Public Biography
Dr. Fraser trained in General Medicine, Cardiology and Knowledge Based Systems at Edinburgh University, and in Clinical Decision Making at MIT. His work has led to the migration of medical informatics tools and expertise from high income countries to some of the most challenging environments in low income countries. Director of Informatics at the leading Healthcare NGO Partners In Health, co-founded and co-leads OpenMRS an open source EMR project. He was also an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School from 2006 - 2015. He teaches courses in Global eHealth at Leeds University, Edinburgh University and MIT, and recently co-authored a text book on this field. His main academic focus is in the evaluation of medical information systems particularly in LMICs, and understanding the impact of information and communications on quality of healthcare world wide. He also focusses on improvement of care for non-communicable diseases particularly Heart Disease. Dr Fraser is the Co PI and Informatics and evaluation lead for a US $1M grant from the US CDC to evaluate the functioning, clinical impact and costs of an OpenMRS based EMR system for HIV care in Rwanda. He has previously held grants from the CDC, the Rockefeller Foundation and IDRC for eHealth work in Rwanda.
Historic ACMI Biography
Dr Fraser received his Bachelor of Science degree in Medical Science/Physiology and his MD from Edinburgh University. He earned his MRCP Medical Boards at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, along with a Masters degree in Knowledge based systems from Edinburgh University. At the time of his election, Dr Fraser was an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and Associate Physician in the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He also served as a Research Associate with the Children's Hospital Informatics Program in Boston and Director of Informatics and Telemedicine, for Partners In Health, a not for profit foundation devoted to improving global health. Dr Fraser began his research career working with ACMI fellow William Long on the evaluation of an Artificial Intelligence program for heart disease diagnosis, and has since developed an active research and development program in healthcare technologies for developing nations. He has created systems to support teleradiology in Africa, multiply-drug-resistant TB treatment in Peru, and HIV treatment in Haiti. His nomination notes that ìunlike many other attempts, where unanticipated changes in requirements or narrowness of approach have scuttled promising projects, the ones Dr Fraser has built have ëjust workedí, have been accepted and loved by their users, and even political upheavals have failed to kill them.î The College considers this high praise indeed in parts of the resource-limited world characterized by poverty, illiteracy, and frequent turnover of political winners and losers. With colleagues at other US and international institutions, Dr Fraser has championed the development and deployment of the OpenMRS electronic medical records system platform in countries of sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean, and South America. Dr Fraser's nomination also noted that he ìis a strongly motivated, highly productive and inspirational leader in the push to develop appropriate healthcare technologies for the developing worldî. These enduring achievements are recognized and honored by election to Fellowship in the College.
Affiliations
The American College of Medical Informatics
ACMI is a college of elected Fellows from the U.S. and abroad who have made significant and sustained contributions to the field of medical informatics. It is the central body for a community of scholars and practitioners who are committed to advancing the informatics field.
Year Elected
2009