Institute for Health Informatics History Project

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https://hdl.handle.net/11299/167034

In 2015, the Institute for Health Informatics (IHI) celebrates the 50th anniversary of health informatics at the University of Minnesota. Early institutional markers serve as the formal beginnings of the emergent discipline of health informatics at the University of Minnesota, designating the University of Minnesota as one of the first academic institutions to support and subsequently anchor the development of the new discipline. In 1965, the National Institute of Health (NIH) Division of Research Resources awarded the University of Minnesota’s College of Medical Sciences a grant to establish a Biomedical Data Processing Unit at the University. Two years later, the Hill Family Foundation awarded a ten-year grant to Professor Eugene Ackerman to initiate a graduate research and training program in Biomedical Computing. In 1968, the College of Medical Sciences established the Division of Health Computer Sciences, which would serve as the administrative home for the NIH research resources grant, housed within the Department of Laboratory Medicine. The Division provided interdisciplinary training to pre-doctoral and post-doctoral students applying health computer sciences technology to health services research. In 1974, the University of Minnesota was awarded the prestigious National Library of Medicine Grant for Training in Health Computer Sciences, which formally established the Graduate Program in Health Informatics at the University of Minnesota. The Division and its institutional successor, the Institute for Health Informatics (created in 2006), received continuous training grants from the National Library of Medicine until 2009. For fifty years, the University of Minnesota has been one of the preeminent health informatics institutions in the United States.

The Institute for Health Informatics History Project captures, analyzes, and records the history of health informatics at the University of Minnesota. Through oral history interviews, the Project preserves the personal stories of faculty members and National Library of Medicine administrators who were involved in the early history of the field and have keen insights into the history of health informatics at the University of Minnesota.

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Interview with Bruce Blazar
(2015-06-30) Blazar, Bruce; Tobbell, Dominique
Dr. Blazar begins by discussing the establishment of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Translational Medicine and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and the relationship between the two centers. He next goes on to describe the application process for the National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translation Science Award and the major achievements that have resulted from the CTSA grant. Blazar goes on to discuss the importance of biomedical informatics within the CTSA program; the significance of the appointment of Constantin Aliferis, MD, Ph.D., FACMI as director of the Institute for Health Informatics, director of the CTSI Biomedical Informatics program, and the University of Minnesota chief research informatics officer; and the ongoing support and investment of the Academic Health Center leadership in biomedical and health informatics. Next, Blazar reflects on the distinctiveness of the University of Minnesota’s program among the sixty institutions within the CTSA consortium, and discusses the training initiatives that are part of the CTSA program.
Interview with Constantin Aliferis
(2015-06-08) Aliferis, Constantin F.; Tobbell, Dominique
Constantin Aliferis begins by discussing his educational background, including his early interest in biomedical and health informatics. He describes the main focus of his research since graduate school, which has included machine learning and the analysis of complex and high-dimensional data sets; scientometrics and informatics retrieval; and model building, analysis, and knowledge discovery across a variety of disease domains. Aliferis goes on to briefly discuss his tenure at Vanderbilt University, followed by a more detailed discussion of his tenure at New York University. Next, Aliferis offers his definition of precision medicine. The remainder of the interview focuses on health informatics at the University of Minnesota. Aliferis describes his vision for the Institute for Health Informatics, reflects on the strong backing provided by the leadership of the University and the University’s Academic Health Center to support this vision, and offers his perspective on the future of the field of biomedical and health informatics.
