CMU-Q’s Dan Phelps contributes to nursing informatics initiative at Hamad
“HMC’s Nursing Informatics Department launches research community to empower nurses” appeared in Gulf Times, May 23, 2019.
Editor’s note: Dan Phelps, associate teaching professor of information systems at CMU-Q, delivered several workshops on nursing informatics at hospitals in the Hamad Medical Corporation network. The workshops are part of a new initiative by Hamad to empower nurses and encourage research in the area of health informatics.
Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Nursing Informatics Department has successfully launched a Nursing Informatics Research Community to empower nurses as researchers. The objective is to further develop Qatar’s health informatics community.
The programme, developed under the leadership of Dr Wasmiya Dalhem, executive director of HMC’s Nursing Informatics Department, in collaboration with Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s (HBKU) College of Science and Engineering, Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), and Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q), was launched last month as part of a series of workshops to introduce participants to new ideas in the field of research.
“The establishment of the Nursing Informatics Research Community is a major milestone and it is the first time this team has been brought together for the explicit purpose of sharing valuable knowledge in the field of health informatics research,” said Dr Dalhem. “These workshops will build capacity among nurses at HMC, empowering them to engage in future research projects. As a result of these workshops, we have defined the priority areas of focus for future research efforts. Research is one of the key pillars of HMC and we are committed to contributing to this pillar and HMC’s overall vision of delivering the safest, most effective, and most compassionate care to our patients,” added Dr Dalhem.
Over 500 nursing leaders and frontline nurses from across HMC’s network of hospitals participated in the introductory workshops, held at The Cuban Hospital, Al Khor Hospital, and Al Wakra Hospital. Attendees were introduced to biostatistics, the branch of statistics responsible for interpreting the scientific data, generated in health sciences, and were provided with an overview of health informatics.
A small cohort of nurses was selected to receive additional in-depth training throughout the year to further develop their expertise. The targeted training will help the nurses gain the expertise required to lead research projects within their specialty, in collaboration with the Nursing Informatics team.
As part of the workshops, Dr Mowafa Househ (HBKU), Dr Luis Fernandez-Luque (QCRI), and Dr Daniel Phelps (CMU-Q) presented their work on building a nursing informatics research community and they highlighted the research agenda within Qatar.
Dr Dalhem noted the expert lecturers have more than 40 years of combined health informatics expertise and she praised them, their organisations and Qatar National Library for their support of the Nursing Informatics Research Community programme.
“We are extremely grateful for the support we have received from the Qatar National Library, who facilitated easy access to their database and resources. Equally, the expertise we received from faculty based at local universities has been phenomenal. Strong collaborations underpin a successful academic health partnership and these partnerships will provide valuable support for clinicians in Qatar,” added Dr Dalhem.