News

Members of Vanderbilt University Medical Center's (VUMC) Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI), Medicine, Pediatrics, and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences published a study that analyzed how well electronic health record-based suicide risk models perform in the clinical setting and if performance is generalizable. The study was published in JAMA on March 12, 2021. 

The Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA) is publishing a special edition in the fall of 2021 that will highlight best practices for Research Patient Data Registries (RPDR) discovered by CTSA funded hubs. The journal is seeking original research, brief communications, perspectives, case reports, and systematic review articles. Below are some proposed deadlines to be aware of:

Optimizing and simplifying the EHR flowsheet to structured response fields rather than a text input dialogue could help reduce clinician burnout and aid EHR documentation, according to a study published in JMIR Publications. DBMI's Brad Malin, Zhijun Yin, Yongtai Liu, Allison McCoy, and Patricia Sengstack co-authored the study. Read more in EHR Intelligence here. 

As medical science advances upon the molecular drivers of different cancers, and as cancer treatment consequently becomes more targeted and precise, clinical testing for molecular alterations has come online over the past decade to help clinicians match patients to these newer treatments.

The CEO and founder of one of the world’s largest electronic health record (EHR) vendors, Judith Faulkner of Epic Systems Corp., spoke about her company and answered questions at the Department of Biomedical Informatics weekly online seminar on February 17, 2021. 

Wei-Qi Wei , MD, PhD, assistant professor of Biomedical Informatics and scientific director of the Precision Phenotyping Core at the Center for Precision Medicine, has been awarded a four-year, $1.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (grant GM139891) to continue development of high-throughput software for quickly identifying traits of interest, or phenotypes, in electronic health records (EHRs). 

The arrival last March of the COVID-19 pandemic in Tennessee presented challenges for the clinical research enterprise at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Prompt recruitment of patients newly diagnosed with COVID-19 into clinical trials was, and remains, a public health imperative with top-level backing from the federal government.

When a patient attempts suicide or reports suicidal thoughts, the trail this leaves in the electronic health record (EHR) is often fuzzy.

Health informatics expert and educator Jessica Ancker, PhD, MPH, has joined the Department of Biomedical Informatics as vice chair for Educational Affairs. Ancker comes from Weill Cornell Medical College and Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, where she was an associate professor. 

Kevin Johnson, MD, MS, FAAP, FACMI, DBMI Chair, and Elizabeth Brown, DBMI Chief Business Officer would like to extend their welcome to our newest employees who have joined the department: