Intro to Data Resources at VUMC

with Bryan Steitz, PhD & Allison McCoy, PhD

Monday, November 18th, 2024, from 11:00am -12:30pm

In Person at 2525 West End, Room 8110 and on Zoom

A DBMI Research Colloquium Session & VCLIC Workshop:

Please join Dr. McCoy and Dr. Steitz for a hands-on workshop that will teach you how to navigate and utilize the powerful data resources available at VUMC. This workshop is designed for researchers seeking to explore both de-identified and fully identifiable datasets for their studies, and will provide an overview of tools like the Synthetic Derivative, Research Derivative, Epic’s Clarity data warehouse, Reporting Workbench, and SlicerDicer.

Intro to Epic Build Capabilities Workshop

with Allison McCoy, PhD

Tuesday, October 1st, 2024, from 1:00-2:30 pm

In Person at 2525 West End, Room 802

Please join Dr. McCoy for a workshop exploring the various build capabilities available in Epic! She will lead the group through a few demonstrations and a few follow-along exercises, and if you are interested in pursuing Clinical Content or Physician Builder training after, we will give you the information on how to go about that as well. 

Sign up here: https://redcap.link/x14hyurd

Before you finalize your sign up, please determine if you have access to Epic's Playground Environment (PLY): https://confluence.app.vumc.org/display/VCLIC/Setting+up+the+VMware+Horizon+Client+and+Epic+Playground+Access (you will need to be onsite or on the VPN for this link to work)

If you do not, there will be a place for you to leave your VUMCnetID such that we can request this for you before the session. 

See you there!

Intro to Epic for Non-Clinicians Workshop

with Aileen Wright, MD, MS

Tuesday, September 10th, 2024, from 1:00-2:30 pm

In Person at 2525 West End, Room 802

Please join us for our Intro to Epic for Non-Clinicians Workshop, where Dr. Wright will lead us through a series of workflows clinicians typically use to familiarize those of us who don't administer clinical care with some of the regular workflows clinicians use during patient encounters (or before/after them). This will be offered in-person at 2525 West End in room 802. 

Sign up here: https://redcap.link/28mr2rj3

Before you finalize your sign up, please determine if you have access to Epic's Playground Environment (PLY): https://confluence.app.vumc.org/display/VCLIC/Setting+up+the+VMware+Horizon+Client+and+Epic+Playground+Access (you will need to be onsite or on the VPN for this link to work)

If you do not, there will be a place for you to leave your VUMCnetID such that we can request this for you before the session. 

See you there!

InformaticCon 2024!

We are so excited to bring back InformaticCon for a third year! Please join us on Wednesday, September 4th from 11:00 am-2:30 pm in Light Hall for this year's event! 

Sign up here: https://redcap.link/1dsqggji 

Click Here to View Program 

Schedule: 

11:00 am-12:00 pm Panel (Featuring the Physician Builder Program at VUMC); the panel will end a bit earlier than noon so everyone can grab lunch, which will be provided

12:00-1:00 pm Lightning Talks

1:00-2:30 pm Poster Session 

The Panel and Lightning talks will take place in Light Hall 214, and the Poster Session will be set up throughout the North Lobby.

Feel free to email elise.russo@vumc.org with any questions.

CME will be offered for this event. Details to be provided day-of.

VCLIC & DBMI Grand Rounds featuring Scott Fleming, PhD candidate in Stanford's Department of Biomedical Data Science

Tuesday, June 4th from 11:00 am-12:00 pm, 2525 West End 8110 or via Teams

Please join us on June 4th at 11:00 am for an exciting talk by Scott Fleming, a PhD candidate in Stanford's Department of Biomedical Data Science. Scott will be at 2525 West End on the 8th Floor (room 8110), but we will also stream his talk via MS Teams. 

