Joyce Mitchell, chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics, has been appointed to a select council that advises National Institutes of Health regarding the agency's strategic initiatives and research direction.
Mitchell is among seven experts named to the 27-member Council of Councils, which helps guide NIH's Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives (DPCPSI). The members will serve until October 2014.
The breadth of expertise brought by these individuals will enhance the council's ability to achieve its mission by offering a diversity of perspectives and talents, said a news release quoting DPCPSI director James M. Anderson. Collectively, the council will inform our approach to selected trans-NIH research initiatives.
The DPCPSI identifies emerging scientific opportunities, rising public-health challenges and scientific gaps that merit further research. The division also coordinates research related to AIDS, behavioral and social sciences, women's health, disease prevention, rare diseases and dietary supplements.
Mitchell, who also serves as the Associate Vice President for health-sciences information technology, is a member of the National Library of Medicine board, whose interests she will represent on the NIH council.
The NLM is the world's largest biomedical library as well as the curator of genomic databases and health resources, she said. The NLM acts on behalf of the entire scientific community and the public and is the most important biomedical research organization in the world. I consider it a great honor to have been selected to represent the NLM on the Council of Councils, and to be advising the NIH Director on new directions for research.
Joyce A. Mitchell obtained her PhD in Population Genetics from the University of Wisconsin with postdoctoral training in clinical genetics. She is certified as a Medical Geneticist by the American Board of Medical Genetics and the American College of Medical Genetics. Dr. Mitchell's postdoctoral training was in Medical Informatics Sciences and she was elected to be a Fellow in the American College of Medical Informatics. Dr. Mitchell spent 25 years on the faculty of the University of Missouri School of Medicine in two departments: Child Health (Section on Medical Genetics) and Health Management and Informatics (Division Leader of Health Informatics). Administratively, she has served as the Director of the Medical Informatics Group, the Associate Dean for Information Technology for the School of Medicine, and the Chief Information Officer for University of Missouri Health Care. She spent a sabbatical year at the National Library of Medicine in 2001-02 and developed the Genetics Home Reference to bridge the genomics research results with consumer health interests in genetic diseases.
In 2005, Dr. Mitchell was recruited by the University of Utah to serve as Department Chair for Biomedical Informatics. In 2007 she was appointed as Associate Vice President for Health Sciences IT, where she coordinates and directs the information technology resources for the academic mission. She is also the director of the Biomedical Informatics Core for the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS)
Dr. Mitchell was elected to serve as President of the American College of Medical Informatics from 2008-2010, and will serve as immediate past-president until 2012. She is currently serving a four year term on the Board of Regents of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), and will serve on the Council of Councils for the National Institute of Health (NIH) from 2012-2016. Dr. Mitchell serves as co-director of the NLM-sponsored course in Biomedical Informatics held annually at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
Dr. Mitchell's Research
Current research interests are focused on Informatics of Personalized Medicine; Biomedical Informatics and the CTSA grant; i2b2 Partnership between the University of Utah and Harvard; Genetics Home Reference (including a GHR evaluation of the InfoRX for newborn screening; Newborn screening registry; Genetics testing and genetics data in the EMR (including relating genotype to phenotype); Decision support systems for genetic data in the EMR; Pharmacogenetics and decision support for the EMR.
About the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives (DPCPSI)
The Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives, in the Office of the Director, NIH, identifies emerging scientific opportunities, rising public health challenges, and scientific knowledge gaps that merit further research. The Division plans and implements trans-NIH initiatives supported by the Common Fund and coordinates research related to AIDS, behavioral and social sciences, women's health, and disease prevention. Additional information about the Division can be found at: http://dpcpsi.nih.gov.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):
NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.