Malvern, PA --Rosemary Kennedy, RN, MBA, chief nursing informatics officer for Siemens Healthcare (www.siemens.com/healthcare), has just been awarded the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society's 2008 Nursing Informatics Leadership Award. The Society will award Kennedy, along with 50 other industry leaders and organizations, on April 4 during the 2009 HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition in Chicago, Ill.

Established in 2004, this award recognizes Kennedy's continued leadership in the Nursing Informatics field, along with her significant contributions to the nursing profession, the Society, their organizations, and the healthcare IT profession as a whole. This affords Siemens the opportunity to collaborate with other leaders from a broad spectrum of disciplines to proactively address healthcare issues of the day. Kennedy now has the opportunity to share her ideas and help develop new strategies for nurses to drive the transformation of America's healthcare system.

This is the second of two recent awards honoring Kennedy's professional achievements in the nursing profession. In November 2008, she once again distinguished herself among her peers by being inducted as a Fellow in to the American Academy of Nursing (AAN). Like her AAN Fellowship, her 2008 HIMSS award is particularly impressive because Kennedy was chosen by her peers in the Healthcare IT field.
"HIMSS is successfully advancing the field of nursing informatics, fostering education, collaboration and advocacy, demonstrating commitment to making a difference in healthcare in general," said Kennedy. "I am honored and look forward to continued affiliation within HIMSS for optimal integration of nursing and information technology."

Selection criteria included evidence that the nominee has made significant contributions to the field of Nursing Informatics, actively supports the HIMSS mission, and has made contributions to the principles for which HIMSS stands, which include being an acknowledged leader and advocate in nursing informatics, healthcare information, and management systems.

"We are pleased to honor Rosemary Kennedy with this award which acknowledges her leadership as a domain expert and role model for the industry," said Joyce Sensmeier, MS, RN-BC, CPHIMS, FHIMSS, Vice President of Informatics at HIMSS. "She has helped to advance the vision of the HIMSS Nursing Informatics Community and acts as a valuable resource and mentor to other professionals working in this specialty."

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