Patient Reported Outcome Measure VCLIPS Workshop with Justin Bachmann, MD and Allison McCoy, PhD: April 25th, 2024 from 2:00-3:30 pm 

Join Justin Bachmann, MD, cardiologist and Medical Director of the Vanderbilt Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement System (VPROMs) team, and Allison McCoy, PhD, Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Scientific Director of the Clinical Informatics Core, on Thursday, April 25th from 2:00-3:30 pm to discuss and learn about patient-reported outcome measures. This session will be in person at 2525 West End, in room 8110 (changed from 1561). 

Please sign up using our form: https://redcap.link/98hlg3kb

More details to come soon, but if you would like an overview of the topic and the session, please view the VCLIPS video Dr. Bachmann and his team put together earlier this year. 

VCLIC and DBMI Grand Rounds, March 6th, 2024 featuring Lindsey Knake, MD, MS

Please join us and former VCLIC Member (now a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics-Neonatology at University of Iowa Health Care), Lindsey Knake, MD, MS, on March 6th , 2024 in person and via Teams as she talks us through the work she is doing using Epic's Cosmos tool. 

Title: “A Guide to exploring Epic’s Cosmos universe: Insights from studying tiny babies”

This talk will discuss real-world scenarios of how neonatologists and obstetricians use Epic’s deidentified Cosmos database to research maternal and neonatal issues. This presentation will review the potential of Cosmos to answer important questions, as well as some of the limitations of the Cosmos database. We will compare and contrast the data available from both the SlicerDicer and the data science platforms to highlight the benefits of each. Additionally Dr. Knake will discuss how she works with the Epic research and Cosmos teams to try to improve the database and usability for researchers.

VCLIC AND DBMI GROUND ROUNDS: FEATURING ADAM WRIGHT, PHD, DARA MIZE, MD, MS, SIRU LIU, PHD, AND EDDIE QIAN, MD, MS

Our next DBMI and VCLIC Grand Rounds presentation will be February 7th from 12:00-1:00 pm at 2525 West End, 8110 (and streamed on MS Teams) and will feature several VUMC Clinical Informatics researchers (physicians, and leaders). Dr. Adam Wright will provide an overview of the state of the Vanderbilt Clinical Informatics Center (VCLIC) and the programs that VCLIC coordinates. Dr. Eddie Qian will review the ACORN trial, a pragmatic trial in the EHR published recently in JAMA. Dr. Siru Liu will review efforts to improve CDS using generative and explainable AI. Dr. Dara Mize will review HealthIT's activities and roadmap. 

Teams Link

VCLIC and DBMI Ground Rounds: Craig Joseph, MD, and Jerome Pagani, PhD of Nordic Consulting, November 1st, 2023 12:00-1:00 pm, LH 202

Join VCLIC and DBMI for an exciting Grand Rounds presentation with Craig Joseph, MD, Chief Medical Officer, and Jerome Pagani, PhD, Head of Thought Leadership, both for Nordic, a consulting company with an EHR focus. The talk "Designing for Health" will take place on November 1st, 2023 from 12:00-1:00 pm, in Light Hall 202 and streamed via MS Teams. 

Lunch will be available first-come, first-served in Light Hall. 

We hope to see you there!

Signal Data Office Hours with Bryan Steitz, PhD, and Sean Huang, MD

November 7th, 2023, 1:00-2:30 pm, via MS Teams

Please join us for the second Clinical Informatics Office Hours session, this time with a focus on Signal Data and its uses. We will have Signal experts, Bryan Steitz, PhD, and Sean Huang, MD, on-hand to answer all your questions and explain a bit about what Signal and its uses are. This session will be via MS Teams (we are switching to virtual)!

If you would like a briefing on Signal, please watch Sean's VCLIPs, here: https://www.vumc.org/vclic/signal-data

Sign up and ask any pre-session questions here: https://redcap.link/80s81scp

Teams link and calendar invite will be disseminated when you sign up! 

InformaticCon 2023!

