SORENSEN--Lena. Lena Sorensen, born December 8, 1947, Copenhagen, Denmark; died unexpectedly August 17, 2012, at home in Cambridge, MA. B.S., Keuka College (Nursing), 1970; M.S., Boston University (Psychiatric Nursing), 1975; M.A., Hunter College (Psychology), 1988; M.Phil, City University of New York Graduate Center (Psychology), 1988; Ph.D, City University of New York Graduate Center (Environmental Psychology), 1991. Since 2008, Lena served as Associate Professor of Medical Informatics in the School of Nursing at the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions. In 2011-12, elected Chair of the Faculty Senate there. Her doctoral dissertation, "Nursing and Computers: Caring in the Context of Information Technology," was on the cutting edge of her field, contributing to the development of Nursing Informatics by combining her experience as a nurse with her training as an Environmental Psychologist. Her teaching and scholarship focused on the impact of digital technologies on health care environments, both real and virtual, and on the experiences of nurses and patients; she loved introducing students, friends, and colleagues to the latest online resources. Lena was always ready to help, to listen, and to guide, gently but forcefully. Assistant Professor, School of Nursing, University of Massachusetts, Boston (1987-1998). Appointed Associate Professor in the Department of Nursing Science at the University of Tromso in Norway in 1996; she returned to that department as a Fulbright Scholar in 1998-99. From 2000-2005, she was Associate Professor, School of Nursing, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, specializing in Medical Informatics; awarded the Chancellor's Teaching Award there in 2003. In 2006, she was recruited by New York University's College of Nursing to create and direct the Graduate Program in Nursing Informatics. Lena came from a long line of feminist labor activists in Denmark, a legacy of which she was especially proud. She was a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Fenway Community Health Center in Boston (1980-84); member of the Alliance Against Sexual Coercion (1980-84), where she helped develop the earliest policies against sexual harassment; she served as Chair and Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Environmental Design Research Association (1999-2002). Survived by her mother and by extended family in Bellevue, WA, Copenhagen and Stockholm, her brother Karsten of Beverly, MA; beloved niece Annelise Sorensen Conway and husband Ian, of Falmouth Foreside, ME, their children Maylie and Rory; close friend and frequent collaborator Professor Susan Jo Roberts, of Lexington, MA; and by her partner of 31 years, Alice T. Friedman of Cambridge, MA. A memorial service in her honor is planned for November; donations may be made to MGH Institute of Health Professions, "Lena Sorensen Memorial Fund." Published in The New York Times on August 26, 2012
Boston Globe, Sept. 7, 2012 Lena Sorensen, 64; helped patients connect to doctors By Kathleen McKenna Globe Correspondent September 07, 2012 GLOBE CORRESPONDENT LENA SORENSEN Lena Sorensen dedicated her career to finding new and ingenious ways for patients to connect with doctors and nurses, and her own gift for connecting with others was as apparent in her personal life as it was in her professional work. Lena was a very charismatic person, said her partner, Alice Friedman. A lot of people told her their troubles, and she was always enormously supportive. Putting to use multiple degrees in nursing and psychology, Dr. Sorenson worked in the fields of teaching, health care, and the global expansion of information technology. For the past four years she was associate professor of medical informatics in the School of Nursing at Massachusetts General Hospital s Institute of Health Professions, where she helped
develop a curriculum in informatics, an academic field that combines technology with social sciences. Dr. Sorenson, who last year was elected to chair the school s faculty senate, died of heart failure Aug. 17 in her Cambridge home. She was 64. Friedman said Dr. Sorensen, who was a nurse, a teacher, and a researcher, had been concerned about how computers would affect the patients experience, and the experience of nurses from the beginning of the digital era. What Lena was interested in was the breadth and depth of caring, all the way from the literal, as in take two aspirin, to the existential human experience of one person relating to another, Friedman said. Dr. Sorensen graduated in 1970 from Keuka College in Keuka Park, N.Y., with a bachelor s degree in nursing. She also received a master s degree in psychiatric nursing from Boston University