Sarah Rossetti Earns 2024 Donald A.B. Lindberg Award
for Innovation in Informatics
Sarah Rossetti, Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Nursing at Columbia University, has been selected as a 2024 co-recipient of the prestigious Donald A.B. Lindberg Award for Innovation in Informatics by the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA). Rossetti, co-honoree Kenrick Cato, and all other award winners will be acknowledged at the AMIA 2024 Annual Symposium, Nov. 9-13, in San Francisco.
Rossetti and Cato co-lead the CONCERN Early Warning System (EWS) study, which uses AI methods to predict patient deterioration based on nursing surveillance patterns. A nurse-driven tool, CONCERN EWS is the first to both measure nursing surveillance and then analyze those activities through large data sets of EHR documentation patterns. Through this system, the research team identifies patients that nurses are concerned about in real-time.

In a large study involving 60,893 hospitalizations, CONCERN EWS reduced the risk of death by 35.6%, sepsis by 7.5%, and shortened hospital stays by more than half a day, benefiting over 2,000 nurses and their patients.
Rossetti was a 2019 recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The PECASE is the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government to outstanding scientists and engineers who are beginning their independent research careers and who show exceptional promise for leadership in science and technology. Her research is focused on identifying and intervening on patient risk for harm by applying computational tools to mine and extract value from electronic health record (EHR) data and leveraging user-centered design for patient-centered technologies.
Rossetti is the fourth member of DBMI to be honored with the Lindberg Award, and the second in as many years. Noémie Elhadad earned the award in 2023, while both Carol Friedman (2010) and Jim Cimino (2012) are other past winners.
The Donald A.B. Lindberg Award for Innovation in Informatics honors Dr. Lindberg’s continuous commitment to the field has dramatically altered the scope and extent of informatics’ practice and research. The contribution recognized will have advanced the field for example in the form of a significant innovation or a unique approach and contribution to education or training, but not for a lifetime body of work. The criteria are:
- Awarded to an individual at any stage of a career for a specific technological, research, or educational contribution that advances biomedical informatics.
- Adoption of the particular advance by the informatics community will be on a national or international level.
- Scope of a successful innovation of informatics has dramatically moved or changed the field.
- Demonstrated commitment to AMIA through membership.