ASU Opens Health Informatics Dept., Picks Chair

  • By Paul McCloskey
  • 09/05/07
Arizona State University named Robert Greenes, an expert in the field of medical information technology, to head its new Department of Biomedical Informatics. Greenes, who is 67, joins ASU after four decades at Harvard University.

Greenes has held several posts in the still maturing field of medical informatics, including the Chair in Biomedical Informatics at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

He also has been a professor in the Health Science and Technology Division, a joint division of Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and program director of the Boston Biomedical Informatics Training Program.

Biomedical informatics is a science that collects data, statistics and other information that can be used by physicians, researchers, and others in the medical field to improve health care. The field integrates information technology, computer science, engineering, biology, mathematics, and health sciences to improve medical training, research, diagnosis, and treatment.

Greenes said he was leaving his prominent position in the Harvard medical community because of the "substantial planning efforts and resources" being devoted to building ASU's biomedical informatics program.

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About the Author

Paul McCloskey is contributing editor of Syllabus.

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