2025 Nursing Knowledge: Big Data Science Conference

Pre-conference: Wednesday, June 4 

8:00-8:45 Breakfast & Registration
8:45-9:00 Welcome and Introduction
                    Connie White Delaney, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI, FNAP
                    Dean, University of Minnesota School of Nursing

9:00-10:30 
                    Track 1: Nursing Terminology and FHIR (Memorial Hall)
                    Susan Matney, PhD, RNC-OB, FAAN, FACMI, FHIMSS, FHL7, AL2
                    Informatics Consultant, Wise Owl Originals, LLC

                    Track 2: All of Us Concepts & Hands-on (Ski-U-Mah)
                    Steve Johnson, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Institute for Health Informatics
                    Associate Director, Health Informatics Program, University of Minnesota
                    Lisiane Pruinelli, PhD, MS, RN, FAMIA, Associate Professor, University of Florida’s College of Nursing
                    Joint appointment in the College of Medicine’s Department of Surgery

10:30-10:45 Break

10:45-11:45 Resume Tracks 1 & 2

11:45-12:45 Lunch provided

12:45- 2:15 
                    Track 3: Building Impactful Collaboratories (Memorial Hall)
                    Connie White Delaney, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI, FNAP
                    Dean, University of Minnesota School of Nursing

                    Lisiane Pruinelli, PhD, MS, RN, FAMIA, Associate Professor, University of Florida’s College of Nursing
                    Joint appointment in the College of Medicine’s Department of Surgery

                    Rebecca Freeman, PhD, RN, FAAN
                    Vice President of Health Informatics for the University of Vermont Health Network

                    Kelaine Haas, PhD
                    Administrative Director, Office of the Dean, University of Minnesota School of Nursing

                    Track 4: Transforming Documentation Toolkit (Ski-U-Mah)

                    David Boyd, DNP, RN, CNS, CPHIMS, NI-BC, Regional Director for Nursing Informatics in Patient Care Services
                    Kaiser Permanente, Northern

                    Bonnie Adrian, PhD RN NI-BC, Research  Research Nurse Scientist, Clinical Informatic, UCHealth

2:15-2:30 Break

2:30-3:30 Resume Tracks 3 & 4

3:30 Adjourn 

Conference Day 1: Thursday, June 5

7:30-8:30 Breakfast & Registration

8:15-8:30 Welcome to the 2024 Nursing Knowledge Big Data Science Conference
                    Connie White Delaney, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI, FNAP
                    Dean, University of Minnesota School of Nursing

8:30-9:30 Keynote: CONCERN EWS: Leveraging Nurse-Driven Data for Early Prediction and Scalable Implementation in Patient Care
                    Patricia C. Dykes, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI; 
                    Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Research Program 
                    Director for the Center for Patient Safety, Research and Practice at Brigham and Women’s Hospital

The CONCERN (COmmunicating Narrative Concerns Entered by RNs) early warning system (EWS) is a predictive tool designed to harness nurses' expert knowledge and observations within patient health records. By transforming this qualitative data into actionable insights, CONCERN helps to identify early signs of organ failure or other critical conditions in hospitalized patients. This presentation will offer an overview of the CONCERN EWS, highlighting its development, integration with electronic health records (EHR), and key findings from a multisite clinical trial. Additionally, the session will cover the creation of the CONCERN Implementation Toolkit, explaining how it was developed and outlining strategies for scaling the system’s success to support broader adoption and use across healthcare settings.

9:30-10:30 Hot Topic: Data, Nursing, and Standards: A Multifaceted Perspective for Technology-Driven Care
                    Moderator: Susan Matney PhD, RNC-OB, FAAN, FACMI, FHIMSS, FHL7, AL2 
                    Informatics Consultant, Wise Owl Originals, LLC

                    Jane M. Carrington, PhD, RN, FAMIA, FAAN, University of Florida, College of Nursing

                    Allen Flynn, PharmD, PhD
                    Assistant Professor of Health Informatics and Learning Systems
                    Department of Learning Health Sciences, University of Michigan Medical School

                    Kelly Aldrich, DNP, RN, NI-BC, FHIMSS, FAAN, Professor of Nursing and
                    Director of Innovation at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing
                    Secondary appointment in the Department of Biomedical Informatics

10:30-11:00 Break + Poster Viewing

11:00-12:30 Workgroup Reports

12:30-1:45 Lunch Provided + Poster Viewing (Memorial Hall)

Leadership Lunch (Swain)

1:45-3:00 Workgroup Meetings

3:00-3:15 Break

3:15-4:30 Workgroup Meetings

4:30 Welcome Reception (University Hall & Patio)

Conference Day 2: Friday, June 6

10:00-10:30     Hot Topic: Gravity Project: Data to Address Social Needs and Advance Maternal Health Equity
                        Speaker:  Asha Immanuelle, MAS, RN, PHM-C, CPHIMS
                        Center for Black Women's Wellness in Atlanta, GA

This session will explore the Gravity Project's grassroots initiative to incorporate social needs data into clinical care. Participants will learn how collaborative efforts foster consensus-driven development of SDOH standards for multi-stakeholder use. The presentation will highlight how these standards can be utilized to advance equitable health and social care for mothers, demonstrating their potential to transform maternal health services by addressing underlying social needs and gathering community-level insights.

