The 1st World Nursing Informatics Leadership Conference was held in conjunction with Medinfo 2007 in Australia on August 19th and 20th in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Australia's informatics nurses and IMIA nursing informatics special interest group members combined efforts whereby knowledge, expertise, and best practices were shared between nurse leaders and informatics nurses in a 2-day conference comprised of presentations and workshop activities. More than 140 attendees from more than a dozen countries around the world attended the 1st World Nursing Informatics Leadership Conference at the Brisbane Convention Centre.
Nursing informatics initiatives from around the globe were presented with the intent to foster education and the generation of new knowledge that will advance nursing and healthcare in general. Patricia Abbott, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI, from the United States, presented a plenary keynote session on global informatics from the perspectives of the World Heath Organization (WHO) sharing the work under way with the WHO office of nursing midwifery in Geneva. The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing (JHUSON), in collaboration with the WHO (Geneva) and other partners, launched the Global Alliance for Nursing and Midwifery Community of Practice (GANM CoP) in 2006. The new online community offers nurses and midwives throughout the world-despite their geographic location and physical settings-a forum for sharing ideas, best practices, and new knowledge. The GANM CoP employs an electronic communication system that is specifically designed for use in remote and/or low bandwidth settings and requires only an e-mail address for participation. This presents a tremendous opportunity for nursing informatics knowledge and expertise to foster knowledge sharing related to information management for purposes of improving health. Diane Skiba, PhD, from the United States, presented a Plenary Session Keynote on the TIGER (Technology Informatics Guiding Educational Reform) project in the United States. Dr. Skiba discussed the active involvement of nursing at all levels and within all specialties, in order to make full use of the capabilities of the EHR. TIGER aims to enable practicing nurses and nursing students to fully engage in the unfolding digital era of healthcare, thus enabling nurses to use informatics in practice and education so the global vision of safer, higher quality patient care can be achieved. This was followed with a panel discussion on Nurse Leadership Issues; Linking Nurse Informaticians. The panel included Claudia Bartz, PhD, RN, FAAN, from the International Council of Nursing, Helen Betts, EdD, RN, from the United Kingdom, and Ann Moen, PhD, RN, from Norway. The panel shared information regarding nursing informatics initiatives currently under way around the world, identifying opportunities for growth, which helped to stimulate audience discussion on various ideas for collaboration. On Sunday evening, CARING hosted a reception for all attendees. Susan K. Newbold, PhD, RN, FAAN, FHIMSS, from Nashville, Tennessee, was the host.
The second day of the conference started with Patrick Weber, MA, RN, Switzerland, who presented a Plenary Session Keynote on a research project that was 20 years in the making, the purpose of which is to change the cost rate of the nursing portion of the DRG and to have a better understanding of where the nurses are in the financing system.
A panel followed on Extending Care Across Boundaries in Partnership with Patients and Families. Kaija Saranto, PhD, RN, from Finland talked about the e-health strategy in Finland, which is based on the European Union e-health strategy. Portals used by citizens and patients which is based on the European Union e-health strategy where portals are used by citizens to access healthcare information. Pirkko Kouri, PhD, PHN, RN, from Savonia University of Applied Science, Finnish Maternity Service, discussed a 10-year project, including an information data bank. She referred the audience to a virtual visit to a maternity ward called Tutuks, which has an English language version (http://www.synnytystutuksi.fi/tutukspalvelu.html). Janice Turek, RN, introduced the participants to the Winona Health Medical Community, which supports 30,000 people on the Mississippi River in Southeast Minnesota. In 2003 to -2004, the United States Department of Health and Human Services encouraged the building of regional health information organizations (RHIO), and Winona has one that eventually will integrate with the Mayo Clinic.
In 2000, Winona Health Medical Community pioneered a patient portal for their electronic medical record vendor. Hyeoun-Ae Park, PhD, RN, from Seoul, Korea, and Columbia, Maryland, spoke on Preparing Nurses for Leadership in Nursing Informatics, highlighting activities currently under way in a single tertiary hospital in Korea. There are about 600 nurses for the 909-beds hospital, which is considered to be a paperless hospital. They use the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms (SNOMED-CT) and the International Classification of Diseases, version 10 (ICD-10), as well as the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP) for nursing. Heather Strachan, RN, from Scotland, spoke on Scotland's eHealth strategy, which is "Patient Focused, Clinically Led, and Benefits Driven." Heather is now the NMAHP eHealth Lead for the Scottish Executive Health Department eHealth Division.
Robyn Carr, RN, from New Zealand, ended the day talking about the future of the IMIA Nursing Informatics Special Interest Group.