Following a year of informal meetings among interested parties on campus, the first official meeting of a steering committee to pursue health informatics research at FSU was organized by and held at the Information Institute (http://ii.fsu.edu), College of Information on Thursday, August 21st, 2008.

The purpose of the symposium was to identify existing health informatics research and projects currently in process or proposed at FSU; to identify potential areas for collaborations; to consider possible funding sources for joint projects; and to explore the possibility of proposing a project for the FSU Cornerstone grants program.

The Institute, under the leadership of Dr. Charles R. McClure, and other CI faculty are interested in identifying partners and collaborators at FSU for joint research efforts in the broad area of health informatics. The group broadly defined health informatics as "an interdisciplinary field of scholarship and activity that uses information technology and information management principles applied to the health care environment."

Larry Dennis, Dean of the College of Information, in his opening remarks congratulated the attendees on their vision and their leadership. Kirby Kemper, Vice President for Research at FSU, reiterated the mission of the College of Medicine, discussed some current initiatives between FSU and the Mayo Clinic, and stressed the importance of increasing FSU’s presence in the broad area of health informatics.

Participants outlined their affiliations and their links to health informatics projects. The topics reflected the diversity of the various research programs at FSU. Topics included:

• evaluation and outcomes;
• health quality metrics;
• electronic and personal health records;
• geographic information systems and map health disparities;
• health literacy;
• healthy environments;
• patient education;
• health policy and e-government;
• medical imaging and databases;
• privacy and security, and;
• planning and evaluation of health interventions.

McClure said that the symposium was quite successful and identified areas for collaborations in health informatics research, noting that "participants identified a number of outstanding research topics that have great potential for increasing the quality of health care services and reducing health care costs in the state of Florida." Specific plans are under development to continue the meetings and develop specific proposals for health informatics research projects.

Attendees included

FSU: Kirby Kemper, Vice President for Research.

College of Information: Charles R. McClure (Director, Information Institute and Francis Eppes Professor), Larry Dennis (Dean & Professor), Corinne Jorgensen (Assoc. Dean), Don Latham (Assoc. Professor), Mia Lustria (Asst. Professor), Ebrahim Randeree (Asst. Professor), Greg Riccardi (Professor), Tommy Snead (Manager for Research Development, Information Institute), Wade Bishop (Graduate Researcher).

College of Medicine: John Agens (Assoc. Professor), Gail Bellamy (Director, Center for Rural Health Research and Policy), Meredith Goodwin (Asst. Professor), Paul McLeod (Dean, Pensacola Campus), Maureen Olson (Senior Consultant, Clinical Research Network), Barbara Shearer (Director, Maguire Medical Library).

College of Nursing: Candy Ross (Assoc. Dean), Katherine Valentine (Assoc. Dean).

College of Human Sciences: Billie Collier (Dean).

Public Administration: Keon Lee (Assoc. Professor).

Urban and Regional Planning: Chris Coutts (Asst. Professor), Lisa Jordan (Asst. Professor).

Additional Information

For More Information, Contact: Dr. Charles R. McClure, Director (Information Institute) and Francis Eppes Professor (cmcclure@ci.fsu.edu) OR Ebrahim Randeree, Assistant Professor and Senior Research Associate, Information Institute (eranderee@ci.fsu.edu).