10:30-11:15 Keynote: A Comprehensive Approach to Address Social Needs Beyond Critical Care
                    Lorena de Leon, DPA, MBA, Senior Director of Population Health and Social Determinants for Maryland Physicians Care 
                    Bryce Parker, MPH, Epidemiologist, Population Health Analytics Team, Maryland Physicians Care

This session will delve into the strategies employed by Maryland's third-largest Medicaid-only Managed Care Organization (MCO). Attendees will gain insights into how this organization addresses social needs outside of critical care via a proactive model of moving using data to identify and address fundamental issues in individuals' lives. Key topics include the role of data in identifying barriers, the development of social risk scores, and the creation of strategic partnerships to improve access and support a closed-loop referral system.

11:15-12:00  Panel:  From Clinical to Social Data: How Leverage Analytics to Address Social Determinants of Health
                    Moderator:  Kathleen (Kathy) Bobay, PhD, RN, ACHIP, FAAN
                    Professor and Graduate Program Director, Health Informatics
                    Parkinson School of Health Sciences & Public Health
                    Loyola University Chicago

                    Lorena de Leon, DPA, MBA
                    Senior Director of Population Health and Social Determinants
                    Maryland Physicians Care 

                    Bryce Parker, MPH, Epidemiologist, 
                    Population Health Analytics Team
                    Maryland Physicians Care

                    Asha Immanuelle, MAS, RN, PHM-C, CPHIMS
                    Center for Black Women's Wellness, Atlanta, GA

Join Asha Immanuelle, Bryce Parker and Lorena de Leon as they discuss the intersection of clinical science and social data. This panel will explore how data can be leveraged to address social determinants of health (SDOH). Through structured questions and an open Q&A session, attendees will gain insights into the development of interoperability standards, proactive models for addressing social needs, and the role of data in identifying barriers and creating targeted interventions. Engage with our experts to understand how collaborative efforts and strategic partnerships can drive equitable health and social care.

Bonnie Adrian, PhD, NI-BC, is a Research Nurse Scientist, Clinical Informatics, at UCHealth. She holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing from the University of Colorado, a PhD in Anthropology from Yale University, and board certification in nursing informatics, with a dozen years applying her skills as a social scientist in informatics, research, quality improvement evaluations, and advanced analytics. Since 2018, Bonnie has led Project Joy to reduce electronic health record burden for nurses across UCHealth’s 15 hospitals. Bonnie recently completed a two-year term of service on the American Nurses Association’s Innovation Advisory Committee for Data Science, AI, and Augmented Intelligence and Epic’s Nurse Wellbeing Steer.

Kelly Aldrich, DNP, RN, NI-BC, FHIMSS, FAAN, is a distinguished nursing informatics executive with over 40 years of healthcare expertise. She serves as Professor of Nursing and Director of Innovation at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Biomedical Informatics. A Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN) and HIMSS, Dr. Aldrich is also a Board-Certified Informatics Nurse Specialist. She began her career at the bedside in cardiac and trauma critical care before transitioning to executive leadership roles, including ED Director, CNO, Inaugural CNIO at HCA, and Chief Clinical Transformation Officer at the Center for Medical Interoperability. Dr. Aldrich’s passion lies in advancing patient-centered care through innovative technologies, integrating virtual reality and AI-driven immersive models to foster mindful nursing experiences. She holds a Master of Science in Healthcare Systems Leadership and Nursing Informatics and a Doctor of Nursing Practice from the University of South Florida.

Kathleen (Kathy) Bobay, PhD, RN, ACHIP, FAAN, PhD, RN is a Professor in the Parkinson School of Health Sciences and Public Health at Loyola University of Chicago. Her research focuses nurses’ impact in improving patient care outcomes. Her team has a patent pending on two natural language processing engines that can be used with electronic health records for clinical decision support, operations improvement, and clinical research. Dr. Bobay has an Associate Degree in Nursing from Jackson Community College, Jackson, MI; her Bachelor’s degree is Health Sciences from Western Michigan University; a MSN as a Family Nurse Practitioner from Michigan State University; and her PhD in Nursing Systems and Administration from the University of Michigan.

