Marion Jokl Ball Named 2023 Glaser Award Recipient

The John P. Glaser Health Informatics Society was initiated by D. Bradley McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth® Houston in recognition of the expertise and leadership of John P. Glaser, PhD, who is a universally recognized thought leader in the field of health informatics. The John P. Glaser Health Informatics Society was created to acknowledge innovators in the field of health informatics and provide education, collaboration, and networking opportunities for the broader community of health informatics professionals, clinicians, and students.

In 2016, Ivo D. Nelson, a notable health information technology entrepreneur, was accorded the first John P. Glaser Health Informatics Innovator Award (Glaser Award); Dr. David Westfall Bates, Harvard’s internationally renowned patient safety expert, was presented the Glaser Award in 2017; H. Stephen Lieber, former President & CEO of the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), received the 2018 Glaser Award; Grahame Grieve, Founder of HL7 FHIR and FHIR Product Director at HL7 International, accepted the 2019 Glaser Award; and, after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, Dr. Clement “Clem” J. McDonald, Chief Health Data Standards Officer of the National Institutes of Health National Library of Medicine, was given the 2022 Glaser Award.

On October 13, 2023, Dr. Marion Jokl Ball, an extraordinary proponent of health informatics and technologies that ameliorate health and healthcare, will receive the 2023 John P. Glaser Health Informatics Innovator Award and be formally inducted into the Glaser Society by its Founding Member, John P. Glaser, PhD, and Jiajie Zhang, PhD, Dean and Professor, McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics. In lieu of a lecture by the award recipient, Dr. John Glaser will conduct a Dialogue with Dr. Marion J. Ball that includes audience participation; the Glaser Society Proceedings will be followed by a reception in Dr. Ball’s honor.

Marion J. Ball, EdD, FACMI, FAAN, FIAHSI, FMLA, FAHIMA, FHIMSS, FCHIME, is an international innovator, educator, and author. She currently serves as Executive Director and Founding Director of the Multi-Interprofessional Center for Health Informatics (MICHI) at The University of Texas at Arlington, where she is also the Presidential Distinguished Professor in the College of Nursing and Health Innovation and the Raj and Indra Nooyi Endowed Distinguished Chair in Bioengineering. Dr. Ball holds a Doctorate of Medical Education (EdD) from Temple University (Philadelphia, PA) and an MA and BA in Mathematics from the University of Kentucky (Lexington, KY).

Over the course of her career, Dr. Ball has served in a variety of leadership roles for numerous prestigious institutions, including the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), Health On The Net (HON), College of Health Information Management Executives (CHIME), American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), and the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics (IAHSI), among others; in addition, has served on the Board of Regents of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), has been Co-Chair of the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS), was President of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA), and is a Founding Member of Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform (TIGER).

Upon confirming this year’s Glaser Award recipient, Dr. John Glaser observed, “Dr. Marion Ball’s formative influence in health informatics is truly the stuff of legends. She has been recognized as one of the most influential women in health IT by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS); she was elected a Member of the IBM Industry Academy; she has been awarded the Morris F. Collen Award by the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI); and she was accorded the François Grémy Award by the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA). Moreover, Dr. Ball is a member of the prestigious National Academy of Medicine (NAM); she is a Professor Emerita at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and an Affiliate Professor in the Biomedical Informatics & Data Science Section of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; and she was the first American and first woman to head the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA). Most importantly, reflected in the aforementioned honors and awards is an abiding commitment to our field by an individual who has had a profound impact on the study and practice of health informatics.”

Dr. Jiajie Zhang enthusiastically added, “With more than forty-five years of experience in health IT, Dr. Marion Ball is a renowned expert in the development and evaluation of health informatics competencies for health professionals at every level. In addition to her numerous contributions to education, Dr. Ball has forged an impressive career of leadership and service in health informatics. For decades, she has promoted and demonstrated the value of informatics to the delivery of health care, nationally and internationally, through active board and committee service, publications, speaking engagements, teaching and mentoring, and invaluable counsel to her colleagues. Dr. Ball’s research—evidenced by 350+ journal articles, professional papers, textbooks, and book chapters—focuses on health informatics, curriculum design, education, and the efficacious development and deployment of enabling technologies, from theory into practice. We at McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics are delighted with the opportunity to honor Dr. Marion J. Ball with the sixth John P. Glaser Health Informatics Innovator Award.  Indeed, she is an informatics champion of the highest order.”

The public is invited to attend the Glaser Society Proceedings (i.e., induction ceremony and Dialogue with Dr. Marion J. Ball; 3:50 pm-5:30 pm) and reception (5:30 pm-6:45 pm) hosted by McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics on October 13, 2023. These events will be conducted at the IMM Building (1825 Pressler at Fannin), which is adjacent the UTHealth® Houston University Center Tower (7000 Fannin); more specifically, the Glaser Society Proceedings will be held in the Beth Robertson Auditorium and the reception will be in the Atrium; parking is available at 7000 Fannin. Due to space limitations, an RSVP is required. To RSVP or to obtain more information, contact Judy Young at judy.e.young@uth.tmc.edu.

About D. Bradley McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth^® Houston
McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth^® Houston (SBMI) is the only academic biomedical informatics program in the state of Texas, the sole free-standing school among more than 70 related programs in the nation, and one of the largest programs of its kind in the world. SBMI is a leader in biomedical informatics education, with 60+ regular faculty, 70 adjunct faculty, 140 research staff, 50 administrative staff, and more than 400 graduate students. SBMI has diverse course offerings in AI and Data Science, Clinical and Health Informatics, and Bioinformatics and Systems Medicine. The school’s strengths include a unique collaborative research and learning environment emphasizing “transdisciplinary” programs that incorporate the engineering, computer, and biological sciences.