While critical thinking is arguably still the most important skill in nursing, technological knowhow is probably a close second, and is an essential complement to critical thinking. From telemetry to PDAs, from scheduling to EHRs, nurses are surrounded by technology and the more they are involved in its creation, implementation and integration, the more useful they will find the tools - and the better care they can provide patients. The purpose of this blog is to engage nurses in conversation about how technology is used in nursing. Both technophobes and uberusers will learn from a group of bloggers who are immersed in healthcare informatics, technological development and implementation.

Angela M. Lewis, BSN, RN-BC, CPHIMS, has been a practicing RN for 25 years and has held various leadership positions within both healthcare information technology and clinical nursing. As a Senior Manager, Strategic Consulting, Lewis’ expertise lies in clinical transformation, change management and process redesign. She previously practiced as a senior consultant for one of the largest healthcare management consulting firms in North America and for many years as an independent consultant in the Chicagoland area, specializing in implementation and project management of clinical information systems, nursing/physician documentation, barcode medication administration and CPOE applications. A published author and experienced speaker Angela is board certified in nursing informatics and is a certified professional in health information management systems.

Nicole Mohiuddin, MS, RN-BC, has served as director of clinical information systems. Previously, she has worked as a med/surg nurse, a manager of informatics, a manager of strategic marketing for medical devices and a senior informatics consultant for a Fortune-500 company. She has designed, implemented and supported a variety of informatics projects, including electronic medical records (EMR), computerized physician order entry (CPOE) and bar-coded medication administration (BCMA).
Nicole earned her bachelor of science in nursing and master of science in health systems management from Rush University in Chicago. She has ANCC board certification in nursing informatics and is an active member in HIMSS, CARING-ANIA, and Sigma Theta Tau.
When she’s not making the world a better place for patients and their caregivers, Nicole enjoys bicycling, running, nature trails and healthy yet flavorful cooking. You can contact her at nmohiuddin@msn.com.

Susan K. Newbold, PhD, RN-BC, FAAN, FHIMS, is a pioneer in nursing informatics (NI) known for her lifetime of exceptional leadership.Dr. Newbold focuses on Education for the Electronic Health Record in Nashville, TN. Susan is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS).
Dr. Newbold founded CARING (now ANIA-CARING), a national nursing informatics organization advancing the delivery of quality healthcare through education and networking. Susan is a prolific author and speaker, having co-edited five books and written numerous articles and book chapters.
She was a keynote speaker in the first NI conferences held in Taiwan and Singapore and has consulted in informatics in the US, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Slovenia and Taiwan. She is the U.S. liaison between the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) and the International Medical Informatics Association.
She is Chair, Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing (STTI) Information Technology Task Force and won the STTI International Technology Award for Knowledge Advancement. Susan was awarded an Excellence in Teaching Award from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing and Nurse Educator of the Year by the Maryland Nurses Association. In 2010 she won the HIT MEN-HIT WOMEN award for improving patient care through health information technology.

Sandy Ng, MSN, RN-BC, has been a pediatric nurse since 1997. She is originally from Texas where she received both her bachelors and masters of Science in nursing from the University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing. Her nursing work experience in Texas included Texas Children’s Hospital, Dallas Children’s Hospital, and Medical City Dallas.
Since then, she has served at Lucille Packard Hospital at Stanford as a bedside nurse and as an assistant manager for the solid organ transplant unit. During her tenure there, she was integral in the change management opportunities while opening a cardiac step-down unit.
Her informatics career started in 2005 at the University of California San Francisco where she is an adjunct associate clinical professor in community health systems as well as manager of the clinical informatics department. In her current role, she is responsible for operating trials of groundbreaking hardware and software applications in a clinical setting, redesigning workflow processes, and evaluating impact of these innovations on various clinician workflows during routine patient care.
This work included implementation of electronic clinical documentation throughout both the adult and children’s hospital settings. Sandy has also been integral in the implementation of the tablet PCs to increase patient safety and improve workflow efficiency at the bedside, with the ability to increase real time documentation and improve pain reassessments. She’s championed process improvement projects, including single sign-on and thin client configuration pilots both to provide systems access efficiencies.
She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International, American Nursing Informatics Association and the Capital Area Roundtable on Informatics in Nursing (ANIA –CARING) and Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS), where she’s been an active planning committee member and frequent speaker for the annual Nursing Informatics Northern California (NoCal) chapter HIMSS conferences.

Denise Tyler, MSN/MBA, RN-BC has worked in the hospital and vendor settings and is an adjunct faculty at Excelsior College and has published and presented on topics including implementation, system optimization, education, pre and post implementation metrics, and system design. Her expertise includes system selection, implementation and optimization as well as workflow analysis, education planning and designing clinical reporting. She has led and conducted pre and post implementation metrics using both clinical and financial information. She is active in nursing informatics, serving on the board for ANIA-CARING, organization as the secretary and Newsletter Editor. She is also on the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor technology task force for Sigma Theta Tau, and the Nursing Advisory Committee for the northern California Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS). She has been very involved with the TIGER initiative, particularly the working groups for competency development and system usability.