David Boyd, DNP, RN, CNS, CPHIMS, NI-BC is the regional director for nursing informatics in patient care services for Kaiser Permanente, Northern California. David’s areas of interest include using electronic health records and information technologies to enhance professional nursing practice & well-being, advance decision support tools, support nursing leadership and regulatory compliance, and align health care quality and information system governance. David co-chairs the NKBDS Transforming Documentation Workgroup.  He earned his Doctor of Nursing Practice degree in 2013, with informatics focus from the University of Minnesota. He holds national certification as an American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Informatics Nurse and is CPHIMS certified.

Jane M. Carrington, PhD, RN, FAMIA, FAAN, is Associate Professor and Dorothy M. Smith Endowed Chair and Director of the Florida Blue Center for Health Care Quality at the University of Florida, College of Nursing. Dr. Carrington has over 25 years of experience in nursing informatics. She started as a clinical analyst, building and implementing clinical systems. Then pursued a Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing, with emphasis in informatics and nursing systems research. Her research has focused on nurses’ use of the electronic health record as a communication system for patients with a change of condition. Her framework that guides her research and suggests that communication and nurses’ experience and education contribute to patient outcomes.

Connie White Delaney, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, FACMI, FNAP, serves as Professor & Dean, School of Nursing, University of Minnesota, serves as Core Faculty in the Institute for Health Informatics, and is the Knowledge Generation Lead for the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education. She served as Associate Director of the Clinical Translational Science Institute –Biomedical Informatics, and  Acting Director of the Institute for Health Informatics (IHI) in the Academic Health Center from 2010-2015.  She serves as an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Nursing at the University of Iceland, where she received the Doctor Scientiae Curationis Honoris Causa (Honorary Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing) in 2011.  She is an elected Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, American College of Medical Informatics, and National Academies of Practice.  Delaney is the first Fellow in the College of Medical Informatics to serve as a Dean of Nursing.  Delaney was an inaugural appointee to the USA Health Information Technology Policy Committee, Office of the National Coordinator, and Office of the Secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). She is an active researcher in data and information technology standards for nursing and health care, and big data knowledge discovery. Delaney is past president of Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research (FNINR) and past Vice-Chair of CGFNS, Inc. She holds a BSN with majors in nursing and mathematics, MA in Nursing, Ph.D. Educational Administration and Computer Applications, postdoctoral study in nursing & medical informatics, and a Certificate in Integrative Therapies & Healing Practices.

Lorena de Leon, DPA, MBA, is the Senior Director of Population Health and Social Determinants for Maryland Physicians Care, the 3rd largest Medicaid managed care organization in Maryland. She has over 25 years of experience in program development, strategic planning, social care and health equity, and digital health technology with a focus on improving health outcomes and promoting affordability. She has served in leadership roles for organizations including United Healthcare, Optum, Johns Hopkins, and the Office of Healthcare Quality in Maryland. Dr. de Leon holds a bachelor’s in business management, an MBA in Healthcare management, and a doctorate in Public Administration from the University of Baltimore with a published dissertation on social equity disparities and policy implications. She also holds a certificate in Value-Based Care from the University of Houston and is a 2024 graduate of the Leadership Maryland Executive program.

Patricia C. Dykes, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI, is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Research Program Director for the Center for Patient Safety, Research and Practice at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She conducts research in the field of informatics and patient safety, focusing on leveraging information technology to enhance patient safety outcomes, including clinical decision support to reduce falls, pressure injuries, diagnostic errors, improve communication, and prevent adverse events. Dr. Dykes is the MassGeneral Brigham site PI for the CONCERN study. She is board member of the National Pressure Injury Prevention Panel, past President/Board Chair of AMIA, elected fellow of American Academy of Nursing, American College of Medical Informatics, International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics, and the National Academy of Medicine.

Allen Flynn, PharmD, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Health Informatics and Learning Systems, in the Department of Learning Health Sciences, University of Michigan Medical School. After earning a Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Michigan, Allen Flynn studied Computer Science. He then worked as a network analyst and a hospital staff pharmacist. At Trinity Health, Allen was promoted to Informatics Coordinator and became involved with several major EHR and other health IT projects. Allen went on to have informatics leadership roles at Trinity and Michigan Medicine while developing his expertise in EHRs and medication system safety. Building on that experience, Allen completed a Doctorate in Information Science and Health Informatics in 2018. Today, he is an assistant professor and member of the Knowledge Systems Lab in the University of Michigan Medical School’s Department of Learning Health Sciences. Allen’s current technical research focuses on making large, complex health app knowledge bases easier to manage, deploy, and update. His leadership efforts focus on removing barriers holding back the adoption of new technology and procedures for the medication use process.

