Following their recent election, 11 new Fellows were inducted into the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) this evening at ceremonies that raise the curtain on the opening of the Biomedical and Health Informatics Symposium tomorrow at the Hilton San Francisco. ACMI President Joyce Mitchell welcomed the following Fellows to the College:
- Riccardo Bellazzi, PhD, Universita di Pavia, Italy
- Atul Butte, MD, PhD, Stanford School of Medicine, Calif.
- Wendy W. Chapman, PhD, University of Pittsburgh, Pa.
- Hamish S.F. Fraser, MBChB, MSc, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.
- Rita Kukafka, DrPH, Columbia University, NYC, NY
- Andre Kushniruk, PhD, MSc, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
- Gilbert Omenn, MD, PhD, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.
- Roberto A. Rocha, MD, PhD, Partners HealthCare, Wellesley, Mass.
- Titus Schleyer, DMD, PhD, MBA, School of Dental Medicine, Univ. of Pittsburgh, Pa.
- Jaap Suermondt, PhD, Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Palo Alto, Calif.
- Elizabeth (Betsy) Weiner, PhD, RN-BC, FAAN, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
"This year's dinner was especially momentous," said Dr. Mitchell, noting that 14 of the 18 past Collen Award recipients attended the Awards dinner to honor Morris F. Collen, a pioneer in the field of medical informatics, who is 96 years of age this year and for whom the Collen Award —the highest honor in the field of biomedical informatics—is named.
"Dr. Collen was surrounded by his professional peers," said Dr. Mitchell, "an illustrious group of informaticians who collectively form the bones of the current informatics profession. This small group of inventive visionaries began a small revolution that began with custom utilization of computer and information technology married to health data. From there," she added, "the profession has grown to critical importance."
A list of past Collen Award recipients, 1993-2008, with video content, is online at www.amia.org/inside/awards/pastwinners.asp
About ACMI
ACMI is a professional society of elected Fellows from the United States and abroad who have made significant and sustained contributions to the field of medical informatics. Incorporated in 1984, ACMI dissolved its separate corporate status to merge with the American Association for Medical Systems and Informatics (AAMSI) and the Symposium on Computer Applications in Medical Care (SCAMC) when AMIA was formed in 1989. The College now exists as an entity within AMIA, with its own bylaws and regulations.