SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- The following information was released by UCSF Medical Center:

Sandra Ng, a nurse specialist and manager of Nursing Informatics at UCSF Medical Center, is one of two nurses nationwide selected by the Alliance for Nursing Informatics (ANI) to participate in an emerging leaders program. The ANI's Nursing Informatics Emerging Leaders Program is jointly supported by the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).

The inaugural program was created to develop leaders capable of assuming national leadership positions in an informatics-related organization.

At UCSF, Ng is responsible for operating trials, or pilot projects, to test new hardware and applications in a clinical setting, redesigning processes and evaluating the impact of these innovations on workflows during routine patient care. During her two-year leadership program, Ng will be mentored by Joyce Sensmeier, HIMSS vice president of informatics, and Curtis Dikes, national director of clinical informatics technology integration at Kaiser Permanente.

Ng was selected based on a number of criteria, including having leadership skills in an informatics-related organization and serving in a mid-level position in health care informatics.

Sheila Antrum, chief nursing officer at UCSF Medical Center, said, "I have seen first hand the benefits of a nursing informatics team at UCSF. The most profound innovations are related to nursing practice, interdisciplinary care planning and medication management."

Ellen Makar, clinical coordinator in decision support at the Yale-New Haven Health System in Connecticut, also was selected for the program.

ANI is co-sponsored by AMIA and HIMSS to represent nursing informatics and provide a structure to advance of efforts of nursing informatics professionals in improving delivery of patient care. For more information, visit www.allianceni.org.

AMIA is a member-supported professional association of leaders advancing biomedical and health informatics in the United States and HIMSS is a membership organization focused on providing global leadership for the optimal use of healthcare information technology and management systems.