Rebecca Freeman, PhD, RN, FAAN is the Vice President of Health Informatics for the University of Vermont Health Network. She has just enough policy background to be dangerous, having previously served a 2-year term as the Chief Nursing Officer for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (now the ASTP/ONC).  She combines that experience with many years of technical knowledge, a PhD in research methods, and a near-total lack of filter…into a really fun and successful career as an informatics executive.  Rebecca’s favorite informatics topics are: the inclusion of informatics concepts on the nursing professional development pathway, data and analytics, population health, downtime preparedness, and (much to her chagrin) EHR implementations.  Lately, she has dusting off her crystal ball and thinking about how nursing informatics can transition away from so much focus on the EHR and back to their scope and standards expectations…where they focus on data and the use of great data to drive exemplary care.

Kelaine Haas, PhD is a seasoned academic administrator and educator with extensive experience in strategic leadership, curriculum development, and student success. She has held key leadership roles at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, particularly within the School of Nursing and the Medical School, where her work has significantly influenced institutional growth and innovation in education.  As the Administrative Director at the University of Minnesota’s School of Nursing, Kelaine facilitates strategic initiatives and operations throughout the organization. In collaboration with the Dean, Kelaine plays a pivotal role in strategic planning, aligning resources, and ensuring the timely execution of key initiatives. A key component of Kelaine’s leadership is her ability to manage complex initiatives and coordinate multiple stakeholders across the school, university, and community. She serves as a vital liaison between senior leadership, faculty, students, and external stakeholders, ensuring that strategic goals are communicated clearly and executed effectively. Her strategic vision, collaborative approach, and commitment to fostering inclusive and innovative academic environments have made her a leader in advancing educational excellence at the University of Minnesota and beyond. Kelaine holds a Ph.D. in Genetics, Cellular Biology, and Development from the University of Minnesota and a B.S. in Biology from Wake Forest University.

Asha Immanuelle, MAS, RN, PHM-C, CPHIMS, is a seasoned Community Health Nurse Specialist focusing on Maternal and Child Health, a Health Informaticist, and a Community-Engaged Researcher. As a leader at the Center for Black Women's Wellness in Atlanta, GA, Asha drives impactful maternal health equity initiatives emphasizing community-clinical integration and holistic approaches to healthcare. In her role at the AIM-AHEAD CLINAQ Fellowship, she is committed to leveraging AI for clinical problem-solving, engaging in multidisciplinary team science, and effectively translating community-clinical insights to address maternal health disparities. Asha's work extends to her role as the Health Equity Lead and Community Liaison at the Gravity Project, where she enhances data infrastructures to facilitate community-clinical integration. Educated at Emory University and Johns Hopkins University, where she earned her Master of Applied Science in Population Health Management, Asha's academic background provides a solid foundation for her data-driven and community-focused healthcare initiatives. Additionally, her service on the Georgia Maternal Mortality Review Committee (MMRC) highlights her advocacy for systemic improvements in maternal health, demonstrating her dedication to transforming healthcare practices and policies to serve women and children across Georgia better.

Steve Johnson, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Institute for Health Informatics and Associate Director, Health Informatics Program at the University of Minnesota. Prior to joining the University, he had a successful career as VP/CTO in leading healthcare companies where he led technology, product development and data analytics teams. His research is focused on enhancing the secondary use of EHR data using healthcare data science and machine learning, improving clinical decision support and using rich ontologies to model clinical knowledge.

Susan Matney, PhD, RNC-OB, FAAN, FACMI, FHIMSS, FHL7, AL2 is a distinguished figure in the field of nursing informatics, with a career spanning over three decades in nursing and more than 20 years in informatics. She combines her clinical experience with expertise in informatics to address the challenges faced by nurses in the digital age. Her work often bridges the gap between clinical practice and technology. She currently works as an Informatics Consultant at Wise Owl Originals, LLC holding contracts with JP Systems, standardizing documentation for the Veteran’s Health Administration (VHA), and Next Level Health Innovations, developing data elements for the United States Core Data for Interoperability Plus (USCDI+). Previous employment in her career included working with the Healthcare Data Dictionary at Intermountain Healthcare and at 3M Health Information Systems, standardizing care plans for the Siemens Soarian product, and developing clinical information models for Logica and Graphite. She led the development of the HHS Family Planning Annual Report HL7 FHIR profile. She has played a significant role in integrating clinical data into electronic health records (EHRs) and other clinical systems to enhance patient care and decision-making.

