What a time to be part of a US organisation committed to ‘advancing science and health information transparency’.
Professor Enrico Coiera has been named as the first non-US distinguished fellow of prestigious American College of Medical Informatics.
The honour was bestowed on Professor Coiera, director of the Centre for Health Informatics at Macquarie University, in recognition of his exemplary leadership in clinical communication, patient safety, and global health informatics infrastructure.
“Science is a team sport, and yes, we pick people and honour them, but really, you know, you wouldn’t get anywhere without being a team,” said Professor Coiera when TMRcalled to congratulate him.
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The recognition was encouraging for Australia, he said.
“We have fantastic talent in the country. It is world leading and world class, and we should be ambitious.
“I think there still is a sense in Australia that we’re not as good; that the action is elsewhere.
“The one thing I see that always makes Americans succeed is they have a level of ambition and self-belief that is quite remarkable, and a bit more of that here in Australia wouldn’t hurt, because we’re well capable of doing those sorts of things.
“There are a lot of people I’ve had the privilege of working with. So, if I’ve done good things, I’ve always been with others,” he said.
And he has certainly “done good things”.
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After graduating in medicine at the University of New South Wales, a masters in biomedical engineering and a PhD focusing on AI, Professor Coiera worked in industry and academia and led the field when he published his Guide to Medical Informatics, the Internet and Telemedicine in 1997 and went on to found the Centre for Health Informatics.
He also founded the Australian Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare, which has created a “roadmap” for AI in healthcare in Australia.
Professor Coiera’s distinguished fellowship will be officially presented in November at the American Medical Informatics Association 2025 Annual Symposium in Atlanta, Georgia.
Unfortunately, Professor Coiera will not be there as the timeframe is tight.
“But anyway, maybe I wouldn’t get in at the border,” he joked.
Notably, he joins the preeminent global group for health informatics at a time of great upheaval in US health and science institutions and a proliferation of disinformation.
The AMIA has responded to that upheaval unequivocally, saying in a statement earlier this month:
“AMIA urges the leadership of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to recognize that while scientific progress depends on rigorous debate and challenging existing ideas, this process must be based on verifiable evidence not unscientific policy shifts.”
Professor Coiera said this was part of “a long tradition” of the organisation espousing high-quality science and research.
“Although I wasn’t part of those discussions that led to the statement, there was plenty of discussion that I saw, and it was very nuanced and balanced. There is a sense in which you just have to speak truth, because if you don’t, nobody else will so, so good on them for doing that.”
While Australia has a very different relationship with research and evidence, we have our own challenges, he said.
“The things that we worry about are increasing misinformation and disinformation that consumers get from global sources. We’re not immune.”
In addition, “universities are under increasing stress and not necessarily getting the support that you would imagine they should, given the economic benefit,” he said.
“We’ve not yet seen, certainly in the AI space, the levels of investment that would come anywhere near matching what’s happened in Europe, Asia or America. That’s a concern.”
Talent was not the problem, said Professor Coiera when asked if this meant there wouldn’t be others of his calibre to follow in his footsteps.
“There are certainly lots of people as good or better than me around among the younger generation. Really impressive, very smart. They keep me on my toes.
“And in some ways, Australia becomes more attractive to local talent, which is a positive side-effect of maybe a difficult situation.
“The big challenge really is providing adequate resources for that. And it’s always a challenge. It doesn’t matter if you’re in public health, clinical medicine, informatics and AI – everybody is squeezed, and probably Australia has an opportunity to do better, given geopolitical changes.”
