The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Biomedical Informatics (SBMI) has established The John P. Glaser Health Informatics Society in order to commemorate the life and work of Glaser, a senior vice president at Cerner Corp. and health informatics expert.
Glaser visited SBMI in the fall of 2015 to deliver a lecture focused on the evolution of electronic health records. SBMI Dean and Glassell Family Foundation Distinguished Chair in Informatics Excellence, Jiajie Zhang, Ph.D., was eager to further engage Glaser with SBMI and the larger informatics community in Houston.
In addition to designating Glaser the namesake of the school’s informatics society, Zhang appointed him an adjunct professor at SBMI.
Annually, beginning in 2016, a selection committee will nominate a John P. Glaser Health Informatics Innovator Award recipient. The Glaser Award winner will be the featured speaker at an SBMI lecture and the honoree at a reception.
The 2016 Glaser Award Recipient, to be honored on Oct. 4, is Ivo D. Nelson, who has served as CEO of Healthlink and was the founder of Encore Health Resources and Next Wave Connect. Currently, he is CEO and Chairman of Next Wave Health, an investment advisory firm. Over the last few years, the health IT firms Nelson has founded, provided capital investments for, and/or supported with advisory services were acquired by IBM, Quintiles, the Advisory Board, and Optum. His experience also extends to membership on the boards of international health IT and analytics companies.
The purpose of The John P. Glaser Health Informatics Society is:
• To advance the field of health informatics by honoring its thought leaders and innovators;
• To provide a forum for dialogue and collaboration among faculty, students, alumni, and a diverse group of professionals working in the field of health informatics;
• To expand networking and education opportunities among those with interests in the field of health informatics; and
•To strengthen support for the school and bolster its position as a national leader in health informatics.
Glaser released a new book titled “Glaser on Healthcare IT: Perspectives from the Decade that Defined Healthcare Information Technology” at HIMSS16 earlier this year.
