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Public Biography
Gretchen Jackson is vice president and scientific medical officer at Intuitive and an associate professor of surgery, pediatrics, and biomedical informatics at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Dr. Jackson is an internationally recognized biomedical informatician and accomplished clinical surgeon with over 30 years of contributions to informatics research, innovations in health information technologies, and surgical science. She is a past president and past chair of the board of directors for the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) and an elected fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics (FACMI) and the American Medical Informatics Association (FAMIA). She is also an elected member of the Society for University Surgeons, the Southern Surgical Association, and the American Surgical Association.

Before joining Intuitive in 2022, Jackson was the chief health and science officer for IBM Watson Health and before that, Watson Health’s chief science officer.

Jackson earned a BS in electrical engineering, an MD, and her PhD in medical information sciences from Stanford University.

Historic ACMI Biography

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Dr. Gretchen Purcell Jackson is an internationally recognized informatician and accomplished clinical surgeon with over 25 years of contributions to informatics research and practice. She earned her Ph.D. in Medical Informatics at Stanford University and held informatics faculty and leadership positions at three universities during her 9 years of surgical residency and fellowship, including being the Associate Director of the Duke Informatics Training program and primary mentor to several M.S. students while she was a surgery resident. Dr. Jackson has been an informatics leader in surgery, chairing informatics committees at the American College of Surgeons, Association for Academic Surgery, and American Pediatric Surgical Association. She has served on the editorial boards of the British Medical Journal, Journal of Biomedical Informatics, and Applied Clinical Informatics, and she has chaired the Literature Selection Technical Review Committee for the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. After training in pediatric surgery, Dr. Jackson focused on empowering patients and families through health information technologies. She is currently the research director of the My Health at Vanderbilt patient portal, and her work explores the use and disparities created by such technologies. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality awarded Dr. Jackson a $1.5 million grant to study of the information needs of pregnant women and their caregivers to inform the design of health information technologies. In January of 2014, Dr. Jackson joined the first class of 455 diplomates who became board certified in the new specialty of Clinical Informatics.

Affiliations

Fellows of AMIA (FAMIA)

FAMIA stands for “Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association” and it recognizes the contributions and professional accomplishments of AMIA members who apply informatics skills and knowledge to their practice – be that in a clinical setting, a public or population health capacity, or as a clinical researcher.

Year Inducted
2019
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The American College of Medical Informatics

ACMI is a college of elected Fellows from the U.S. and abroad who have made significant and sustained contributions to the field of medical informatics. It is the central body for a community of scholars and practitioners who are committed to advancing the informatics field.

Year Elected
2015
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Surgical and Procedural Informatics
Working Group

Member-at-Large

The Surgical and Procedural Informatics Working Group serves as the academic home for professionals focused on informatics, idea exchange, and collaboration within surgical and procedural contexts.

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Nominating Committee

Chair

The Nominating Committee’s primary function is to ensure the effective and appropriate involvement of AMIA members in the organization through the annual election process.

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