While the variety of accents and languages I heard was noticeable, it didn’t seem to interfere with the greetings and sharing of ideas among colleagues at the 11th International Congress on Nursing Informatics in Montreal last week, sponsored by the International Medical Informatics Association Nursing Informatics Special Interest Group and hosted by AMIA.
Nearly 600 nursing informatics experts discussed global issues and challenges focused on topics such as clinical transformation, how to advance policy and research into practice, and moving beyond EHR adoption to optimization. The hallways were alive with mini-reunions and introductions, conversations between old friends and new, pioneers and students – all sharing experiences and exploring new thoughts and ideas.
So what topics are of concern around the globe? Some notable themes include:
- Approaches to the Evaluation of Health IT Systems in Nursing;
- The Role of CNIOs (Chief Nursing Information Officers) in EHR Transformation and Standardization;
- The Next Generation – Clinicians in Training;
- Sharing Nursing Data Across the Continuum of Care;
- Using Mobile Health Technology to Support Informatics Innovations;
- Social Networking/Web 2.0/Health 2.0; and
- Clinical Errors and the Role of Clinical Decision Support Systems.
Do these topics sound familiar?
If so, it is reassuring that we now have a global village of informatics experts to tap into for advice. But, what I found most striking was the depth of conversation among attendees. To me, the focus of these discussions has changed over time from simply dealing with implementation challenges or building competencies, to in-depth conversations about strategies for mining data using analytics, or how to elicit clinical intelligence to improve outcomes. After 25 years of evolving our nursing informatics concepts and competencies, it seems we can begin to harness the power of informatics to influence change.
Here are some interesting and thought-provoking comments heard during the week.
- “Information is the new petroleum.”
- “1 in 8 technology projects is successful.”
- “So we’re at Stage 7, so what? The EHR is just the backbone.”
- “We must enable a single source of truth and remove the nurse from the role of system integrator.”
If you didn’t have the opportunity to attend the Congress in Montreal, the proceedings are freely available and will soon be searchable via PubMed Central. Another timely resource that I found is the Nursing Informatics Entry-to Practice Competencies for Registered Nurses, published by the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing. It will be interesting to see how its work compares with the TIGER Initiative Informatics Competencies Report.
It’s always a pleasure to spend time with colleagues from around the world at events such as this. And to quote Henry Ford, “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” I think nursing informatics is beginning to envision that success.
Did you attend NI2012 in Montreal? If so, please let us know about your experience and any new insights that you gained.
