Eta Berner, EdD, professor in the School of Health Professions and director of the Department of Health Services Administration’s Center for Health Informatics for Patient Safety/Quality, is newly elected to the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics (IAHSI) 2018 and 2019 Class of Fellows.
The Academy serves as an honor society that recognizes expertise in biomedical and health informatics internationally and membership is one of the highest honors in the international field of biomedical and health informatics.
This is also the third time Dr. Berner has received the designation of Fellow. She earned the distinguished award of Fellow from the American College of Medical Informatics 1999 and from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society in 2006.
“It is a humbling experience to be included in this group of global leaders and a true honor to be recognized for my work internationally,” said Berner. “I am excited for the opportunities – for me and for UAB – that come with collaborating with such a strong group of scientists and researchers.”
During a career teaching and researching health informatics, Berner has published 98 peer-reviewed journal articles, edited four books, given 50 invited presentations and has participated in or led nearly 50 extramurally funded activities. She has also worked as a consultant for a diverse range of places around the world from Harvard Medical School to the World Health Organization.
Her illustrious career has seen her serve on review panels for 24 different grant funding opportunities, including for the National Institutes of Health and the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Safety, eight editorial boards for professional journals, and as a manuscript reviewer for 30 journals. Berner even has Editorials and Letters to the Editor appearing in The Journal of the American Medical Association, the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
Berner has taught at UAB since 1986 and has long been known as an early adopter of innovative educational technologies and leader. She was the first in the School of Health Professions to have an online course certified by Quality Matters. And she was the first to earn the UAB Provost’s Award for Transformative Online Courses.
“I am always on the search for new knowledge, new materials and new training – ideas that will allow me to help improve the health of people around the world,” said Berner. “The Academy and its members are in an excellent position to stimulate progress in the field of informatics and I look forward to working with the other Fellows.”
She joins James Cimino, M.D., director of the UAB Informatics Institute, as the only two IAHSI Fellows at UAB. Berner was formally inducted to the 2018 and 2019 Class of Fellows during the 17th World Congress on Medical and Health Informatics in Lyon, France on August 25, 2019.
