It is my pleasure to be writing you as the new President and Board Chair of AMIA. Our organization means a great deal to me. Like many of you, I have learned and grown within AMIA as my professional home, as well as served along with many of you to build AMIA into the organization it is today.
That’s why I can confidently say it is a great time to be a member of AMIA and, as informaticians, more than ever informatics is critical to the transformation of health and healthcare. As my tenure progresses, I will continue to update membership on the state of AMIA—where we are and where we are going—and share the elements that make AMIA special as an organization. I look forward to leading us into the future of biomedicine and healthcare informatics.
As we head into Spring, we can be proud of our professional home’s accomplishments and take in the excitement around several upcoming notable events. It is our accomplishments and our desire to improve upon what is working and change what is not that makes us informaticians and strong colleagues.
What’s Happening Now?
In particular, three areas to highlight are our strong efforts in policy, meetings and membership coming together for an ever-better event experience for attendees, and our newest AMIA Working Group.
Driving Policy For a Better Future
Building upon our core AMIA Public Policy “North Stars,” AMIA has continued to take an active role in policy on behalf of our members. For example, AMIA recently submitted comments on the now-final CMS rule on Interoperability and Prior Authorization resulting in provider notice, including denial reason, within the rule. By supporting prior authorization streamlined processes and increasing transparency around denials, this rule supports improvement in a source of major documentation burden, a major AMIA WIN! for all.
Additionally, the ONC United States Core Data for Interoperability Draft Version 5 (USCDI Draft v5) recently released this latest draft version. USCDI Draft v5 features 13 new data elements and two new data classes, including the following AMIA recommendations incorporated into the draft (another AMIA WIN!):
- Route data element to Medications data class
- Author Role data elements to Provenance data class
- Test Kit Unique Device Identifier data element to Laboratory data class
- Orders data element and Orders data class
Creating Enhanced Meeting Experiences
In addition to policy efforts, our meetings are seeing increased growth and attendee engagement. The 2024 AMIA Informatics Summit will take place in Boston, March 18-21. Dedicated to translational bioinformatics, precision medicine, clinical research informatics, data science and AI, and implementation science, the Informatics Summit offers state-of-the art informatics approaches, theories, and methods along with intimate networking opportunities for attendees. In conjunction with this year’s Summit, AMIA is delighted to host the annual meeting of the CTSA NCATS Informatics Enterprise Committee (iEC)!
For members engaged in clinical informatics, the 2024 AMIA Clinical Informatics Conference (CIC) in Minneapolis, May 21-23, will offer more than 250 presentations offering practice-ready solutions that make an immediate impact on patient care with content focused on informatics-driven, value-based health care, clinical decision support and outcomes, AI, documentation burden and clinician wellbeing, and so much more. Additionally, we are excited to announce our first-ever Health Systems Track at this year’s event as well as joint programming with the Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems (AMDIS) with a pre-conference crash course focused on leadership at the intersection of health informatics and digital health. Keep an eye out for more exciting news and register as soon as you can to save with early registration.
Building Community Among Members
Please join me in welcoming the newest member to join the AMIA Working Group roster: the Climate, Health and Informatics Working Group. With the addition of this new Working Group, AMIA has the unique opportunity to be at the forefront of thought leadership in assessing and addressing the damaging effects of climate change on human health.
What’s Around the Corner?
Please keep an eye out for the AMIA 25x5 Task Force’s upcoming Pulse Survey on Excessive Documentation Burden for Health Professionals. This biannual survey’s goal is to measure and trend perceived documentation burden over time. It will survey health professionals across all settings.
Another exciting development is AMIA’s new Advancement Committee will be tasked with building strong and diverse AMIA leadership pathways. More to come on this exciting new Committee.
A fantastic 2024 is well underway. This year is poised to not only meet but also go beyond your expectations. The Board and I look forward to hearing from members like you. If you are attending Informatics Summit or CIC, we will be present and eager to meet you at Bagels with the Board. Also, keep an eye out for the upcoming 2024 AMIA Board Office Hours where you can learn from and ask questions of the AMIA Board of Directors.
Yours sincerely,
Genevieve Melton-Meaux, MD, PhD, FACMI
AMIA President and Board Chair