The Grand Ballroom in the University of Florida Reitz Union was buzzing with excitement as over 250 attendees gathered for the 2023 Rita Kobb Nursing & Health Informatics Symposium on Feb. 24. The biennial symposium was presented by the College of Nursing and was established through a gift from Bill and Patti Alcorn in honor of alumna Rita Kobb (BSN 1981, MSN 1996), an informatics expert.

Hosted in person for the first time since the pandemic, this year’s symposium focused on technology in health care to reduce burden and enhance workforce well-being. Nearly 20 multidisciplinary speakers and two keynotes presented their expertise on better understanding the use, scope and applicability of nursing and health informatics. Breakout sessions covered an array of topics, from leveraging artificial intelligence with real-world data to reduce health care burden, to clinician well-being in the use of digital technology. The opening keynote, presented by Kenrick Cato, PhD, RN, CPHIMS, a nurse scientist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and professor for the University of Pennsylvania, demonstrated the importance of how nursing expertise can be modeled and shared, recognizing that clinicians should be involved in every step of artificial intelligence-based projects, and that the bias in clinical workflow can be addressed in AI-based solutions.

The closing keynote was delivered by Janet Stifter, PhD, RN, CPHQ, NE-BC, vice president of operations for perioperative and interventional services and professional nursing practice at Rush University Medical Center. Stifter discussed the history and challenges of technology in nursing practice. She charged the new generation of health care nurses and informaticists to re-energize health care technology.

The symposium was co-chaired by two informatics experts at the College of Nursing—Assistant Professor Hwayoung Cho, PhD, RN, and Assistant Professor Tamara Macieira, PhD, RN.

Registration fees were waived for attendees thanks to the generosity of sponsors. In addition to founding sponsors Bill and Patti Alcorn, the 2023 symposium was also sponsored by UF Health, UF Health Jacksonville and the Alpha Theta Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International. The next symposium will be held in early 2025.