Betsy Weiner, Ph.D., R.N.
VUSN’s Weiner lands national informatics award
Betsy Weiner, Ph.D., R.N., senior associate dean for Informatics at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, has been awarded the 2008 American Medical Informatics Association Virginia K. Saba award.
This national honor recognizes a distinguished career with significant impact on the care of patients and the discipline of nursing.
“Betsy is best of class in using IT to create learning environments for use in on-campus and distance education,” said Bill Stead, M.D., associate vice chancellor for Health Affairs and director of the Informatics Center.
Nancy Lorenzi, Ph.D., assistant vice chancellor for Health Affairs and professor of Biomedical Informatics, agreed.
“Like Dr. Saba, Betsy is a pioneer in the field; passionate, outspoken, honest and committed to nursing informatics.”
Weiner was developing strategies to expand nursing knowledge through technology before informatics was officially named a discipline. She was the primary investigator on one of the original 1985 IBM grants to develop informatics-based educational products.
“Betsy sees technology at the intersection of education — one cannot thrive without the other,” said VUSN Dean Colleen Conway-Welch, Ph.D.
“She is a tremendous resource to the Medical Center as well as the School of Nursing faculty, staff and students in opening up new and effective ways of teaching, learning and research.”