AMIA members' "vital signs": what the HIT implementation listserv says about goals for AMIA and for medical informatics.

The health information technology (HIT) implementation listserv was conceived as a way to combine a substantial portion of American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) members who belonged to four working groups (WGs): CIS, Evaluation, ELSI, and POI. Other AMIA members joined in significant numbers. It immediately became a major forum for discussing medical informatics, informatics policies, and discussion of the purpose of AMIA itself. The listserv membership approximates 25% of AMIA's members and has generated over 6,000 posts. We report on a survey of the listserv's members: what members think about the listserv; what participants want for medical informatics; how they think those goals should be achieved, and what AMIA's role should be in this process. The listserv provides vital signs about AMIA and hopes for informatics. We combine qualitative analysis of members' comments and responses about the listserv using ATLAS.ti qualitative text analysis tool and a word cloud generator.