Interview with Donald Connelly
(2015-04-01) Connelly, Donald; Tobbell, Dominique
Donald Connelly begins by discussing his educational background, including his early interest in biomedical computing. He describes his first years in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology including the state of computing in laboratories in the 1970s, the atmosphere of the Department, and his experiences as director of the Laboratory Data Division and acting director of the Outpatient Laboratory. Next, Dr. Connelly discusses his experiences as a Ph.D. student in the Division of Health Computer Sciences. He goes on to describe his early research developing ways to graphically display laboratory data to clinicians, and his subsequent research with Theodore Thompson, MD, to develop a clinical workstation for the University of Minnesota’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. He also describes his work developing an automated decision support system for blood bank personnel assessing requests for platelets. Dr. Connelly next discusses the courses he taught in the Division of Health Computer Sciences; the National Library of Medicine Training Grant programs; and the interdisciplinarity and interprofessionalism of health informatics. He reflects upon the leadership of Eugene Ackerman and Laël Gatewood, the challenges each faced due to the lack of strong institutional support for the Division of Health Computer Sciences, and the increased status of health informatics within the University following the establishment of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute. He also discusses his experiences directing the Division of Health Computer Sciences. Dr. Connelly briefly discusses the relationships between the Division of Health Computer Sciences and the Mayo Clinic, the Biomedical Library, and the Minnesota Department of Health. He next discusses work that he has done in the area of electronic health records. Dr. Connelly goes on to discuss the establishment of the Institute for Health Informatics; the directorship of Julie Jacko; and the establishment of the Master’s in Health Informatics. Finally, Dr. Connelly reflects on some of the major changes he has in health informatics observed over his career.
Interview with Martin LaVenture
(2015-03-22) LaVenture, Martin; Tobbell, Dominique
Martin (Marty) LaVenture received his BS in Natural Science from St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota in 1973, and a Masters in Public Health in Epidemiology in 1976 and Ph.D. in Health Informatics in 2004 from the University of Minnesota. From 1976 to 1978, Dr. LaVenture served as epidemiologist and surveillance coordinator in the Immunization Program Section of the Minnesota Department of Health. In 1978, Dr. LaVenture joined the Wisconsin Division of Health in Madison, where he held the position of assistant state epidemiologist and communicable disease coordinator until 1987. Between 1987 and 1990, he served as director of the Cohort Public Health Division of Epic Systems Corp., in Minneapolis where he worked as a developer of software systems for health information management. In 1990, Dr. LaVenture returned to the Minnesota Department of Health where he held the position of supervisor, Immunization Assessment and Registries Unit in the Division of Disease Prevention and Control. From December 1995 through December 1997, he served as manager, Acute Disease Prevention Services Section in the Division of Disease Prevention and Control. Since December 1997, Dr. LaVenture has served as Director of Health Informatics and since 2009 he has served as Director of the Office of Health Information Technology and e-Health at the Minnesota Department of Health. As part of this, he leads the statewide Minnesota e-Health Initiative, a public-private collaborative chartered in 2004 to advance health information technology adoption and use in Minnesota. In 1992, Dr. LaVenture joined the graduate program in Health Informatics at the University of Minnesota, receiving his Ph.D. in 2004. Since 2004, he has served as a core member of faculty at the University of Minnesota in Health Informatics. In 2011, Dr. LaVenture was elected as a fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics.
Interview with Stuart Speedie
(2015-01-29) Speedie, Stuart; Tobbell, Dominique
Stuart Speedie begins by discussing his educational background and his early career spent first at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory in Portland, Oregon, and then at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy where he served as Director of Education. He discusses his early interest in information systems and technology and his five-year NSF-funded research project on the development of expert systems on the appropriate use of drugs in hospital settings, which he developed during a sabbatical year at Stanford University. He describes his responsibilities disseminating information technology at the University of Maryland and the information systems research he conducted there. Next he discusses his move to the University of Minnesota, his appointment in the Division of Health Computer Sciences and in the office of the Provost of the Academic Health Center, and his role on the Provost’s Reengineering Task Force on Information Technology. He discusses his role within the Division of Health Computer Sciences (subsequently renamed the Division of Health Informatics); his work in telehealth and telemedicine; and his collaboration with Stanley Finkelstein on the use of telehealth technologies in homecare. He next discusses the NLM Research Training in Medical Informatics program. He describes the efforts to establish the terminal Masters in Health Informatics; the influence of different directors—Laël Gatewood, Donald Connelly, Julie Jacko—on the Division and later, the Institute for Health Informatics; his collaborations with Donald Connelly on the impact of health information exchange on patients and hospital emergency departments; the influence of Connie Delaney’s appointment to the Institute for Health Informatics; and the Division and Institute’s long-term relationship with the Mayo Clinic.