Dr. Matney is particularly known for her contributions to the development and implementation of nursing terminologies and standards. She has been instrumental in advancing the use of Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC) for nursing data, which she helped get recognized by the American Nurses Association (ANA) as an approved terminology for use by nursing. She has been on the Nursing Knowledge Big Data (NKBD) Steering Committee since its inception. Through the NKDB Initiative, she chaired the terminology working group and led teams in the development of standardized nursing assessments (with mappings to LOINC and SNOMED CT) including a head-to-toe assessment, pain assessment, and wound assessment. Additionally, she has been involved in various committees and working groups related to Health Level 7 (HL7) and SNOMED CT, contributing to the interoperability of nursing data across different healthcare systems. She is past chair of the Nursing Clinical LOINC Subcommittee, the SNOMED Nursing Working Group, and the HL7 Patient Care Committee.

Bryce Parker, MPH, has been with Maryland Physicians Care in the role of Epidemiologist for the past two years on the Population Health Analytics Team. On the team, Bryce develops models and provides technical and analytical expertise to improve health outcomes for Maryland Medicaid members. He has served as an epidemiologist at the local, state, and federal levels working on projects ranging from COVID-19 variant sequencing analysis with the CDC Foundation to providing oversight and guidance for infectious disease outbreaks for the West Virginia Department of Health. Bryce obtained his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Epidemiology from Indiana University.

Lisiane Pruinelli, PhD, MS, RN, FAMIA, is an Associate Professor at the University of Florida’s College of Nursing, with a joint appointment in the College of Medicine’s Department of Surgery. Dr. Pruinelli is a renowned expert in nursing informatics, data science, and artificial intelligence, with extensive experience in leveraging big data to improve patient outcomes, particularly in the realm of transplantation and chronic disease conditions. She collaborates with multiple centers and institutions across US to leverage large amounts of data for smart clinical solutions. Her work has been pivotal in advancing predictive analytics in healthcare, and she has made significant contributions to the development of AI-driven models for chronic disease management. A recipient of multiple prestigious awards, Dr. Pruinelli is a fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association, and a co-founder and co-director of the Nursing and Artificial Intelligence Leadership Collaborative – the NAILCollab. She is also the co-chair for the Nursing Knowledge Big Data Science Initiative, a member of the UF Learning Health System Steering Committee, and has been actively engaged in several organizations, such as the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (iEEE), the Association of Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), and the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine. She has over 100 peer-reviewed publications in the intersection of informatics, data science, and chronic disease conditions and speaks nationally and internationally about the topic.

Accreditation Statement
In support of improving patient care, this activity is being reviewed for ANCC continuing education credit by the National Center Office of Interprofessional Continuing Professional Development (National Center OICPD). The National Center OICPD is a Jointly Accredited Provider with Commendation by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) to provide continuing education for the healthcare team. 

Register

Student Registration

Students must upload proof of current enrollment in a higher education program at the time of registration.  Please attach any document of official correspondence from your educational institution in which your university/college states your name, the university/course of your choice, and course enrollment information. Some examples are: 

• Photocopy of your DATED student ID (with current date)
• Photocopy of your class registration
• Photocopy of your class schedule
• Photocopy of your school bill
• URL of your institution's publicly accessible web page or web directory that proves your student status
   

Cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, a refund, minus a $50 administrative fee, will be issued if you cancel in writing by May 15, 2025. If you cancel after this date, you will not be eligible for a refund.  You must send an email to [email protected] to request a cancellation.

The conference hotel is the Graduate Minneapolis.  The negotiated conference rate is $174 per night, plus taxes.  Please note that Daily Mandatory Destination Charge does NOT apply to this special rate. This rate is good until May 12, 2025, but please book as early as possible as rooms could sell out. 

You must use the link below to obtain the special rate.

Book your room

1. Click the link above
2. Select the exact dates of your stay (top of page)
3. Click on check availability
4. Select room type – “Book now”
5. Confirm your stay, enter your name & credit card

The Graduate Minneapolis is located kitty-corner from the conference venue, McNamara Alumni Center.  The hotel has a restaurant, the Beacon. Also attached to the hotel is Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, and Sweetgreen.  Across the street are additional food options as well as a Walgreens.  A Metro Light Rail stop is about half a block away and goes directly into downtown Minneapolis.  Overnight parking is available at the hotel for $28 per night, plus taxes (subject to change).

In the event you are unable to find room at the Graduate Minneapolis, the University of Minnesota Office of Admissions maintains a list of other hotels in the area, as well as information about special discounts, where applicable.  To review the list, click here.