The Health Systems Institute is proud to announce that Ashlea Bennett has been awarded the 2009 Richard P. Covert, Ph.D., FHIMSS Scholarship for Management Systems. This annual award, supported by the HIMSS Foundation, is given to student members who have achieved academic excellence and have the potential to be future leaders in the healthcare information and management systems industry. The scholarship attracts hundreds of applicants each year and this is the second year in a row that it has been given to a Georgia Tech Health Systems student.

Ms. Bennett is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow pursuing a PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering with an emphasis in Logistics. She is advised by Dr. Alan Erera in her dissertation work on home health nurse routing and scheduling problems. Ashlea's graduate research is currently sponsored by Visiting Nurse|Hospice Atlanta (VN|HA), a large non-profit home care organization. She is directing a project focused on congestive heart failure (CHF) patient care with VN|HA and a local hospital. Project objectives include reducing the hospital length of stay for CHF patients, and designing mechanisms that improve coordination of CHF patient care across the continuum from hospital to home.

About HIMSS
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is the healthcare industry's membership organization exclusively focused on providing global leadership for the optimal use of healthcare information technology (IT) and management systems for the betterment of healthcare. HIMSS represents 25,000 Healthcare Information and Systems Management (Management Engineers) professionals. There are 20+ Tech Alum currently involved in various leadership roles in the organization.

About HIMSS Foundation
Established in 1986, the HIMSS Foundation serves as the philanthropic arm of HIMSS, providing support and assistance to the industry and its members through: financial assistance, scholarships, to students in healthcare-IT related fields; providing access for students and governmental agencies to free industry data; and providing financial relief/assistance for special need-based programs and issues. Projects that the Foundation supports include: scholarships for students in healthcare IT-related fields, and relief and assistance for need-based programs such as the Katrina Phoenix Project.