Informatics, Digital Health, Emerging Technologies, and Artificial Intelligence Academy (IDEA) Awards

Award Nominations Deadlines

Award Nominations Open: October 12, 2026

Award Nominations Close: December 4, 2026

The Jeff Nielson Distinguished Service Award in Informatics

This award recognizes an attending physician whose sustained leadership has helped move emergency medicine informatics forward as a field. Whether through professional organizations, national committees, scholarship, mentorship, advocacy, or education, the recipient has influenced how the specialty thinks about and uses information technology. The award honors a career of contribution that extends beyond a single institution and leaves the discipline stronger, better connected, and better prepared for what comes next.

Award Criteria & Nomination Materials

• Curriculum vitae (CV)
• Nomination letter (self-nomination accepted)
• Up to three additional letters of support (optional)

Eligibility Requirements

Attending physician; active member of both SAEM and the IDEA Academy at the time of nomination.

Larry Nathanson Award for Excellence in Implementation and Design

Great informatics has to work at 2 a.m. in a crowded Emergency Department. This award recognizes an attending physician who has repeatedly turned technology into practical improvements in care at the departmental, hospital, or health-system level. Recipients may have led successful EHR redesigns, decision-support tools, analytics programs, AI implementations, workflow improvements, or other digital initiatives that made emergency care safer, faster, smarter, or easier to deliver.

Award Criteria & Nomination Materials

• Curriculum vitae (CV)
• Nomination letter (self-nomination accepted)
• Up to three additional letters of support (optional)

Eligibility Requirements

Attending physician; active member of both SAEM and the IDEA Academy at the time of nomination.

Research Award in Clinical Informatics

This award recognizes an attending physician whose research project made an especially strong contribution to emergency medicine informatics. The winning work should combine a clinically meaningful question with thoughtful methods, strong execution, and clear relevance to emergency care. Whether focused on artificial intelligence, clinical decision support, digital health, workflow, data science, or health information systems, the project pushes the field toward better decisions, better systems, or better care.

Award Criteria & Nomination Materials

• Curriculum vitae (CV)
• Nomination letter (self-nomination accepted)
• Up to three additional letters of support (optional)

Eligibility Requirements

Attending physician; active member of both SAEM and the IDEA Academy at the time of nomination.

Emergency Medicine Resident Research Award

This award recognizes an emergency medicine resident whose research asks an important question and uses informatics to answer it well. The recipient demonstrates creativity, methodological rigor, and an ability to turn clinical problems into meaningful investigation. The award celebrates emerging investigators who are already helping define how technology can improve the practice of emergency medicine.

Award Criteria & Nomination Materials

• Curriculum vitae (CV)
• Nomination letter (self-nomination accepted)
• Letter of support from a research mentor or program director

Eligibility Requirements

Emergency medicine resident; active member of both SAEM and the IDEA Academy at the time of nomination.

Monetary Component

$300 stipend, directed toward a professional development resource related to the award (e.g., an online AI/data science course subscription) rather than a cash award.

Emergency Medicine Medical Student Research Award

This award recognizes a medical student who has shown unusual initiative and promise in clinical informatics. Through thoughtful research involving data, AI, digital tools, or health information systems, the recipient demonstrates curiosity, technical ambition, and the potential to become a future leader at the intersection of medicine and technology.

Award Criteria & Nomination Materials

• Curriculum vitae (CV)
• Nomination letter (self-nomination accepted)
• Letter of support from a research mentor or program director

Eligibility Requirements

Medical student; active member of both SAEM and the IDEA Academy at the time of nomination. 

Monetary Component

$300 stipend, directed toward a professional development resource related to the award (e.g., an online AI/data science course subscription) rather than a cash award.