William Stead, M.D.
Informatics team finds Chicago to be their kind of town
Randolph Miller, M.D.
Vanderbilt biomedical informatics leaders William Stead, M.D., and Randolph Miller, M.D., received marquee awards at the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Fall Symposium, which concluded Tuesday in Chicago.
The Morris F. Collen Award of Excellence in Medical Informatics, internationally recognized as the capstone award in the field, was given to Stead, who holds the McKesson Foundation Chair in Biomedical Informatics and is associate vice chancellor for Health Affairs and director of the Informatics Center.
The award is given annually by the American College of Medical Informatics to an individual whose personal commitment and dedication to medical informatics has made a lasting impression on the field.
“I feel very honored to accept the Collen Award from my peers in the college,” Stead said.
“I'm thankful to them, and also to colleagues here at Vanderbilt, within the Informatics Center and all across the Medical Center. It's been my privilege to work with outstanding people who have a strong common interest in improving health care. I look forward to our continued collaboration.”
Miller, University Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Medicine and Nursing, received the Donald A.B. Lindberg Award for Innovation in Informatics, given annually to an individual for contributions that advance biomedical informatics on the national or international level.
Known for expertise on medical diagnostic systems and knowledge bases, Miller led development of WizOrder, the clinical decisions support system tied into the inpatient ordering process at Vanderbilt.
Through partnerships with clinical leaders, physicians and nurses, Stead, Miller and colleagues in the Informatics Center have made Vanderbilt's hospitals and clinics a leading test bed for the use of computers in clinical settings.
With the launch of the DNA Databank, they're on their way to doing the same for research leading toward personalized medicine. Through the Center for Better Health and industry partnerships, they're working to drive adoption beyond Vanderbilt.
The Vanderbilt team also picked up three of this year's six Leadership Awards from the AMIA, given for outstanding volunteer leadership and service to the association or for leadership in the field.
The awards went to Stead; Nancy Lorenzi, Ph.D., professor of Biomedical Informatics and assistant vice chancellor for Health Affairs; and Cynthia Gadd, Ph.D., associate professor of Biomedical Informatics and director of education and graduate studies for the department.