MLA Medical Informatics Section
Annual Report 2003-2004

Goal 1: Recruitment, Membership and Leadership in the Profession

MIS Website Revision: Marty Brennan, the previous MIS webmaster resigned in December. MIS has selected a new Webmaster, Nic Cecchino. Nic currently is in the process of revising the MIS Website to incorporate a new look and additional functionalities. As the first step towards revising the MIS Website, a new logo has been selected for the Section.

MIS Member Directory: The MIS Directory, available online through the MIS Website, now has 57 members who have begun completing their profiles; 35 of the profiles are publicly accessible. Since May 2003, there have been 189 accesses to the directory.

MIS Member Listserv: Michael Kronenfeld has worked with Nic Cecchino to develop a members-only listserv that was used to distribute ballots for elections in February, and to keep as a news for members only list. Michael Kronenfeld has also worked with the Membership Committee to develop a new MIS membership brochure. The new brochure will be distributed at the 2004 Annual Meeting.

Beth Layton was selected by the MIS Board to replace Zoe Stavri, Chair-Elect, who resigned suddenly due to health reasons.

A successful election was held in February. The new officers are:

Chair-elect: Catherine Arnott-Smith
Representative-Elect to Section Council: Joan Marcotte Gregory

The MIS Board has nominated Ruth Riley as our nominee to the MLA Nominating Committee, in accordance with the MIS bylaws.

Goal 2: Life Long Learning

The objectives for this goal included holding a journal club on technology trends and forecasting and expanding the self-education resource project on the website. To date, these objectives have not been achieved.

Although the above goals were not achieved this year, an MIS symposium proposal, developed by Wallace McLendon, was submitted to the MLA CE committee for possible inclusion at the 2005 MLA Annual Meeting. The symposium would be entitled: "Planning for Technology in Libraries: New Tools and Strategies for Managing Innovation". The section is waiting to hear whether the MLA CE committee has approved this proposal. The MIS membership was surveyed to determine their interest in this proposal, and comments were received from 40 members. Thirty-eight indicated they were interested in attending this symposium

Goal 3: Advocacy

The MIS/MLA Career Development Grant was awarded to two recipients this year: Margaret Gorman, Arizona Cancer Center, University of Arizona-Tucson, and Sara Anne Hook, School of Informatics, Indiana University-Indianapolis.

Additionally, the section also donated $1000 to the Donald A.B. Lindberg Research Fellowship Fund.

Goal 4: Creating and Communicating our Knowledge

At the MLA 2004 Annual Meeting, the Medical Informatics Session will sponsor and/or co-sponsor three program events:

1. "Sharing the Power Part 2": Bioinformatics Education and the Library" to be held on Tuesday, May 25th. (Primary Sponsor)
2. "Power Partners: What Medical Informatics Can Do for Medical Librarians and What Medical Librarians Can Do for Informatics" to be held on Monday, May 24th. (Primary Sponsor)
   
   
3. Educating the 21st Century Health Professional" to be held on Sunday, May 23rd (Secondary Sponsor)
   

Goal 5: Building a Network of Partners

Expanding the journal club participation internationally has not yet been accomplished. The MIS directory/portfolio section of the MIS website was promoted, but the actual participation was very limited.

The Section received approval from the MLA Board to raise funds for a reception for Molecular Biology SIG and Medical Informatics Section members to immediately follow the jointly sponsored program session "Sharing the Power Part 2" on Tuesday, May 25th. The purpose of the reception is to promote networking among Section and SIG members and to recruit new members. John Wiley and Sons provided a generous donation to host this reception.

Section Personnel:

Nic Cecchino, Web Site Editor
Denise Britigan, Membership Committee
Janis Brown, MIS Nominating Committee
Patricia W. Freedman, Section Council Representative
Nunzia Giuse, Section Past Chair
Taneya Koonce, Secretary and Treasurer
Mike Kronenfeld, Membership Committee Chair
Beth Layton, Section Chair-Elect
Joan Marcotte Gregory, MIS Nominating Committee
Wallace McLendon, Professional Development Liaison
Sandi Parker, Bylaws Committee Chair
Ruth Riley, Nominating Committee Chair; MIS nominee to MLA Nominating Committee
Nancy Roderer, Government Relations Committee Liaison
Jean Sayre, Section Chair

Respectfully submitted,
Jean Sayre, Medical Informatics Section Chair.

Motion
This report is informational and requires no action by the Board of Directors.

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