` Newsletter, Summer 2010 DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE Recent CAIM activities have been well received and helpful to the community we serve. At the New York Academy of Sciences we sponsored a Technology Forum in February 2010 on electronic health records that attracted 175 attendees who heard distinguished speakers from industry, academia, and government present various scenarios that will impact healthcare delivery. CAIM again co-sponsored HatchMatch a speed-dating like event that provides a venue for entrepreneurs and financiers to meet. A CAIM team attended the Annual HIMSS meeting and generated interest in our programs, especially a new certificate program in medical informatics that will be supported by a $3.8M federal award to develop workforce training programs. We also sponsored a reception at the New York Academy of Medicine on May 3 where former CAIM Director Ted Shortliffe joined Rachel Block (NYS Department of Health) and me to discuss an Update on Medical IT: What Every Health Professional Needs to Know. " Our Center is one of two NYSTAR CATs (Centers for Advanced Technology) that are at the end of their current contract term. In spite of significant budget problems in the State, the CAT program has received enthusiastic support from both the Governor and Legislature. One reason is that collectively last year the 15 CATs generated $527 million in documented economic impact to NYS companies reflecting a return on investment in excess of 35:1. We are confident that the program will continue to serve the technology innovation industry in New York. George Hripcsak, MD, MSECONOMIC IMPACT PERFORMANCE NYSTAR’s 2009 Annual Report lists achievements of its 15 Centers for Advanced Technology (CATs) as well as other economic development programs. We are pleased to report that we (CAIM) were ranked second in 5-year total economic impact with a value of $265,803,880. PEOPLE Andrew Laine, DSc, (Professor and Vice Chair, Biomedical Engineering and Radiology) was elevated to Fellow of the IEEE, effective, January 2010. The IEEE Board cited his contributions to wavelet applications in digital mammography, and ultrasound image analysis. David Shaw, PhD (Adjunct Professor, DBMI) won the 2009 Supercomputer Conference Best Paper Award, and Gordon Bell prize, for his presentation on the first millisecond-long all-atom simulation of a protein, beating the previous record by a factor of 100. Kathleen McKeown, PhD, (Henry and Gertrude Rothschilds Professor of Computer Science and former CAIM Co-Director) is one of three women in technology to win the Anita Borg Women of Vision Award which honors women making significant contributions in Innovation, Leadership, and Social Impact. Kathy was recognized for her seminal contributions to natural language processing within the general areas of artificial intelligence, information extraction, and human machine interaction Steven E. Labkoff, MD, FACP, a charter memberof theCAIM External Advisory Board, has been elected its first Chair. The EAB is an advisory group with members from various industry sectors that provides industry perspective and guidance to the CAIM management. Steve was also one of the featured speakers at the Technology Forum (February 2010) on “EHRs”. WORKFORCE HEALTH IT TRAINING In April the Department of Health and Human Resources, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology awarded Columbia’s Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI) a grant entitled Timely Training of Workers Competent to Support EHR Deployment and Meaningful Use . The $3.8M award will support healthcare IT worker training in areas that will increasingly use electronic health records. Funds will be used to develop a certificate program for industry workers and an SAVE THE DATE Current Issues in Biomedical Informatics – our annual technology update will be held on October 5, 2010. Co-sponsored with Pfizer, and at their NYC headquarters, the events will feature speakers from all sectors to discuss advances, problems and issues. There is no fee but preregistration is required. See CAIM webpage for information and preregistration details.
