Suzanne B. Bakken Henry is an American nurse who is a professor of biomedical informatics at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. Her research considers health equity and informatics. She is a Fellow of the

New York Academy of Medicine The New York Academy of Medicine (the Academy) is a health policy and advocacy organization founded in 1847 by a group of leading New York metropolitan area physicians as a voice for the medical profession in medical practice and public health r ...

American College of Medical Informatics The American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) is a college of elected fellows from the United States and abroad who have made significant and sustained contributions to the field of medical informatics. Initially incorporated in 1984, the o ...

and

American Academy of Nursing The American Academy of Nursing (AAN) is a professional organization that generates, synthesizes, and disseminates nursing knowledge to contribute to health policy and practice for the benefit of the public and the nursing profession. Founded in ...

Early life and education

Bakken was an undergraduate student in nursing at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

. She earned her doctoral degree in nursing at the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It is part of the University of California system and is dedic ...

. She moved to

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

as a

National Library of Medicine The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), operated by the United States federal government, is the world's largest medical library. Located in Bethesda, Maryland, the NLM is an institute within the National Institutes of Health. I ...

and American Nurses Foundation postdoctoral fellow.

Research and career

In 2006, Bakken joined the

Institute of Medicine. Her research combines informatics, evidence-based nursing and health equity. At Columbia, she led the Center for Evidence-based Practice in the Underserved and the pre-/post-doctoral program on Reducing Health Disparities through Informatics (RHeaDI). Bakken worked on the representation of nursing concepts and terminology in

Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine The Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED) is a systematic, computer-processable collection of medical terms, in human and veterinary medicine, to provide codes, terms, synonyms and definitions which cover anatomy, diseases, findings, pr ...

and

LOINC Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC) is a database and universal standard for identifying medical laboratory observations. First developed in 1994, it was created and is maintained by the Regenstrief Institute, a US nonprofit m ...

. She showed that using formal vocabularies to express patient problems enhanced the generalizability of research, improved the quality of health outcomes and improved the traineeship of informatics and nursing researchers. She has argued that digital infrastructure is a critical component of a health ecosystem, and that new clinical tools could be used for self-management and care. However, to make the digital infrastructure fair and equitable, it is key to improve public trust such that individuals contribute personal data and clinical experiences. Bakken developed community engagement projects to improve public trust amongst urban Latino populations. Bakken is known for her contributions to biomedical informatics, with a focus on visual analytic innovations, training of informatics students and knowledge formalization. She spent 2015 as a Scholar in Residence at the

National Academy of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), known as the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineerin ...

. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Bakken was supported by the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

to create a visualization toolbox to address

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

misinformation and hesitation around testing and vaccination.

Awards and honors

* 1995 Elected Fellow of the

* 2006

Virginia K. Saba Award for Nursing Informatics Leadership * 2007 UCSF School of Nursing Centennial Wall of Fame * 2008

Helen Nahm Lecture Award * 2010 Pathfinder Award * 2018 Sigma International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame * 2018 Friend of the National Library of Medicine * 2019 IMIA François Grémy Award of Excellence * 2023 American College of Medical Informatics Morris F. Collen Award of Excellence

Selected publications

* * *

References

{{Authority control Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Arizona State University alumni University of California, San Francisco alumni Columbia University faculty American nurses Fellows of the American Academy of Nursing Members of the National Academy of Medicine