ACMI (American College of Medical Informatics) is a college of elected fellows who have made significant and sustained contributions to the field of biomedical informatics. Initially incorporated in 1984, the organization later 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 the American Medical Informatics Association was formed in 1989. The College now exists as an elected body of fellows within AMIA, with its own governing documents and strategic plan that guide the organization, its activities, and its relationship with the parent organization. The College is fiscally self-sufficient, and its officers prepare and submit its financial plan annually for approval by the AMIA Board of Directors.
ACMI Fellows are eligible to use the designation FACMI, indicating they are an elected Fellow of ACMI. Deserving informaticians from all countries are eligible for election to fellowship.
History
The College was initially created using an election process that assured that the founding fellows would be elected by their peers. Five individuals, Marsden S. Blois, Morris F. Collen, Donald A.B. Lindberg, Thomas E. Piemme, and Edward H. Shortliffe, prepared a ballot of over 100 names of leaders in the field and sent the ballot to all listed individuals. Nominees were asked to vote for 50 colleagues to become the founding fellows, and in this way the initial set of 52 fellows was selected (three individuals were tied for the fiftieth place). The founding fellows then incorporated, elected officers, and initiated a process through which the existing fellows nominate and elect new fellows. The number of fellows elected from the US and abroad is over 400, with approximately fifteen to twenty new fellows elected each year. Photographs of fellows elected through 1993 were published in the inaugural issue of JAMIA, the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, in January 1994, and each year's class of newly elected fellows is published in JAMIA.
ACMI Policies and Procedures
ACMI became the College of Elected Fellows of AMIA through a letter of agreement in 1988. The agreement governs the purposes and the activities of the College within AMIA, establishes ACMI as a component of AMIA, and gives ACMI Fellows the free and unrestricted rights to the use of the name and acronyms (ACMI and FACMI). ACMI agrees to abide by the AMIA bylaws, handbooks, procedures and manuals.
ACMI is overseen by an Executive Committee which is comprised of elected ACMI fellows. The ACMI Executive Committee is responsible to the AMIA Executive Committee and ultimately to the AMIA Board of Directors. The AMIA staff is responsible for maintaining handbooks, procedures and manuals that detail functions of the volunteer structure which includes ACMI.