International Medical Informatics Association names Dr. Marion Ball as an Honorary Member

Wednesday, Jul 20, 2022

 

Marion J. Ball has been named an Honorary Member by the International Medical Informatics Association: Nursing Informatics Special Interest Group (IMIA-NI).  Dr. Ball, the Raj and Indra Nooyi Endowed Distinguished Chair in Bioengineering, is also a Presidential Distinguished Professor, a tenured professor in the College of Nursing and Health Innovation, and Executive Director for the Multi-Interprofessional Center for Health Informatics. She has served the health informatics field for over 35 years, specializing in health care IT. As an international innovator, educator, author, and leader she exhibits the mission of IMIA-NI and the skills an Honorary Member carries.

The International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) is a global organization that joins professionals from around the world to advance biomedical and health informatics science, education, and practice.  IMIA-NI focuses on joining nurses or those who are interested in nursing informatics to assist the development of this field. Ball served as IMIA’s first female president and served on the board for 15 years. She also played a crucial role in aiding the development of IMIA-NI to become a special interest group.

“I am proud to say that during my presidency of IMIA (1992 to 1996) we established the first Nursing Informatics Independent Special Interest Group. I feel very honored now to be given the lifetime honorary membership of the NI group.”  

Ball’s passion for the field of health informatics has granted her a multitude of awards for her significant contributions. In 2011 she was named one of the 50 most influential IT professionals over the last 50 years by the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and in 2017 was recognized as one of the Most Influential Women in Health IT by HIMSS. Two years ago, Ball was inducted into the Academy of Medicine, Engineering, and Science of Texas.  She has also been awarded the Morris F. Collen Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest honor from the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI), and the Francois Gremy Award from the IMIA. Ball is also an Honorary Member of Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society and an Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. She has been a member of the National Academy of Medicine since 1996.

Throughout her exceptional career, Ball has also served on several boards including the National Library of Medicine’s Board of Regents for over 10 years, the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Boards, the College of Health Information Management Executives (CHIME) and the HIMSS Board.  She is a member of the International Academy of Healthcare Informatics (IAHSI ) and was elected to membership of the IBM Industry Academy. She is a founding member of TIGER (Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform), which recognizes the importance of integrating the most current enabling technologies into the nursing field from bedside practitioners to researchers, and of Health on the Net (HON) in Geneva, Switzerland - an international organization that validates trusted information on the internet.

In the field of Health Informatics, Ball is the author/editor of over 26 core textbooks and over 250 journal publications. She is co-editor of the 5th edition of the classic textbook Nursing Informatics: A Health Informatics, Interprofessional and Global Perspective. The book will be published in the next month with a foreword written by Dean Elizabeth Merwin.

Ball has made significant strides within the health care profession and continues to serve and make an impact in this field. Her dedication to furthering research and advancing health care largely reflects her induction as an Honorary Member of IMIA-NI and its mission to share and advance the field of health care informatics.

-Written by Midori Hrinda, UTA College of Nursing and Health Innovation