Virginia Lorenzi, CPHIMS, FHL7

Virginia joined the Department of Biomedical Informatics in 2007. She shares teaching responsibilities for the Applied Clinical Informatics Course, lectures in the introductory course, and directs the Columbia University Health IT Certification of Professional Achievement Program. The certification program is a graduate-level work-friendly program teaching practical HIT knowledge and skills needed in the workforce. The program uses innovative teaching techniques including a blend of on-line and in-person learning, interdisciplinary team based learning, and a workshop classroom approach. Virginia is also involved in HIT education initiatives on a regional, national, and international level. She serves on the mid-Atlantic AMIA Education Board, has long-term service to HL7 on the HL7 education workgroup, served as the HITSP Webinar Workgroup co-chair, and has taught for HIMSS including a full day interactive workshop on HIT implementation and Meaningful Use. Virginia has worked in health information technology since 1990 with both vendor, consultant and provider experience. She has been part of the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Information Services department since 1994 specializing in interoperability and HIT Standards. She has deep experience in implementation and support of large scale integration projects and is fascinated by the challenges of integration and adoption of IT in the healthcare environment.  More recently, she has become an HIT regulations expert and serves on the hospital’s core meaningful use team as subject matter expert. Virginia specializes in healthcare interoperability and HIT Standards and has been active in the HIT Standards community since 1994. She has taught nationally and internationally for HL7 since 2000 both in-person and on-line, is the lead author of the HL7 RIM Certification Test.  She has testified in Washington on several occasions due to her expertise in HIT Standards development and her implementation experience. Virginia has been an author on numerous AMIA posters, has guest lectured and delivered presentations at numerous HIT events, and has recently completed a chapter on hospital systems for a HIMSS Healthcare Informatics book. She has a BS and MS in Computer Science and is a HIMSS Certified Professional in Health Information Management Systems (CPHIMS).