Biomedical Informatics faculty member receives highest honor in field

<p>Ted Shortliffe, MD, PhD, a cross-appointed faculty member at ASU&rsquo;s Department of Biomedical Informatics and the founding dean of the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix, was honored in the May/June 2007 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association for winning the Morris F. Collen Award.</p><separator></separator><p>This award is the American College of Medical Informatics&rsquo;s highest honor for lifetime achievement and contributions to the field of biomedical informatics. The article was a special feature detailing Shortliffe&rsquo;s contributions to the field, as well as describing his most recent move to Phoenix. Among his many accomplishments, Shortliffe established the graduate program in biomedical informatics at Stanford University and was the principal developer of the medical expert system known as MYCIN which transformed the field of artificial intelligence in medicine.</p><separator></separator><p>Shortliffe and his wife, Vimla Patel, PhD, recently joined ASU&rsquo;s Department of Biomedical Informatics from Columbia University. Patel is a professor of Biomedical Informatics and interim chair of the department.&nbsp;</p><separator></separator><p>Sethuraman Panchanathan, the director of the School of Computing and Informatics, said, &ldquo;We are very fortunate to have Ted cross-appointed as a professor of biomedical informatics at Arizona State University, especially given his formidable experience in developing renowned graduate programs at both Stanford and Columbia University. I have no doubt that ASU will soon become known as a world-class department of biomedical informatics.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p><separator></separator><p>Elizabeth Kittrie, the associate director for ASU&rsquo;s Department of Biomedical Informatics, said, &ldquo;Our students will benefit greatly from Ted&rsquo;s extensive knowledge as a physician and as an educator. Ted is the editor of the leading textbook on biomedical informatics.&rdquo;</p><separator></separator><p>Biomedical Informatics is an emerging field at the intersection of medicine, biology and computing that is transforming healthcare. A key focus of this field is to optimize how medical information is used in treating, preventing and curing disease. For more information about ASU&rsquo;s graduate programs in biomedical informatics see&nbsp;<a href="http://bmi.asu.edu/">http://bmi.asu.edu/</a></p><separator></separator>… and his wife, Vimla Patel, PhD, recently joined ASU&rsquo;s Department of Biomedical Informatics from Columbia University. Patel is a professor of Biomedical Informatics and interim chair of the department.&nbsp;</p><separator></separator><p>Sethuraman Panchanathan, the director of the School of Computing and Informatics, said, &ldquo;We are very fortunate to have Ted cross-appointed as a professor of biomedical informatics at Arizona State University, especially given his formidable experience in developing renowned graduate programs at both Stanford and Columbia University. I have no doubt that ASU will soon become known as a world-class department of biomedical informatics.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p><separator></separator><p>Elizabeth Kittrie, the associate director for ASU&rsquo;s Department of Biomedical Informatics, said, &ldquo;Our students will benefit greatly from Ted&rsquo;s extensive knowledge as a physician and as an educator. Ted is the editor of the leading textbook on biomedical informatics.&rdquo;</p><separator></separator><p>Biomedical Informatics is an emerging field at the intersection of medicine, biology and computing that is transforming healthcare. A key focus of this field is to optimize how medical information is used in treating, preventing and curing disease. For more information about ASU&rsquo;s graduate programs in biomedical informatics see&nbsp;<a href="http://bmi.asu.edu/&quot; style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #990033; text-decoration: none">http://bmi.asu.edu/</a></p&gt;