Looking Back, Moving Forward

This week marks a year ago that I woke up (on the morning of Friday, April 2nd, to be precise) to find emails in my inbox telling me that Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) had received our two awards from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) Workforce Development Program. As most readers know, those programs are going well, and I am planning to provide my occasional updates of our efforts in the programs here in the coming weeks ahead. A succinct news report of the programs, for which I was interviewed, is available from the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF).

Another anniversary of sorts is for this blog, which has now been in existence a little over two years (since March 2, 2009, to be precise). I have enjoyed having this forum to share my thoughts about topics of interest and passion to me. I have tried to create thoughtful pieces that explore various issues, and not just brief streams of consciousness.

The year 2011 also is another anniversary year, which is the 15th year of informatics degree programs being offered by OHSU. In 1996, we opened the doors to our initial Master of Science degree. Of course, we have added a number of other degrees since then, such as our Master of Biomedical Informatics (non-thesis, professional master's), PhD, and Graduate Certificate. To celebrate the 15-year anniversary, as well as the first two groups of graduates from our ONC funding, we are planning to hold a celebration in September. The event will be open to the public and is scheduled to take place on September 9-10, 2011. All alumni, students, faculty, and friends of the program will be invited, with alumni being able to present about what they are currently doing, along with a number of other keynote speakers. (Save the date!)

Of course, we are not resting on our laurels, and are quite busy with our current work, the totality of which would be much longer than anyone would want to read. I am happy to announce that the 10x10 ("ten by ten") program continues going strong, with  a number of new offerings planned to start in the next few months. One of the offerings is a general AMIA offering but the rest demonstrate the partnerships that we have built for specific offerings. As with all 10x10 courses, the offerings include the basic on-line portion of the course and an in-person session often associated with a professional meeting.

They include:

• Regular AMIA offering aimed at all audiences, starting April 27, 2011 with in-person session at any AMIA national meeting in the next year. (Next meeting in Washington, DC, with in-person session on October 23, 2011)
• Offering focused on dietitians and the area of nutrition informatics, in partnership with the American Dietetic Association (ADA), starting April 13, 2011, with the in-person session at the ADA meeting in San Diego, CA on September 24, 2011
• Offering in Singapore in partnership with Gateway Consulting, starting May 2, 2011, with the in-person session in Singapore (!) on September 14, 2011
• Offering focused on emergency physicians, in partnership with the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), starting June 29, 2011, with the in-person at the ACEP meeting in San Francisco, CA on October 14, 2011