Please join us for VCLIC's second annual InformaticCon, this year presented in partnership with VUSN. This special, three-hour event will include lunch, a sampling of short, dynamic talks, a panel, and a poster session to showcase clinical informatics work going on across VUMC! It will take place on Wednesday, September 27th, 2023, from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm at the Vanderbilt School of Nursing (461 21st Ave S, Nashville, TN 37240). The registration and the poster session will take place in the Atrium, and the panel and lightning talks will be in Room 161. The Lightning Talk hour (12:00-1:00 pm) will take the place of the DBMI Grand Rounds seminar for this 9/27 week. We will share a streaming link for this portion as the event draws closer.

This event is eligible for 2.75 nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) contact hours, as well as CME. 

Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nursing Education and Professional Development, is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. 

Agenda:

10:00-11:00 am Poster Session (Atrium)

11:00-11:45 am Panel on how to get involved in Clinical Informatics at Vanderbilt (Room 161)

11:45 am-12:00 pm lunch (pick up lunch in Atrium, feel free to eat in room 161)

12:00-1:00 pm Lightning Talks (room 161)

Please indicate your interest in attending via the form below--we will be serving lunch, so we'd like to get an accurate head count. Sign Ups will Close on 9/21.

https://redcap.link/InformaticCon2023signup

All VUMC and VU faculty, staff, trainees, and students are welcome to participate and attend, and we hope to see you there on September 27th to kick off our academic year!

Please see our Program for the list of posters, presenters, and topics covered!  

Parking: Guests can park in 25th Avenue garage for the event on 9/27 10am to 1pm.   Please be aware that we share the garage with Vanderbilt University. It is important that the guests park in the Medical Center side by entering the 24th side or Highland entrance of the garage. When entering at the Highland Avenue entrance, please proceed through the internal parking gates to access the Medical Center parking area. Parking is available on levels 3 – 10.     

Intro to Epic Build Capabilities Workshop, October 3rd, 2023, from 1:00-2:30 pm, presented by Allison McCoy, PhD

Please join us on October 3rd, 2023 from 1:00-2:30 pm for Allison McCoy, PhD's workshop session on Epic Build Capabilities. This session will be in-person only, at 2525 West End, room 8110. 

This session will cover things like how to get certified to build in Epic, what a BPA (alert) build looks like, and a few other surprises!

There will be snacks (it's Adam's birthday)! Also, if you'd like to view this material asynchronously, please view our Intro to Epic and Build Capabilities VCLIPS, here: https://www.vumc.org/vclic/intro-epic-and-build-capabilities

Sign up for the in person session on October 3rd here: https://redcap.link/kiz1vrrg 

VCLIC & DBMI Grand Rounds, September 13th, 2023, featuring Ethan Gershon, MD

Please join VCLIC & DMBI for a Grand Rounds on September 13th, 2023, featuring Ethan D. Gershon, MD Physician Informaticist at Global Healthcare Informatics, who will be speaking on "The EHR Vendor Viewpoint."

Dr. Gershon's talk will focus on "Developing, marketing, implementing, and supporting a nationally- or globally-deployed commercial EHR requires a vendor to be a large organization with its own needs, constraints, processes, and viewpoints. These are necessarily different from those of the vendor’s customers, users, and others who touch the vendor’s products and the data they capture." This talk describes the EHR vendor’s needs and constraints, and then explores how these manifest in various vendor-customer interactions. 

Dr. Gershon will be presenting virtually, but please join us in person in room 8110 at 2525 West End or on Microsoft Teams here- we look forward to seeing you there! 

Introducing: VCLIC Office Hours

with Adam Wright, PhD, September 19th, 2023, from 1:00-2:30 pm at 2525 West End, 14th Floor (1475)

Have you ever found yourself wondering if there was a better (or different) way to approach a clinical informatics problem, project, or topic you are working on? Have you ever wanted to just chat about clinical informatics challenges or interests with someone who could help guide your next steps? Do you like snacks and vibrantly colored swag? 

Then do we have the event for you! 

Enter: Clinical Informatics Office Hours, VCLIC's newest offering this academic year. We are piloting a less formally organized event to start--please come with your questions, ideas, hopes, dreams, fears, etc., and Adam (and probably some of his very talented friends) will meet with you in person at 2525 West End on Tuesday, September 19th, 2023, between 1:00 and 2:30 pm, to discuss all things clinical informatics with you. If you have specific topics and lengthier questions, feel free to email Elise (elise.russo@vumc.org) before the session.

