Research Newsletter

5. Awards and Accolades

  • On June 5, 2006, the Columbia University School of Nursing was awarded the 21st Century Achievement Award in the category of Education & Academia by the Computerworld Honors Program. The award was in recognition of the innovative use of personal digital assistants by nurse practitioner students. Led by Dr. Suzanne Bakken and funded by the Health Services Resources Administration, the project team initially developed a documentation system for student clinical encounters. Subsequently, with funding from the National Institute for Nursing Research (1 R01 NR008903), the team extended the system to provide decision support for three clinical practice guidelines: depression, obesity management, and smoking cessation. A randomized, controlled trial is in progress. Team members from the School of Nursing include: Suzanne Bakken (Principal Investigator), Mosely Chaszar, Jeeyae Choi, Leanne Currie, Joann Dilone, Ritamarie John, Myra Joyce, Nam-Ju Lee, and Dan Roberts. Interdisciplinary collaborators include: Elizabeth Chen (Biomedical Informatics), Jianhua Li (Biomedical Informatics), Marianthi Markatou (Biostatistics and Biomedical Informatics), Eneida Mendonca (Biomedical Informatics), and Michael Soupios (Center for New Media Teaching and Learning). For almost two decades, Computerworld Honors has acknowledged those individuals and organizations that have used information technology to benefit society. For further details about the program and a video from the awards ceremony see: http://cwhonors.org/archives/2006/index.htm


  • Dr. Patricia Stone, Assistant Professor of Nursing was elected a fellow in The New York Academy of Medicine. The Academy recognized her ground-breaking research in the economics of healthcare and nursing.


  • The Congress of Midwives of South Africa selected Dr. Jennifer Dohrn, Assistant Professor of Clinical Nursing, to present the keynote address on International AIDS Day at its fifth annual meeting in Mpumalanga, South Africa. Dr. Dohrn spoke on, “Strategies for Nurse-Midwifery Leadership to Combat the HIV/AIDS Epidemic: Nurse-Midwifery Models in the US.”


  • Carolynn Bitzer MSN, CS, FNP, a doctoral student at Columbia University School of Nursing, won first place in the doctoral student presentations at the spring Eastern Nursing Research Society conference for her presentation, “Braving a New World: Barriers and Facilitators to Primary Health Care for Ex-offender Women and their Children.” Ms. Bitzer is a Graduate Research Assistant supported by an Administrative Supplement for Underrepresented Minorities to R01 NR007782, “Maternal and Child Outcomes of a Prison Nursery Program” (PI: Dr. Mary Byrne). She is a Family Nurse Practitioner with several years caring for undeserved populations, both nationally and internationally. Ms. Bitzer subsequently received the honor of an invitation to present her work at the biannual State of the Science conference organized by the Council for the Advancement of Nursing Science (CANS).


  • Drs. Suzanne Bakken and Leanne Currie received an award for their abstract presented at the Sigma Theta Tau International Innovations in Clinical Excellence Evidence-based Practice competition during Sigma Theta Tau’s biennial convention.


  • Dr. Patricia Stone is co-editor of the upcoming, Annual Review of Nursing Research, Volume 24: “Patient Safety,” to be published by Springer Publishing in August, 2006. Leanne Currie, DNSc, authored Chapter 3 of the publication, “Fall and Injury Prevention” and Suzanne Bakken, DNSc, authored Chapter 9, “Informatics for Patient Safety: A Nursing Research Perspective.”