New Nursing Dean To Lecture: Informatics Can Humanize Health Care

NEWS RELEASE

NEW NURSING DEAN TO LECTURE: INFORMATICS CAN HUMANIZE HEALTH CARE
Panel of Executives and Scholars Will Respond

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (October 5, 2005) - Connie White Delaney, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, FACMI, internationally recognized health informatics scholar and new dean of the University of Minnesota School of Nursing, will deliver an inaugural lecture, "The Soul of Informatics: Humanizing Health Care," at the McNamara Alumni Center, 200 Oak Street SE, Minneapolis, on November 3. A similar event will be available worldwide, with streaming video of the lecture and an online talk with the Dean on November 16.

Leading health care executives and scholars will respond to Dr. Delaney's talk:

• Mary Brainerd, CEO and President of Health Partners
• Patricia Brennan, PHD, RN, FAAN, FACMI, Professor of Nursing and Industrial Engineering at the University of Wisconsin
• Don E. Detmer, MD, MA, President and CEO, American Medical Informatics Association
• Donald Gerhardt, President and CEO, Medical Alley

Frank Cerra, MD, University of Minnesota Senior Vice President, Academic Health Center, will moderate the panel.

Registration will begin at 4:30 p.m., the lecture at 5:00, and reception at 6:30. The event, intended for health industry leaders, scholars and policy makers, and interested members of the community, is free and open to the public.

The New Health Science that Connects the Others

Anyone who has been recently hospitalized knows first-hand how a patient's recovery depends on good communication among nurses, doctors, pharmacists, therapists - and possibly even experts across the nation or on the other side of the world.

But communicating about health care can be challenging. Technology so vastly expands the scope and complexity of health information that it takes a new science - health informatics - to keep up with the people, research and resources needed to provide up-to-date health care.

A cutting-edge discipline that touches virtually every aspect of health care, health informatics is where health sciences, computer science, technology and care come together to improve the health of a patient or a community.

Nursing: Bringing "A Distinct Humanity to Informatics"

The country's only dean of nursing who is a fellow in the American College of Medical Informatics, Delaney believes nursing plays a critical role in the world of informatics.

"Much of informatics is high-tech," she says. "It integrates information from many different disciplines and from all over the world. But because nursing is so close to patients and families, it brings a distinct humanity to the science. The marriage of informatics and nursing helps ensure that health services will be appropriate and safe, ethical and caring."

Delaney joined the university in August as professor and dean. She holds a dual appointment at the School of Nursing and at the Medical School. She also serves as a professor at the University of Iceland in both the Faculty of Nursing and the Faculty of Medicine. Delaney previously was a professor and the Director of the Institute of Nursing Knowledge at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, holding joint appointments in the College of Nursing and the School of Library and Information Science.

She serves on the Board of Director of the American Medical Informatics Association and is immediate past-chair of the AMIA Nursing Informatics Working Group. She co-chairs the Alliance for Nursing Informatics, representing more than 2,000 nurses and over 20 distinct nursing informatics groups in the United States.

Participation Online

The lecture will be available online after November 3 at www.nursing.umn.edu, and the school will host a real-time interactive online discussion with the dean from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. CST on November 16. Pre-registration is necessary; go to www.nursing.umn.edu to find out how to participate.

The event is part of the Andrea Printy Lecture Series, funded by generous gifts from the Printy family and friends to the University of Minnesota School of Nursing Foundation.

The University of Minnesota School of Nursing is ranked among the nation's top nursing schools. It is a leader in nursing research and has a combined undergraduate and graduate enrollment of approximately 850 students. The school produces 55 percent of the faculty in Minnesota's public and private nursing schools, advanced practice nurses and nurses who can assume leadership positions. It is the oldest continuing university-based school of nursing. The School of Nursing is one of seven schools and colleges in the Academic Health Center, one of the most comprehensive facilities for health professionals in the nation, fostering interdisciplinary study, research and education.

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