We plan to offer a few more of these over the course of the year depending on their helpfulness, so please let us know if there is a way we can improve this service (there will be a feedback form for those of you who attend). 

See you in the office!

VCLIC Workshop: Intro to Epic for Non-Clinicians, Sept. 11th, 2023 from 9:30-11:00am, presented by Julian Genkins, MD

We hope you'll join us for our first workshop of the year, which will be presented by Julian Genkins, MD, Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, on Monday, September 11th from 9:30-11:00 am. This session will be in-person only, at 2525 West End, room 1561. 

This session will cover some Epic basics from a clinician perspective, including outpatient and inpatient workflows.

Dr. Genkins would love to take and talk about specific questions and use cases--please be sure to let us know what you'd like to see during the session when you fill out the sign up form. 

There will be snacks! Also, if you'd like to view this material asynchronously, please view our Intro to Epic VCLIPS, here: https://www.vumc.org/vclic/intro-epic-and-build-capabilities

Sign up for the in person session on Sept. 11th, here: https://redcap.link/xhfne0zf

VCLIC, DBMI, and GIM Seminar, May 3rd, 2023 featuring AMA President-Elect, Jesse Ehrenfeld, MD, MPH

VCLIC, DBMI, and GIM are thrilled to announce our May 3rd seminar guest: AMA President-Elect, Jesse Ehrenfeld, MD, MPH. Dr. Ehrenfeld will visit VUMC in person and will deliver his talk in Light Hall 208. There will also be a Zoom option. 

Dr. Ehrenfeld will present on "Reducing Provider Burnout and Supporting Provider Well-Being." Alleviating physician burnout has been a cornerstone of the AMA’s strategic work for more than a decade. During his talk, Dr. Ehrenfeld will discuss how the AMA is working at the system-level to remove the common barriers that interfere with patient care and often lead to burnout and dissatisfaction. He will touch on work around the use of and development of digital health technologies, strategies to streamline and reduce administrative burdens, as well as work being done in partnership with the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation. 

VCLIPS Workshop: Evaluation and Dissemination of HealthIT Interventions - May 2nd, 2023 from 1:00-2:30 pm with Adam Wright, PhD; in person at 2525 West End

Please join us for the fourth monthly VCLIPS Workshop: Evaluation and Dissemination of HealthIT Interventions with Adam Wright, PhD. This session will be held on Tuesday, May 2 from 1:00-2:30 pm, in person at 2525 West End in room 1561. We will review the material contained in the VCLIPS videos for these topics (found here), and go over the exercises (also found on the website) together, with plenty of time for questions with the instructor. Everyone interested is welcome--there are no pre-requisites or requirements for participation!  

A brief overview of the topics that will be covered:  

• Learn why evaluation and dissemination are key parts of the clinical informatics life cycle and how to apply some common measurement frameworks and study design options 

Please sign up to attend using this REDCap link: https://redcap.vanderbilt.edu/surveys/?s=ATHCYXA3ARA4AEPE  

VCLIC and DBMI Seminar, April 12th, 2023 featuring Michael Barnett, MD, MS

We will also be hosting Michael Barnett, MD, MS, Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, on April 12th, 2023 from 12:00-1:00 pm CT. Dr. Barnett’s talk will be virtual via zoom. 

Dr. Barnett will present on Identifying the Mechanisms of Disparities in Cascades of Cardiovascular Care with EHR Metadata. The precise mechanisms in health systems that lead to racial and socioeconomic disparities in access to cardiovascular care remains poorly characterized. To address this evidence gap, the individual stages (i.e. order, scheduling, service completion) of two key components in the cardiovascular cascade of care, cardiac stress tests and cardiology referrals, were dissected to identify key processes where disparities in access emerge. This talk will describe components of the cardiovascular cascade of care that may represent barriers to access, how metadata on physician orders in the EHR can be used to examine cascades of care, and how mechanisms of racial and socioeconomic disparities in receipt of cardiovascular may differ by type of service. 

