{"id":39730,"date":"2011-05-05T15:40:57","date_gmt":"2011-05-05T19:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=39730"},"modified":"2011-08-04T14:03:18","modified_gmt":"2011-08-04T18:03:18","slug":"informatics-maven-sees-challenge-opportunity-at-uconn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2011\/05\/informatics-maven-sees-challenge-opportunity-at-uconn\/","title":{"rendered":"Informatics Maven Sees Challenge, Opportunity at UConn"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dr.<\/a>
Dr. Ted Shortliffe of the American Medical Informatics Association was the keynote speaker for this spring's CICATS Biomedical Informatics Seminar Series. (Photo provided by the University of Texas)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The field of biomedical informatics, seen as an increasingly important component of translational research, is gaining momentum at UConn, according to a national expert who recently visited both the Health Center and the Storrs campus.<\/p>\n

Informatics refers to information and knowledge management to support problem solving and optimal decision making.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt builds upon the observation that there are few areas of human endeavor that are more dependent upon information, knowledge, and their management than the promotion of health, the practice of medicine and the management of patients,\u201d says\u00a0Dr. Ted Shortliffe<\/a>, president and CEO of the American Medical Informatics Association, Bethesda, Md.<\/p>\n

Shortliffe gave talks in both Storrs and Farmington as part of the\u00a0Connecticut Institute for Clinical and Translational Science<\/a> (CICATS) Biomedical Informatics Seminar Series.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the University of Connecticut has moved into this field somewhat later than some other schools, and like many institutions it became particularly interested in informatics when it realized that the field is now viewed as intrinsic to modern clinical and translational research,\u201d Shortliffe says, referring specifically to UConn\u2019s pursuit of a National Institutes of Health\u00a0Clinical and Translational Science Award<\/a>. \u201cYou cannot get CTSA grants without a commitment to biomedical informatics. That reality has encouraged many institutions to begin to pay serious attention to the discipline. Here at Connecticut I think there have been some very good people interested in this field for a long time, but institution-wide momentum is just beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Watch the Video<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shortliffe\u2019s Presentation, \u201cBiomedical Informatics: The Evolution of the Science and Its Application”<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Shortliffe, who also is a professor of biomedical informatics at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston, serves on CTSA external advisory committees for several institutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cInformatics is so interdisciplinary that it is inherently integrative,\u201d Shortliffe says. \u201cInstitutions that have taken informatics seriously and promoted it and nurtured it have often found that the resulting academic unit has become a kind of glue that begins to have folks from different parts of the university talking to one another and collaborating in ways that they had not done before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Dr.<\/a>
Dr. Thomas Agresta, Department of Family Medicine director of biomedical informatics (left), and Dr. William Knaus, CICATS director of biomedical informatics (right), brought Dr. Ted Shortliffe, informatics expert (center), to Connecticut to speak at seminars in Farmington and Storrs. (Chris DeFrancesco\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The integrative nature of the field is one that can be challenged by the geographical separation of the Health Center from the Storrs campus, but Shortliffe notes that the statewide nature of the school and its relationships also provide an opportunity for UConn. <\/p>\n

\u201cConnecticut is a relatively small state,\u201d he says. \u201cTherefore, there are opportunities for a CTSA and its informatics components to be integrative across institutions in a large regional or statewide fashion. This opportunity is relatively unique among major schools that have been pursuing community outreach as part of a clinical and translational research program. The potential for statewide reach in Connecticut has been noted by others and it is perhaps a way in which UConn can really distinguish itself in promoting informatics and translational science, finding its own niche.”<\/p>\n

Shortliffe\u2019s presentation from April 29 at the UConn Health Center, \u201cBiomedical Informatics: The Evolution of the Science and Its Application,\u201d is available through the\u00a0Health Center\u2019s Mediasite portal<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The field of biomedical informatics, seen as an increasingly important component of translational research, is gaining momentum at UConn, according to a national expert who recently visited both the Health Center and the Storrs campus. Informatics refers to information and knowledge management to support problem solving and optimal decision making. \u201cIt builds upon the observation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[57,2010],"class_list":["post-39730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-18 03:13:11","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39730"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39915,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39730\/revisions\/39915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39730"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=39730"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=39730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}