Christoph Lehmann, M.D., a medical informatics pioneer and neonatologist at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, has been elected vice president of services for the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA). Lehmann’s three-year term begins in 2012.

As the world’s largest body of medical informatics organizations, IMIA’s goal is to provide leadership, insight and expertise in the application of information science and technology in healthcare and medicine on a global scale.

In 2010, Lehmann and fellow Hopkins medical informatics expert George Kim, M.D., created IMIA’s journal of Applied Clinical Informatics, aimed at hospital and pharmacy executives, clinical informatics specialists and policymakers focused on economic efficiencies and patient safety in the era of computerized medicine. Lehmann is the journal’s editor-in-chief, and Kim is its managing editor.

Lehmann has published prolifically in the field of medical informatics and has been involved in the design and implementation of several medical software applications used today at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere. They include:

• A computerized ordering tool for pediatric chemotherapy that reduces medication errors in children undergoing cancer treatment 
• An online infusion calculator that reduces medication errors in children undergoing IV infusions 
• A Web-based program to prescribe special categories of restricted antibiotics as a faster and safer alternative to phone or fax orders
   

Lehmann is the director of medical informatics for the Child Informatics Center of the American Academy of Pediatrics where he oversees the design, development and implementation of medical informatics programs to help pediatricians and pediatric hospitals in their adoption of electronic medical records, computer-based medication delivery systems and computer-based patient safety programs. He is a fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics and a member of the National Quality Forum, the nation’s leading watchdog organization on health-care quality.