Roy Simpson, DNP, RN, DPNAP, FAAN, Doctor of Nursing Practice professor at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and vice president of nursing at Cerner Corporation, was inducted as a fellow in the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI). ACMI is an honorary society of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) that recognizes individuals from the United States and abroad who have made significant and sustained contributions to the field of medical informatics.
Dr. Simpson expertise in the development and deployment of 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. His most recent research focuses on competencies for nurse executives including social, medical, and technological innovations including pediatric homecare services.
In 1982, his primary executive research focus pioneered the development and funding of the Werley and Lang Nursing Minimum Data Set (NMDS). NMDS is a set of nursing data elements with uniform definitions and categories, including nursing problems, diagnoses, interventions and patient outcomes approved by the American Nurses Association. Approved by the American Nurses Association (ANA), the NMDS’s 17 elements established uniform definitions and categories, including nursing diagnoses, interventions, and outcomes and elevated the standard of patient care within the nursing profession. The measures are still key components of every electronic health record today.
In 1986, he co-wrote the ‘scope of practice’ to officially establish nursing informatics as a specialty and continued the petition for American Nursing Association (ANA) certification, awarded in 1992.
Dr. Simpson supported better understanding and widespread application of nursing informatics through several educational endeavors. 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). He also established in perpetuity the Roy L. Simpson Nursing Informatics Scholarship at the State University of New York and led programming at the University of Wales’ European Summer School on Nursing Informatics.
Dr. Simpson established and funded the HealthQuest/HBO & Company of Georgia Nurse Scholars program with nurse educators Diane Skiba and Judy Ronald to help academia stay abreast of technology. The program provided more than 100 nurse educators with comprehensive instruction in emerging technologies and uses of automated patient care systems.
“Dr. Simpson is a forward-thinking nurse leader, whose contributions in health informatics have had a profound impact on nursing education and practice,” says Linda McCauley, dean and professor of the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing. “His induction into the American College of Medical Informatics is a testament to his leadership and enduring legacy to health care
and nursing informatics. His efforts continue to advance evidence-based, patient-centered standards of care across professional disciplines.”
Dr. Simpson has been recognized or his contributions to health care by numerous organizations. He is an honorary member of the International Medical Informatics Association, a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Nursing, a distinguished practitioner in the National Academy of Practice, and an honorary member of Sigma Theta Tau International. In 2015, he was awarded Sigma Theta Tau International’s Virginia K. Saba Nursing Informatics Leadership Award for his sustained commitment to furthering the knowledge of informatics within the nursing community. Her serves as a distinguished scholar at Georgia State University and at University of Swansea in Wales.