University of Alabama at Birmingham Professor Sue Feldman, RN, Ph.D., has been inducted into the American College of Medical Informatics. The honor is reserved for those who have made significant and sustained contributions to the field of informatics. She is only the second faculty member in the School of Health Professions to become an ACMI Fellow.
“Considering this award marks the highest recognition by my professional informatics peers – I am truly honored,” said Feldman, director, UAB Graduate Programs in Health Informatics. “Understanding that I would not be here without the support of so many colleagues, collaborators and students – I am deeply humbled.”
“Being named a Fellow shows that Sue’s work has had a national impact on the field of health informatics and we all celebrate her for this honor,” said Chuck Stokes, FACHE, interim department chair, Department of Health Services Administration, and former president and CEO of Memorial Hermann Health System. “She has long distinguished herself through significant contributions to this health care industry and I know she will continue to do so as an ACMI Fellow.”
Most recently, Feldman and her colleagues led UAB’s recent statewide efforts to develop the GuideSafe™ suite of tools that focused on monitoring symptoms, exposure and risks of COVID-19. Ultimately, Healthcheck, the daily symptom monitoring tool was used by 250,000 users daily, and GuideSafe, the exposure notification tool was adopted by over 300,000 Alabamians.
“Sue contributed to saving countless lives by helping UAB and other organizations in the state and in the region reduce and contain exposure to those infected with the coronavirus,” said James Cimino, M.D., professor and director, UAB Informatics Institute. “She is a nurse with a PhD in education and also in information systems, with a focus on health informatics and has worked for many years at the intersection of these areas of expertise to develop systems addressing the needs of society.”
Feldman has been at UAB since 2016. In addition to her program director role in the Department of Health Services Administration, she has appointments as a professor in the Heersink School of Medicine, a senior scientist in the Informatics Institute, a scientist in the Center for Addiction and Pain Prevention and Intervention, and a Fellow in the Center for the Study of Community Health.
In 2018, she led the M.S. in Health Informatics program to become, at that time, one of the first 11 programs in the U.S. to be accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education.
“I have known Sue and worked closely with her from the time she was a PhD student. Since Sue joined UAB, I have been thrilled that we have been colleagues in developing informatics educational programs and in AMIA education activities such as the academic forum,” said William Hersh, M.D., professor and chair, Department of Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology, Oregon Health & Science University. “Sue has also carried out a robust research program and she deserves to be among the ranks of academic informatics leaders in ACMI.”
In 2020, Feldman was one of two faculty to receive the UAB Faculty Innovator of the Year award for her work in the pandemic. In 2020, she received the HIMSS Changemaker in Health Award. Feldman will be officially inducted into the ACMI on November 6, 2022, during the AMIA Annual Symposium.
