Monsen receives AMIA’s Virginia K. Saba Informatics Award

Professor Karen A. Monsen, PhD, RN, FAMIA, FNAP, FAAN, has been named the 2021 recipient of the American Medical Informatics Association’s (AMIA) Virginia K. Saba Informatics Award, recognizing an individual’s distinguished career and significant impact on the care of patients and the discipline of nursing.

Monsen’s research, informed by more than 20 years experience as a public health nurse and manager, uses standardized data and systems to improve the quality of care and patient outcomes. She developed a novel practice-based research network based on standardized nursing terminology data through the University of Minnesota Center for Nursing Informatics, where she currently serves as director. The Omaha System Partnership for Knowledge Discovery and Health Care Quality has been used by multi-disciplinary research teams around the world to shape policy in knowledge management and to educate students in contemporary health care practices.

Of particular interest to Monsen are the ways that informatics, big data and documentation in general; and the Omaha System in particular, can increase health equity and transform health care for the better.

She leads the development and deployment of international, evidence-based COVID-19 response guidelines synthesized from more than 100 sources for over 50 roles ranging from triage to midwifery across community, clinical and acute care settings.

Monsen will be presented with the Virginia K. Saba Informatics Award at the AMIA 2021 Annual Symposium in San Diego on Oct. 31. She joins Associate Professor Emeritus Bonnie Westra, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI, and Professor and Dean Connie White Delaney, PhD, RN, FAAN, FAMIA, FNAP, as past School of Nursing recipients of the AMIA signature award.