David Bates is one of the pioneers of healthcare informatics in the US. He was recently asked how the US has progressed over the past 15 years. A link to the interview is below.

http://webmm.ahrq.gov/printviewperspective.aspx?perspectiveID=59

The 42nd ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting is fast approaching. This year we get to enjoy Las Vegas, Nevada. Held at the Venetian Resort and Sands Expo Center, 12/2/07 through 12/6/07 will be an exciting time for many informatics pharmacists.

Meeting website

eWeek Link The FDA will start requiring standards for certain electronic labels, starting in June of this year.... The FDA wants us to use standards to communicate, such as always calling a “heart attack” a Myocardial Infarction, and so on. This will apply to drug names and nomenclature as well. This goes in line with recent legislation to ensure standard submission formats for prescription drug format. Standards can always be viewed as beneficial to the whole, but they bring chaos initially.

I attended the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Midyear Clinical meeting last week. Located in Las Vegas, it was sure to be a non-stop and exhausting experience. I tried to concentrate on making it to all of the Informatics related educational and forum meetings. I was pleased to see a large number of sessions. I had the best time at the Informatics Section Advisory Group meeting. We got an update from some key pharmacists in critical areas of Informatics. Most of them have residency programs for informatics, and are heavily involved in academics and lectures.