Anne Moen

too many informatics opportunities calling for nursing presence

Reflecting on experiences from Nursing Informatics ties to curiosity about new technology, opportunities to participate, entrepreneur attitude and others’ trust in my abilities. My involvement over time is in 3 areas;

- electronic health records and informatics support for nurses

- learning resources for patients and relatives

- health informatics for self-management and independence

- active aging

Today I teach and mentor students, and am involved in the health informatics community in Norway, Europe and internationally.

Electronic health records and informatics support for nurses

I was introduced to computers in health care as a nursing student in 1983, as something for the (far) future. In 1986 the cardiac unit I worked was a real life test bed for the Scandinavian FLORENCE project. The FLORENCE project sought to understand how emerging computer technology could ease nurses’ work. Engaging domain experts in collaborative, participatory processes is common here and I had opportunity to participate. A few years later, in 1990 the same hospital was approach to test an Electric Health Record (EHR) system. The NORA (Norwegian Record Architecture) project’s aim was to develop an EHR. I was a domain expert, responsible for nursing documentation module, and liaised with hospital’s improvement of nursing documentation, to prepare adoption of EHR.

This led to graduate studies at the University of Oslo and abroad. I started in 1993, and chose nursing over informatics because I still believe a good understanding of health domains like nursing is necessary to design and deploy EHR and other informatics tools. Nursing informatics, leadership and introduction of EHR in Norwegian hospitals were topics for my master thesis (1996) and PhD dissertation (2002). I stayed two periods at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and studied with Dr. Suzanne Bakken, RN, DNSc, FAAN, FACMI. Her mentorship significantly expanded my understanding, and provided ample opportunities to meet colleagues, leaders and pioneers in nursing and medical informatics.

Learning resources for patients and relatives,

Studies abroad and developments in Norway spiked interest and curiosity for health informatics tools and services for patients. I was invited to University of Wisconsin – Madison by Dr. Patricia Flatley Brennan, RN, PhD, FAAN, FACMI. There, I participated in the Health@Home study, which further shaped my research interests. Funded by a grant from the Norwegian Research Council I did a post doc, spending time in Oslo and Madison. The focus of the post doc research was to explore required informatics support for patients and relatives. In Norway, we created the prototyped REPARERE (learning REsources for PAtients and RElatives in REcovery). REPARERE focused on common challenges in a recovery, and provided information relevant to common challenges, mindful of temporal development in a trajectory of recovery. The presentation used multiple modalities; pictures, video and drawings and regular text entries. REPARERE served as proof of concept. However, we could not pilot the web-based prototype with convalescents due to Norwegian legalization at the time. Since then, I have led project to further understand use value of informatics resources for peer support and exchanges for chronically ill.

Health informatics resources for self-management and independence for active aging

Currently, my research focus on resources for self-management and prevention to help avoid illness, control a condition or postpone requirements for resource intensive health services and support active aging. Fostering independence, prevention, or early intervention requires us to engage people, professions and activities in interprofessional team-collaboration. I research thrive a perspective for health improvement for individual and community, and service innovation as activities migrate to new arenas. Informatics support for healthy eating is the first step, and we develop an App leveraging ease of use and mobility coming with tablets.

Health informatics community involvement in Norway, Europe and internationally

Over the years I have enjoyed participation in health informatics communities in Norway, Europe and internationally. I am a founding member of the Norwegian Nurses Organisation’s special interest group for nursing informatics, and active in the Norwegian society for medical informatics. As SPC co-chair and LOC co-chair for MIE2011 I was involved in most aspects of organizing to host the Medical Informatics community in Oslo, Norway in August 2011. I am Norway’s representative in the Council of the European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI), and as EFMI Vice President I will become EFMI president in September 2014.

I find interdisciplinary aspects of our discipline especially important, rewarding and challenging. There are many opportunities and concerns that call for nursing presence, and health professionals’ active, collective involvement is crucial for best possible tools to evidence-based, quality care. I am excited about the evolving nature of our discipline, and thankful for the opportunities to contribute to health service and community development.