1. Welcome/Call to order
   Anthony Aguirre called the meeting to order a 7:05 a.m.
   Attending: Anthony Aguirre, Jim Beattie, Doreen Bradley, Janis Brown, Karen Butter, Mona Couts, Diana Cunningham, Eric Delozier, Nelson Gilman, Valerie Florance, Trudy Gardner, Emily Hull, Debra Ketchell, Kristine Markovich, Tom Mead, Audrey Newcomer, Gail Persily, T. Scott Plutchak, Polly Porter, Jennifer Reiswig, Dan Savage, Brenda Seago, Stuart Spore, Lia Stan.
    
   
2. Introductions
    
   
3. Approval of the minutes
   Minutes of the last annual meeting were published in the Fall issue of the Medical Informatics section newsletter, on the section home page, and additional copies were available at the meeting. Minutes were approved.
    
   
4. State of the Section
   The section is very "healthy" with several program sessions running at the same times. See individual reports below.
    
   
5. Reports
   1. Secretary/Treasurer
      Diana Cunningham again reported that the Section's treasury was quite "healthy," with a net balance of $23,097.77 as of May 20, 1997. This balance is a net increase of $1,989.62 over last year's balance. Annual meeting expenses have been low, and joint sponsorship of sessions has reduced expenses to the chapter. Copies of the detailed summary report were distributed. Section Council Representative. Diana Cunningham, reported for Fran Brahmi, Section Council Representative, who at the last minute was unable to attend MLA. Section Council needs to know who are the liaisons for the Centennial and the CE Committee. MLA's new web server and web administrator services were announced. The possibility of adding a section column to MLA News was mentioned. The Council requested input from all sections re why it is so difficult to find candidates to run for MLA offices. Discussion noted the tedious bureaucratic processes that seemed to pervade MLA responsibilities. One person noted that 25% of his time was devoted to MLA work. "Too much process" was the general consensus. An outline summary of council discussions is attached. 1997 Program Committee. Anthony Aguirre reported that the Section would, from now on, follow the practice of other Sections. This coming year as a transition the Chair and Chair-elect would share planning the programs. The following year the new Chair-elect would be in charge. This year the Section co-sponsored sessions with the following sections: Research, Public Services, Educational Media and Technologies, Technical services and Medical Society Libraries.
   2. 1998 Program Committee
      See New business (below).
   3. Career Development Award
      Karen Butter reported that the award was established with $1,000 given to individuals who "serve as agents of change." Two awards will be given this year as part of the awards luncheon; this year's winners are Julie McGowan and Linda Hogan. In approving the award, the Board stated that it should have a strong emphasis on research. The jury who evaluated the applications included Karen Butter, Pam Van Hine and Mary Horris. Karen reported that the effort to create this award was a difficult process. This was one area for which MLA had not outlined a clear process. She also mentioned that the Section should get a representative on the Awards Committee and the announcement should go out earlier in the year. Newsletter Committee. Two issues have been produced; copies of the Spring issue were distributed. Main announcements are included on the section listserv that also point to the full issue on the Section's web site.
   4. Government Relations Committee Liaison
      Scott Plutchak reported that intellectual property was still a hot topic. Close to being signed into law, the WIPO agreement was stalled. Scott reported this issue would not "go away." The new Telecommunication Act of 1996 was summarized which provides preferential rates to libraries. Two weeks ago the Federal Communications Comm. (FCC) issued their rules to the states, which in turn must develop its own rules for the Public Service Commissions. The Legislative Update session scheduled tomorrow at MLA will highlight the issues, and particularly issues of privacy in an electronic environment.
   5. Membership Committee
      Gail Persily reported 445 paid members for 1997, with 73 new or lapsed members who have rejoined since May 1996. Highlights for the year include:
      1. Continued to receive requests for information through the MI section web page,
      2. Provided section brochures for chapter, state and annual MLA meetings,
      3. Developed a welcome letter for new members,
      4. Sent recommendations to the MLA Membership Committee re how MLA could assist Sections in providing membership information and specialized reports. It was suggested that the Section brochure be redesigned and updated.
   6. Nominating Committee
      Suzanne Grefsheim, Chair reported that the Nominating Committee was composed of Francis Lynch and Barbara Shipman. Ballots were mailed to all MI members, including 30-40 international members, and received 82. Election results are:
      
      • Valerie Florence, Chair-elect
      • Audrey Newcomer, Secretary/Treasurer
      • Diana Cunningham, Section Council Representative
      • Debra Ketchall, Section Council Alternate
      
       
      
6. Old Business
   None to report.
    
   
7. New Business/Open Forum
   Trudy Gardner, Chair-elect, presented her goals and objectives for next year. All relate to the priorities of the incoming MLA president, Rachel Anderson: Preliminary 1997/98 goals and objectives for the Section include:
   Goal 1. Professional Development.
   • Objective 1. Educate and inform Section members and others interested in medical informatics by sponsoring programs at the Centennial MLA Conference.
   • Objective 2. Continue to sponsor the MI Career Development Award.
   • Objective 3. Develop a list of medical informatics courses and continuing education courses and make the list available on the MIS home page.
   Goal 2. Advocacy
   • Objective 1. Attract new members and retain current ones by meeting their needs.
   • Objective 2. Contact international members in regard to the International Conference in the year 2000 to network and plan activities. Send letter to AMIA.
   Goal 3. Organization.
   Goal 4. Research.
   
   • Objective 1. Sponsor papers on research at the MLA annual conference.
   Goal 5. National Information Policy.
   • Objective 1. ? (Note: Anthony Aguirre agreed to propose a goal for the National Information Policy). Anthony Aguirre announced that the responsibilities for section programming would be shared by both the upcoming Chair and Chair-elect. Trudy and Valerie will coordinate efforts to plan programs. Valerie presented some program planning ideas for discussion by section members:
     1. Co-sponsoring a pre-conference with the new molecular biology SIG on the "Impacts of Genomics on 21st Century Medicine"
     2. Co-sponsoring a post-conference with the Research Section presenting "Medical Informatics and the Role of the Library"
     3. The NSF "Digital Library Initiative." It has been two years since this program was initiated and 6 sites may be ready to report progress.
     4. New NLM telemedicine projects and the role of libraries in those projects.
     5. Contributed papers session describing the current state of medical informatics education.
     6. Evaluating technology projects. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) telemedicine projects.
     7. Meta-analysis, developing methodologies to evaluate journals, evidence-based centers and reports.Volunteers include the following: Jim Beattie, NYU, volunteered to assist with evidence-based medicine topics. Debbie Ketchall volunteered to assist with the genomics program. Tom Mead volunteered to assist with the meta-analysis program. Mona Couts volunteered to assist with the evaluation of technology and digital libraries program. Anthony Aguirre and Debbie Ketchell also volunteered to coordinate a joint session with the Public Health Section on public health informatics. Gail Persily suggested that instead of continuing the MIS newsletter the Section think about posting updates on the MIS home page. Others agreed it was worth trying. Trudy thanked everyone for their enthusiastic responses to the goals and objectives and the upcoming program planning ideas. Assignments for next year include: David Yamamoto, volunteered through Gail Persily to work with Jim Shedlock on updates to the MIS home page as a replacement for the MIS newsletter; Brenda Seago, Nominating committee, Doreen Bradley to continue with Membership, Scott Plutchak to continue as Government Relations Liaison, and Awards Jury to include Tony Aguirre, Karen Butter, and one other. Kristine Markovich suggested that MIS needs a list of medical informatics courses offered at universities throughout the U.S. and volunteered to put the list together.

Respectfully submitted,
Diana Cunningham, Sec/Treas.

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