As dietitians become more active in the field of informatics, it is logical that they collaborate with other disciplines within the informatics arena.  As a partner with AMIA (American Medical Informatics Association) in the “10x10” Biomedical Informatics Program, ADA had several areas of involvement in their Annual Symposium this week.

ADA sponsored the Consumer Health Informatics Working Group Member Meeting and Hospitality Suite, where four panelists launched the discussion on collaboration and communication for the upcoming year.  This gesture was appreciated by those in attendance and further validated the dietitian’s role and leadership in informatics. Hospitality Suite networking certainly helped continue the conversation of nutrition informatics!

Another highlight was a broad-reaching panel that occurred on Tuesday afternoon.  It included leaders from multiple areas in the allergy arena, including Elaine Ayres, Past Chair/Nutrition Informatics Committee. The title was: Allergies: Issues Related to Interoperability for Patient Care and Research. You may recall that this topic first surfaced when Stage 1 Meaningful Use under the HITECH Act required only medication allergies be reported as part of the EHR Incentive Program.  Discussions have continued for the past 18 months on how best to align all allergies so the data can accurately “follow the patient” for continuity of care. 

The speakers were:

Charles Jaffe, MD    CEO Health Level 7 (HL7)

Elaine Ayres, MS, RD  Deputy Chief, Laboratory for Informatics Development, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center

Russell Leftwich, MD   CMO Office of eHealth, State of Tennessee

Stan Huff, MD   Intermountain Health Care

Jim Cimino, MD Chief, Laboratory for Informatics Development, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center

Many questions bubbled up from this conversation, and thanks to ADA’s engagement in the health IT standards arena, I am confident the discussion across disciplines will continue.