Roy Simpson, DPN, RN, has been appointed assistant dean of technology management. In this role, Simpson will provide leadership and support for all information, educational and clinical simulation learning initiatives within the School of Nursing. Dr. Simpson has served as faculty since in 2014, and has been instrumental in the development of the School of Nursing’s Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program. He served as a clinical professor in health informatics and provided strategic counsel for the DNP program through his leadership on the DNP community advisory board.
Simpson’s expertise in developing and deploying global l health care information technology systems spans more than 35 years. He has supported the development of computer applications that shaped nursing administration, education, research, and clinical practice. Most recently, he served as vice president of nursing informatics for Cerner Corporation, where provided executive leadership for nursing and strategic partnerships and represented Cerner’s nurse practice at the industry level. His recent research focuses on competencies for nurse executives including social, medical, and technological innovations including pediatric homecare services.
“In a health care environment of increasing clinical integration and accountability for costs, quality, and outcomes, broader integration of informatics in nursing practice, education, and research will be essential,” said Linda McCauley, PhD, RN, dean of the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing. “Dr. Simpson’s leadership and expertise in this area will help the School of Nursing develop the infrastructure, knowledge, and skills necessary to lead transformative change in a 21st century health care delivery system.”
Simpson is nationally recognized for his work in developing the framework and securing funding for what would become the Werley and Lang Nursing Minimum Data Set (NMDS). The NMDS was approved by the American Nurses Association and was the first national effort to standardize the collection of essential nursing data collection. The NMDS’ 17 core measures are still key components of every electronic health record today. He co-wrote the scope of practice to officially establish nursing informatics as a specialty and continued the petition for American Nursing Association certification, awarded in 1992. He was instrumental in recruiting world-class faculty and developing the curriculum for the first online master’s program of its kind in Administration and Nursing Informatics at Regent’s College of the State University of New York (Excelsior).
Simpson has received many honors and recognitions for his contributions to nursing and health informatics. In 2017, he was appointed by Secretaries Tom Price and Sylvia Burwell to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ committee on Nursing education and practice. Last year he was inducted as a Fellow into the prestigious American Medical College of Informatics. For his leadership in nursing informatics, he also received the National Library of Medicine’s Nursing Informatics Award and Sigma Theta Tau’s Virginia K. Saba Award.
He has lectured extensively around the world and has provided testimony on behalf of the Institute of Medicine. His work has been published in more than 600 peer-review articles on nursing informatics.