in 1975, and one in psychology from Hunter College in New York City in 1988. She traveled extensively with Friedman. On a trip to the Midwest, Friedman said, the work of architect Frank Lloyd Wright ignited Dr. Sorensen s curiosity about how buildings and environments affect the people who live and work in them. Dr. Sorensen then enrolled in the City University of New York Graduate Center, from which she graduated with a master s in psychology in 1988 and a doctorate in environmental psychology in 1991. Her dissertation was Nursing and Computers: Caring in the Context of Information Technology. During her career, she published many articles and often was asked to speak publicly about nursing and informatics. Alex Johnson, provost and vice president of the MGH Institute of Health Professions, said in an e-mail that Dr. Sorensen was devoted to connecting, whether it was patients with their caregivers, students with faculty, faculty with their leaders, or institutions with the community. Whether teaching in a physical classroom or online, he said, her talent and skill came through loud and clear to her students, who enjoyed Lena s enthusiasm, her substantive approach to problem-solving in clinical and leadership issues, and her personal connection with them. Born in Copenhagen, Dr. Sorensen was 6 when her family moved to Levittown, N.Y. As a girl she spoke only Danish at home.
She was a Dane through and through, Friedman said. Dr. Sorensen was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 1997, and studied for a year at the University of Tromso in Norway, where her Danish background was helpful, Friedman said. Norwegians and Danes don t speak the same language, but they understand each other, Friedman said. She got particularly interested in language there, and in how language represents the human experience. When she left after her Fulbright year, Dr. Sorensen said in a farewell speech that growing up Danish-American put her on the edge of intersecting cultures. While a visitor in Tromso, she said, she was not really an outsider, but somewhere on the border where cultures overlap. She predicted she would return to Tromso professionally and personally, and she did as a visiting professor from 1998 to 2002. Besides teaching in Norway, Dr. Sorensen taught in nursing programs at Boston University, the University of Massachusetts Boston, and the University of Colorado. She also was hired by New York University to create and direct a graduate program in nursing informatics. Dr. Sorensen was a founding Fenway Health board member; it is a community health care center in Boston. Friedman said that as a member of the Alliance Against Sexual Coercion, Dr. Sorensen helped develop policies against sexual harassment. Jeanette Ives Erickson, chief nurse and senior vice president for patient services at MGH, formerly was a student of Dr. Sorensen, whom she called probably one of the first nurses engaged in informatics. She was such a smart and engaging woman, Ives Erickson said, noting that when she and Dr. Sorensen started a nursing-administration journal club, people didn t mind giving up their evenings, because Lena was going to be there. She was a really fun person to be around, and she was always doing something to help people. She added that Dr. Sorensen wore this fabulous jewelry and this smile all the time. She was always talking about her travels. She had a wonderful life. Dr. Sorensen s niece, Annelise Conway, of Falmouth Foreside, Maine, said her aunt created childhood memories for her through outings to Red Sox games and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, when Conway s mother was ill. I think I was the only 12-year-old to see the Mapplethorpe exhibit, she said of the photographer whose late-1980s work triggered political and legal debates about its content. She
was just this ever-present person, holding my hand in hospital rooms, or taking me on great adventures. Years later, Dr. Sorensen flew across the country to be by her side when Conway s daughter was born. She was such a caregiver, she made every place she was cozy and warm and wonderful, Conway said. When you thought about how accomplished she was, you d expect her to be lofty or impossible to reach, but she couldn t have been farther from that. A service will be announced for Dr. Sorensen, who in addition to her partner leaves her mother, Else of Bellevue, Wash.; and three brothers, Karsten of Beverly, Hans-Henrik of Redmond, Wash., and Lars of Bellevue, Wash. She was so grounded and encouraging, sort of a failure-is-impossible person, Friedman said. She thought and believed that everyone could do better. Alex Johnson Provost Blog: http://provostmghihp.blogspot.com/