AMIA News

AMIA Announces 2019 Signature Award and Leadership Award Recipients

AMIA recently announced the 2019 Signature Award and Leadership Award recipients. The leaders received their awards at the AMIA 2019 Annual Symposium, which took place November 16–20 in Washington, D.C.

AMIA’s Annual Symposium is the largest informatics event worldwide, drawing more than 2,500 attendees. The symposium presents leading-edge scientific research on biomedical and health informatics, and more than 120 scientific sessions. The work presented spans the spectrum of the informatics field: translational bioinformatics, clinical research informatics, clinical informatics, consumer health informatics, and public health informatics.

The AMIA Signature Awards program provides an opportunity for AMIA members at different stages of their careers to be recognized for significant contributions to the field of informatics.

“It is my honor and privilege to recognize the significant contributions of these informatics leaders,” said Peter J. Embi, MD, MS, FACP, FACMI, FAMIA, AMIA board chair, and president and CEO of Regenstrief Institute. “AMIA is a multidisciplinary and diverse organization, and these awardees exemplify the best of our membership as they advance AMIA’s mission in all of the work they do. We celebrate their exceptional accomplishments."

The following AMIA Signature Awards were awarded:

• Donald A.B. Lindberg Award for Innovation in Informatics: Shawn N. Murphy, MD, PhD, FACMI, director of PHS research information systems and computing at Massachusetts General Hospital;
• Don Eugene Detmer Award for Health Policy Contributions in Informatics: Carolyn Petersen, MS, MBI, FAMIA, an assistant professor at Mayo Clinic;
• William W. Stead Award for Thought Leadership in Informatics: Lucila Ohno-Machado, MBA, MD, PhD, FACMI, a professor and chair of the department of biomedical informatics at the University of California San Diego;
• Virginia K. Saba Informatics Award: Susan Matney, PhD, RNC-OB, FAAN, FACMI, a medical/nurse informaticist at Intermountain Healthcare; and
• New Investigator Award: Joanna Abraham, PhD, an assistant professor at the Institute of Informatics at Washington University in St. Louis.

AMIA Leadership Awards were presented to the following recipients:

• Carolyn Petersen, MS, MBI, FAMIA, for leadership in advancing AMIA’s work in ethical, legal, and social issues, including leading updates to AMIA’s Code of Professional Ethical Conduct;
• Neil Sarkar, PhD, FACMI, for leadership in launching AMIA’s first gold open access publication, JAMIA Open, as AMIA celebrates the journal’s first anniversary; and
• Joseph Kannry, MD, for leadership of AMIA’s public policy efforts as chair of the Public Policy Committee, contributor to nearly a dozen response teams, and serving as a member of the 2019 AMIA Health Informatics Policy Forum Steering Committee.

— Source: AMIA

Cimino Receives Morris F. Collen Award of Excellence

The American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) presented the 2019 Morris F. Collen Award of Excellence to James Cimino, MD, FACMI, FACP, FAMIA, director of the Informatics Institute at the University of at Alabama Birmingham, during the opening session of the AMIA 2019 annual symposium in Washington, D.C.

In honor of Morris F. Collen, a pioneer in the field of medical informatics, this prestigious award is presented to an individual whose personal commitment and dedication to medical informatics has made a lasting impression on the field. The award is determined by ACMI’s Awards Committee.

“The Morris F. Collen Award is only awarded to the most distinguished informaticians. ACMI is honored to recognize Dr. Cimino for his substantial accomplishments to the field of biomedical informatics,” said ACMI President William M. Tierney, MD, FACMI, FIAHSI, a professor and chair of the department of population health at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin. “Dr. Cimino has created incredibly useful and impactful tools for health care providers like me to use every day in providing high-quality care. His dedication and passion for improving patient care is truly inspiring.”

Cimino is a board-certified internist. He is widely recognized for his research at Columbia University including desiderata for controlled terminologies, mobile and web-based clinical information systems for clinicians and patients, and a context-aware form of clinical decision support called “infobuttons.” He and his colleagues were instrumental in building one of the first systems that used the web to deliver a clinical information system to health professionals.

His expertise led to his being a major contributor to work on the creation of the National Library of Medicine’s Unified Medical Language System. During his tenure at the National Institutes of Health, he created the Biomedical Translational Research Information System.

Cimino is also a coeditor of the Springer volume Biomedical Informatics: Computer Applications in Health Care and Biomedicine.

He has previously been honored by AMIA with its President’s Award as well as the AMIA Donald A.B. Lindberg Award for Innovation in Informatics.

— Source: AMIA