VCLIPS Workshop: Human Centered Design Principles and Processes - April 18th, 2023 from 1:00-2:30 pm with Tom Reese, PharmD, PhD; in person at 2525 West End

Please join us for the third monthly VCLIPS Workshop: Human-Centered Design Principles and Processes with Thomas Reese, PharmD, PhD and Megan Salwei, PhD. This session will be held on Tuesday, April 18th from 1:00-2:30 pm, in person at 2525 West End in room 1561. We will review the material contained in the VCLIPS videos for these topics (found here), and go over the exercises (also found on the website) together, with plenty of time for questions with the instructor. Everyone interested is welcome--there are no pre-requisites or requirements for participation!  

A brief overview of the topics that will be covered:  

• Learn about how to use human-centered design principles and processes to make interactive systems and tools more usable  

Please sign up to attend using this REDCap link: https://redcap.vanderbilt.edu/surveys/?s=JFC447P7R7RYF49L 

FHIR Workshop with Russ Leftwich, MD - March 31st, 2023 from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, in person at VUMC

We are excited to team up with Russ Leftwich, MD, an adjunct VUMC DBMI Professor as well as Senior Clinical Advisor for Interoperability for InterSystems. He has traveled the world (and to other academic medical centers/universities) offering this workshop, and we are bringing him home to VUMC on Friday, March 31st for an all-day, in-person session. We have also added VUMC Professor Alex Cheng, PhD, to the agenda. 

This event is open to VUMC and non-VUMC folks alike!

The workshop will run from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, and will take place in Light Hall 202. We will release a more detailed itinerary in the next few weeks, but broadly you can expect: 

1. Explore FHIR as a key healthcare data standard and data model
2. Explain FHIR Profiles, Resources, and FHIR Extensions
3. Build your own FHIR Profile
4. Tentatively: REDCap on FHIR / FHIR questionnaires

This workshop is open to VU/VUMC folks and non-affiliated folks alike! There are no pre-requisites, and all you need to participate is a laptop that has a web browser. Please RSVP so that we can get an accurate lunch order!

Please sign up here: https://redcap.link/3r39ki4c

In person VCLIC and DBMI Seminar, April 5th, 2023 featuring Sarah Rossetti, RN, PhD

Please join VCLIC and DBMI for our monthly seminar in April, featuring Sarah Rossetti, RN, PhD, of Columbia University, speaking on "National strategies, priorities, and challenges to reducing documentation burden and evaluating impact." 

Dr. Rossetti's talk will focus on her work related to documentation burden. In her own words: "Documentation burden is a major driver of clinician burnout, which is a critical crisis in our health system.  For example, the National Academy of Medicine recently released a report “Taking Action Against Clinician Burnout” A Systems Approach to Professional Well-Being”, which includes efforts to reduce documentation burden.  This talk will provide an in depth look at national efforts and collaborations focused on reducing documentation burden, including the AMIA 25x5 Task Force to Reduce Documentation Burden, which is Chaired by Dr. Rossetti, and the National Burden Reduction Collaborative (NBRC), which is co-sponsored by AMIA.  Dr. Rossetti will also discuss approaches and challenges around measurement of documentation burden at a national and local level, including the logic model and planned approach to guide evaluation of the AMIA 25x5 Task Force and an AHRQ funded study using a natural experiment opportunity that emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic." 

This seminar will be offered in person (we are lucky enough to have Dr. Rossetti traveling here!) in 2525 West End, 8110, or via Zoom, here. 

VCLIPS Workshop: Data Resources - March 21st, 2023 from 1:00-2:30 pm with Bryan Steitz, PhD, and Allison McCoy, PhD; in person at 2525 West End

Please join us for the second monthly VCLIPS Workshop: Data Resources with Bryan Steitz, PhD, and Allison McCoy, PhD. This session will be held on Tuesday, March 21st from 1:00-2:30 pm, in person at 2525 West End (room to be identified soon). We will review the material contained in the VCLIPS videos for these topics (found here), and go over the exercises (also found on the website) together, with plenty of time for questions with the instructors. Everyone interested is welcome--there are no pre-requisites or requirements for participation! 

