Improving health using informatics solutions

The Center for Nursing Informatics is home to experts committed to addressing health care policy to improve population health using technology and informatics solutions. The center recently addressed the critical need to reduce documentation burden for nursing and other health care professionals by leading a national initiative through the Nursing Knowledge: Big Data Science Conference led by Dean Connie White Delaney, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI, FNAP, and Associate Professor Emeritus Bonnie Westra, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI. Center researchers addressed documentation burden problems from the perspective of big data research, using machine learning methods for identifying critical data elements in nursing documentation leveraging the center’s one of a kind resource, the Omaha System Data Collaborative (Karen Monsen, PhD, RN, FAAN, FAMIA, director). The Office of the National Coordinator and the American Nurses Association have built on these efforts to address the problem.

Additionally, Assistant Professor Martin Michalowski, PhD, reused nursing data to reveal critical health inequities and propose informatics-related solutions to improve population health. Clinical Associate Professor Robin Austin, PhD, DNP, DC, RN-BC, leads an interprofessional research team to improve knowledge representation of integrative health interventions within clinical terminologies to advance population health.

Center faculty are also partnering with the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) on a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded initiative to establish the NASN database to track school nursing data across the country. Informatics students at all levels are actively engaged with faculty in these vital efforts to improve health care through these cutting-edge informatics research and policy initiatives. Together, the center members and national partners engage in improving health across the continuum of care.