Vicky Elfrink, Ph.D, an Associate with iTeleHealth, Inc., Frederick, Maryland USA, clinical assistant professor of nursing at The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio USA and adjunct professor in Nursing and Health Sciences at UNITEC, Auckland New Zealand is well-known in the healthcare community for her visionary work as Project Manager of the Nightingale Tracker, a computerized nursing education clinical information system. From 2002-2004, Vicky has been the clinical lead and co-principal investigator for iTelehealth Inc’s. SBIR-NIMH (National Institute of Health under SBIR Contract #N44MH22044) sponsored Web site entitled: The Preventing Suicide Network.

An expert in Web-based education and staff development instruction, Vicky has conducted quantitative and qualitative research to determine market need of such programs. She has published 25 refereed articles or book chapters on various educational topics and has written research technology, R&D articles for HealthNet (quarterly online publication for FITNE, Inc., USA) in addition to conducting over 30 national and international presentations on information technology in healthcare. Also, Vicky has been actively involved in the use of standardized nursing vocabularies in nursing education and has been active in nursing education research and publishing about the Omaha System. She is a member of the American Nurses Association, Committee for Nursing Practice Information Infrastructure (CNPII) and is currently serving on the National League for Nursing Committee for developing Informatics Competencies for Nurse Educators.

Vicky earned her undergraduate (BSN) degree from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and both, her Masters of Science in Mental Health Nursing and her PhD. in Education Curriculum and Instruction from Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. Her other educational achievements include ANCC certification in Nursing Informatics, a post-Masters certificate in Nursing Systems Administration from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, USA and a certificate in distance education from Thomas Edison State College in Trenton, New Jersey, USA. Vicky's home is in Columbus, Ohio (EST) and her contact information is as follows: email: velfrink@columbus.rr.com; cell: 614-216-5749 office: 614-292-4931.

This photo of the family was taken in the summer of 03 on the South Island of New Zealand on Mount Hutt. It was taken in July!