(via Jane Plass, RAILS)
I am pleased to announce the selection of Patricia Flatley Brennan, R.N., Ph.D., as director of the National Library of Medicine (NLM). She is expected to begin her new role in August, 2016. Dr. Brennan brings her incredible experience of having cared for patients as a practicing nurse, improved the lives of home-bound patients by developing innovative information systems and services designed to increase their independence, and pursued cutting-edge research in data visualization and virtual reality.
She is currently the Lillian L. Moehlman Bascom Professor, School of Nursing and College of Engineering, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She also leads the Living Environments Laboratory at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery that develops new ways for effective visualization of high dimensional data. Patti developed ComputerLink, an electronic network designed to reduce isolation and improve self-care among home care patients. She directed HeartCare, a web-based information and communication service that helps home-dwelling cardiac patients recover faster and with fewer symptoms. She also directed Project HealthDesign, an initiative designed to stimulate the next generation of personal health records. Additionally, she conducts external evaluations of health information technology architectures, and works to repurpose engineering methods for health care.
Dr. Brennan received a master of science in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in industrial engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Following seven years of clinical practice in critical care nursing and psychiatric nursing, she held several academic positions at Marquette University, Milwaukee; the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland. She is a past president of the American Medical Informatics Association and was elected to the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine) in 2001. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, the American College of Medical Informatics, and the New York Academy of Medicine.
Dr. Brennan is ideally suited to lead the NLM in the era of precision medicine, as the Library becomes the epicenter for biomedical data science, not just at NIH, but across the biomedical research enterprise. Please join me in welcoming Dr. Brennan to the NIH. I would also like to take this opportunity to recognize and thank NLM Acting Director Betsy L. Humphreys for her exemplary and dedicated service leading the NLM over the past year.
Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, National Institutes of Health