Read transcript of the interview - American Medical Informatics ...
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AMIA Nursing <strong>Informatics</strong> Working Group<br />
Nursing <strong>Informatics</strong> Pioneer Interview<br />
certificate and degree, which finally led to a doctor <strong>of</strong> education and information science<br />
from <strong>the</strong> <strong>American</strong> University.<br />
Interviewer:<br />
When did you get that certificate<br />
Virginia Saba: Well, I can’t remember. But I got my doctorate in ’86, so <strong>the</strong> certificate was in ’84,<br />
probably, and <strong>the</strong> master was in probably ’82.<br />
Interviewer:<br />
Virginia Saba:<br />
When you started taking <strong>the</strong>se computer courses, what did you have in mind<br />
Nothing, just to be able to conduct… use <strong>the</strong> computer for research, I guess. Then I<br />
joined <strong>the</strong> Division <strong>of</strong> Nursing <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Public Health Service, and I was put in <strong>the</strong><br />
Manpower Analysis Branch because I liked statistics and <strong>the</strong>y needed someone in that<br />
area. And <strong>the</strong> Division <strong>of</strong> Nursing is really one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> leaders that started to fund<br />
contracts where… in <strong>the</strong> field <strong>of</strong>… well, <strong>the</strong>y didn’t call it tech… <strong>the</strong>y called technology<br />
<strong>of</strong> management information system at <strong>the</strong> time. And that’s how it all began. It was<br />
computer processing using a mainframe, and keep, you know, cards not online—<br />
processing <strong>of</strong> IBM cards to analyze statistical data.<br />
So as part <strong>of</strong> my role, since I was a public health nurse, <strong>the</strong>y asked me to help conduct <strong>the</strong><br />
surveys <strong>of</strong> public health nursing in home health care agencies. So that became my task,<br />
as <strong>the</strong> nurse consultant in <strong>the</strong> Public Health Service, with a team <strong>of</strong> statisticians. Well,<br />
<strong>the</strong> two <strong>of</strong> us would get our data from <strong>the</strong> states. They submitted <strong>the</strong>ir data. We designed<br />
<strong>the</strong> form. We sent it out, and <strong>the</strong> state and territorial directors <strong>of</strong> nursing collected <strong>the</strong><br />
data in each <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir states and sent it to us. We had a nice committee, but we couldn’t<br />
agree on definitions and terms. So how could we code statistical data, when we couldn’t<br />
agree on <strong>the</strong> age categories, <strong>the</strong> program categories, even on Perinatal categories we<br />
couldn’t even agree on terms.<br />
So a lot <strong>of</strong> our early beginning was coding for <strong>the</strong> Public Health Nursing Surveys. And<br />
that’s how I got into, and I… it just led from one thing to ano<strong>the</strong>r.<br />
Dr. Virginia K. Saba Nursing <strong>Informatics</strong> Pioneer Interview Page 3 <strong>of</strong> 21<br />
Copyright ©2008 <strong>American</strong> <strong>Medical</strong> <strong>Informatics</strong> Association. All rights reserved.<br />
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