Patricia Flatley Brennan was the director of the National Library of Medicine from 2016 to 2023. Prior to that, she was the Lillian L. Moehlman Bascom Professor, School of Nursing and College of Engineering, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Brennan received a

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

in nursing from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

and a Ph.D. in industrial engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.Patricia Brennan faculty page
/ref> She served as chair of University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Engineering's Department of Industrial Engineering from 2007 to 2010.

Career

Following seven years of clinical practice in critical care nursing and psychiatric nursing, Brennan held several academic positions. She developed ComputerLink, an electronic network designed to reduce isolation and improve self-care among

home care Homecare (home care, in-home care, care at home), also known as domiciliary care, personal care, community care, or social care, is health care or supportive care provided in the individual home where the patient or client is living, generally focu ...

patients. Brennan is the National Program Director of Project HealthDesign, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded initiative designed to stimulate the next generation of personal health records. In the context of that project, she coined the phrase " Observations of Daily Living" with her team, referring to observations people make about their health in everyday life. Additionally, she leads the WI-TECNE project, a statewide nursing faculty development effort supported by HRSA that aims to improve the integration of informatics and telehealth into nursing curricula. As of June 2009, Brennan was a theme leader of the Living Environments Lab at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, researching home health care technologies using virtual reality and simulation technology.Brennan Health Systems Lab
/ref> A fellow of both the American Academy of Nursing (1991) and the American College of Medical Informatics (1993), Brennan was elected a member of the Institute of Medicine in 2001.MNRS Honors Brennan
In 2016, she was appointed director of the National Library of Medicine, where her term started in August 2016. Brennan served in that post until her retirement in September 2023.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brennan, Patricia Flatley Living people American nurses American women nurses Health informaticians University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Fellows of the American Academy of Nursing Nursing informatics American nursing educators Nursing researchers Members of the National Academy of Medicine University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Engineering alumni Year of birth missing (living people) National Institutes of Health people 21st-century American women scientists United States National Library of Medicine Place of birth missing (living people) University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing alumni American women academics 21st-century American women civil servants