Award, the Section continues to provide funding in the amount of $1,500 per year for the Medical Informatics Section/MLA Career Development Award. The MIS takes an active role in publicizing the award and participating in the selection process. This year, the MIS will also provide on a competitive basis (documented need/value to the Section) three travel grants in the amount of $350 each to attend the 2009 MLA Annual Meeting in Hawaii.

Douglas Varner attended AMIA’s Capitol Hill Day on September 11, 2008, as a representative of the Medical Informatics Section of MLA. It was an opportunity for him to meet with legislators and/or their staff regarding issues of concern to both MLA and AMIA, such as HIT legislation, informatics research and training, personal health records, clinical decision support and use of health data. His detailed report is an addendum to this document.

Goal 4: Creating and Communicating our Knowledge

Nic Cecchino, MIS Web master, continues to update and maintain the MIS Web site as an important resource for members and others.

MOTION
This report is informational and requires no action by the Board of directors.

Respectfully submitted,
Laura Barrett, Chair, Medical Informatics Section

Officers & Committee Personnel, 2007-2008

• Marie Ascher, Bylaws Chair (06/06 – 05/09)
• Laura Barrett, Chair (06/08 – 05/09)
• Jaime Friel Blanck, Blog Committee Chair (6/08-5/09)
• Janis Brown, Immediate Past Chair/Nominating Committee Chair (06/08 – 05/09)
• Nic Cecchino, Webmaster (12/03 – 05/09)
• Colleen Cuddy, Chair-elect/Program Chair (6/08-5/09)
• Kathel Dunn, Professional Development Liaison/CE Committee Chair (6/08-5/09)
• Sadie Honey, Membership Committee Co-Chair (06/06 – 05/09)
• Kathy Kerdolff, Immediate Past Chair/Nominating Committee Chair (06/07 – 05/08)
• Jeanette de Richemond, Membership Committee Co-Chair (6/08-5/09)
• Brenda Seago, Government Relations Liaison/Co-Chair (06/04 – 05/09)
• Bette Sydelko, Secretary/Treasurer (06/07 – 05/09)
• Douglas Varner, Governmental Relations Liaison/Co-Chair (6/08-5/09)
• Elizabeth Whipple, Section Council Representative-Elect (06/07 – 05/09)