Belmont University College of Pharmacy Healthcare Informatics Student Selected As 2019 - 2020 HIMSS TIGER Initiative Scholar

In June 2019, the HIMSS TIGER Initiative via the Scholars Workgroup launched a Scholars Internship Program to mentor and help advance the interprofessional informatics focused healthcare workforce. Julie Nguyen, a third year pharmacy student in the Belmont University College of Pharmacy was selected as one of two inaugural students from a national pool of graduate and undergraduate applicants.

The spirit of TIGER is to maximize the integration of technology and informatics into seamless practice, education, research, and resource development.

During this internship, she will be working closely with TIGER’s global network represented by 29 countries worldwide via the International Task Force, Scholars Workgroup, and Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) Workgroup. The program’s goal is to help Julie grow her healthcare informatics knowledge and skills through multiple activities that include a personalized mentorship experience, coaching, and engagement with HIMSS TIGER staff, virtual learning, and the opportunity to serve as a Program Assistant at the HIMSS20 Global Conference & Exhibition in Orlando, Florida in March 2020.

“I’m excited to work with the HIMSS TIGER Initiative Scholars Internship Program,” Nguyen said. “I think pharmacy informatics is a great field to be in, and I’m so thrilled to develop my skills during the internship. I’m grateful for this very unique opportunity.”

Ms. Nguyen’s healthcare informatics mentor at the College of Pharmacy is Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical, Social and Administrative Sciences Anthony Blash, Pharm.D., BCompSc, CPHIMS. Dr. Blash has created a six-course sequence of classes to prepare Belmont student pharmacists for healthcare informatics and to successfully certify with HIMSS at the CAHIMS level. The college saw its first student certify at the CAHIMS level in 2015 and has successfully prepared 100% of students sitting for certification in each year since.

“Nashville is considered by many to be home to the U.S. healthcare industry, with over 300 companies providing healthcare synergies found in few other places.” said Blash. “If your interests lie in pharmacy and informatics, our program stands apart. With experiential rotation sites at the headquarters of the largest healthcare organizations in the world, faculty with experiences in the corporate boardrooms of many American healthcare companies and a Pharmacy / Healthcare Informatics experience facilitated by the past national chairman of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists’ Educational Steering Committee on Informatics and Technology, our faculty represents the pinnacle of teaching experience. As the only pharmacy school in the nation recognized as a HIMSS Approved Education Partner, Belmont University’s College of Pharmacy has a healthcare informatics concentration leading to internationally recognized certifications in healthcare informatics which may be obtained before experiential rotations, residency inquiries and job searches begin.”

The informatics concentration at Belmont is collaborating with interested organizations to provide competent student and graduate healthcare informaticians with clinical knowledge as grad-student team members, and plans to expand their program to include residents and/or fellows. This collaboration would be of no cost to the partnering organization and could help to advance Healthcare Informatics initiatives currently underway or in the planning phase. To find out more about this exciting opportunity, please contact Dr. Blash at Anthony.Blash@belmont.edu