The Institute of Medicine has appointed Shannon H. Houser, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Health Services Administration in the School of Health Professions at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, to join its Committee to Review Data Systems for Monitoring HIV/AIDS Care.

At the request of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, IOM has created the committee of experts to assess data systems that capture information about HIV to investigate the best ways to use that information to improve HIV/AIDS care. The committee is charged with providing recommendations for the most critical data and indicators to gauge the impact of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in improving HIV/AIDS care.

Houser specializes in health related information management and research applications using large data systems. In addition, she has extensive experience in dealing with security and privacy issues in health information and database management. The committee is made up of physicians, researchers, epidemiologists, social workers and administrators from major universities and agencies.