Elliot Siegel, PhD

Elliot R. Siegel is Associate Director for Health Information Programs Development at the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. He directs the NLM's offices of international programs, planning and evaluation, and outreach development. Dr. Siegel received a PhD in communication research (1969) and an MA in industrial-social psychology (1966), both from Michigan State University. He received a BA in Psychology from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. Dr. Siegel's work in medical informatics began at NLM in 1976 where, as Senior Information Scientist in the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, he co-developed the hepatitis knowledge base system for physicians. He later established and still leads the evaluation research program that supported the development of such NLM innovations as the first-generation online public access catalog and the Grateful Med end-user search system. His research interests include the creation of new methodologies and metrics that have been applied to the study of information system performance, use, and impact. Dr. Siegel put in place the long-range planning function that for nearly two decades has strategically set the goals and priorities for NLM's research and service activities. He launched the Library's nationwide outreach initiative for minority and underserved health professionals and, most recently, undertook on behalf of NIH the leadership of a multilateral capacity development initiative in sub-Saharan Africa to connect remote malaria research sites to the Internet. Dr. Siegel represented the medical informatics community on the first High-Performance Computing, Communications, and Information Technology Committee (HPCCIT) of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. With the NLM director, he currently coordinates U.S. participation in the G-7 Global Healthcare Applications Project and represents U.S. government interests in this international forum. He represents NLM on the International Council for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI) and the consortium of senior federal information managers (CENDI). He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and past secretary and chair of the Section on Information, Computing and Communications. He is a member of the International Affairs Committee of AMIA. Dr. Siegel is a recipient of the NLM Director's Award, the NIH Award of Merit, and the Senior Executive Service Performance Award.