Interview with Christopher G. Chute
(2014-12-04) Chute, Christopher G.; Tobbell, Dominique
Christopher Chute begins by discussing his educational background and his decision to move to the Mayo Clinic in the late 1980s. Next, he discusses some of the health informatics research and educational projects that the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota have collaborated on. Dr. Chute describes in detail the main research projects that he and the Division of Biomedical Informatics have worked on since the late 1980s, including research in the areas of biomedical terminology and ontology and the management of patient data in electronic medical records. He discusses his role in the University of Minnesota’s National Library of Medicine Research Training Program and the eventual formal incorporation of the Mayo Clinic into the training program. He discusses the changes in the training program over the course of the 1990s and early 2000s in the context of broader changes in the field of health informatics in particular and biomedical research more generally. Dr. Chute next discusses the efforts, beginning in the mid-2000s, to establish a collaborative health informatics training program between the Mayo Clinic, Arizona State University, and the University of Minnesota. He also discusses the process by which both the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota secured Clinical Translation Science Awards. Finally, Dr. Chute reflects on the interprofessionalism that has characterized health informatics at the University of Minnesota.
Interview with Milton Corn
(2014-11-21) Corn, Milton; Tobbell, Dominique
Milton Corn begins the interview discussing the definition of health informatics and the early National Library of Medicine Research Training in Medical Informatics programs, including the University of Minnesota’s training program. Dr. Corn describes his first introduction to medical informatics while serving as dean of Georgetown University School of Medicine and his decision to join the NLM in 1990. He describes at length the evolution of the NLM Research Training Program and the related history of the University of Minnesota’s training program based on the evaluations the NLM performed of the training program every five years. He discusses the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic’s efforts to establish a collaborative training program with Arizona State University. He also discusses the implications of Minnesota’s decision not to fully pursue bioinformatics when the NLM shifted the focus of its training program in the 1990s. Dr. Corn goes on to discuss the development of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards and the influence of the awards on health informatics research.
Interview with Stanley Finkelstein
(University of Minnesota, 2014-11-06) Finkelstein, Stanley; Tobbell, Dominique
Stanley Finkelstein begins by discussing his educational background and his arrival at the University of Minnesota. He describes at length his research in the field of home monitoring and telehealth, including his research with Jay N. Cohn on the development of a device to measure and monitor arteriovascular compliance in order to diagnose and monitor hypertension and congestive heart failure; his research with Warren Warwick and the development of the first home monitoring system for cystic fibrosis patients; and the subsequent development of home monitoring of lung transplant patients in collaboration with Marshall Hertz. Dr. Finkelstein goes on to discuss the NLM training grant program; the lack of institutional support provided to the Division of Health Computer Sciences; the development of the Institute for Health Informatics; the leadership of Eugene Ackerman and Laël Gatewood; the number of women in the field of biomedical engineering and health informatics; the relationship between the Division of Health Computer Sciences and the Biomedical Library; the collaborative relationship between the University of Minnesota and the Mayo Clinic; and the development of the Masters in Health Informatics.
Interview with Lynda Ellis
(University of Minnesota, 2014-10-21) Ellis, Lynda; Tobbell, Dominique
Lynda Ellis begins by discussing her educational background and her arrival at the University of Minnesota. She describes her first years in the Division of Health Computer Sciences, the atmosphere of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, and her colleagues in the Department. She then discusses her initial research in computer-based patient education; the graduate program in Biometry and Health Information Systems; and her year of leave at 3M. Dr. Ellis next describes her collaborative work with Larry Wackett and the development of the University of Minnesota Biocatalysis/Biodegradation Database, and then returns to the subject of her work on computer-based patient education. She discusses the National Library of Medicine Training Grant program; the development of the Health Sciences Instructional Computing Laboratory; the important role of the Biomedical Library in the history of health informatics at the University; the leadership styles of Eugene Ackerman and Laël Gatewood; and the number of women in health informatics.