A brief overview of the topics that will be covered: 

• Get an overview of the data resources available, including VICTR's Synthetic Derivative, Research Derivative, and Record Counter and Epic's Hyperspace, Clarity, and Caboodle 
• Learn how to use Excel for data cleaning, descriptive statistics, and presentation-ready data plots

 Please sign up to attend using this REDCap link: https://redcap.link/e4o0ufsl

VCLIC & DBMI Special Colloquium, March 2nd, 2023 at 12:00 pm CT with Bradley Iott, PhD

Please join us during the DBMI Colloquium spot (12:00-1:00 pm CT) on March 2nd (Thursdsay) to hear a special presentation from Postdoctoral Fellow, Bradley Iott, PhD of UCSF. 

In person in room 8110 at 2525 or on Zoom here. 

In Dr. Iott's Words: 

Electronic health records are increasingly used to capture social determinants of health (SDH) data, though there are few published studies of clinicians’ engagement with captured data and whether engagement influences health and healthcare utilization. We compared the relative frequency of clinician engagement with discrete SDH data to the frequency of engagement with other common types of medical history information using data from inpatient hospitalizations. We created measures of data engagement capturing instances of data documentation (data added/updated) or review (review of data that were previously documented) during a hospitalization. We applied these measures to four domains of EHR data, (medical, family, behavioral, and SDH) and explored associations between data engagement and hospital readmission risk. SDH data engagement was associated with lower readmission risk. Yet there were lower levels of SDH data engagement (8.37% of hospitalizations) than medical (12.48%), behavioral (17.77%), and family (14.42%) history data engagement. In hospitalizations where data were available from prior hospitalizations/outpatient encounters, a larger proportion of hospitalizations had SDH data engagement than other domains (72.60%). The goal of SDH data collection is to drive interventions to reduce social risk. Data on when and how clinical teams engage with SDH data should be used to inform informatics initiatives to address health and healthcare disparities. Overall levels of SDH data engagement were lower than those of common medical, behavioral, and family history data, suggesting opportunities to enhance clinician SDH data engagement to support social services referrals and quality measurement efforts. 

VCLIC & DBMI Special Seminar, March 8th, 2023 at 11:00 am CT with Linying Zhang, MS

We are looking forward to hosting Linying Zhang, MS, of Columbia University's DBMI on March 8th, 2023 for her talk on Improving the Reliability of Real-world Evidence Generation from Large-scale Observational Data. 

Please join us in person at 2525 in room 8110 or via Zoom, here. 

In her own words: 

Many research questions in healthcare are causal, but most of the data we have are observational. Observational data (e.g., electronic health records (EHRs)) is often characterized by a high level of noise, a multitude of covariates, and potential for bias. Determining accurate causal relationships from high-dimensional data is a crucial component of improving the reliability of real-world evidence generation.

In this talk, I will present two research areas where causal inference can improve the reliability of evidence generation from EHRs. First, I demonstrate how large-scale propensity score (LSPS) adjustment is less subject to bias from unmeasured confounders compared to traditional propensity score methods in comparative effectiveness research. Second, I will demonstrate the limitations of traditional association-based metrics for evaluating treatment allocation fairness and present a causal perspective for more reliable assessments. I will end by discussing opportunities for causal inference to improve the reliability, robustness, and fairness of machine learning models in healthcare.

VCLIPS Workshop: Intro to Epic and Build Capabilities - February 21st, 2023 from 1:00-2:30 pm with Aileen Wright, MD, MS, and Allison McCoy, PhD; in person at 2525 West End

Please join us for the first monthly VCLIPS Workshop: Intro to Epic and Build Capabilities with Aileen Wright, MD, MS, and Allison McCoy, PhD. This session will be held on Tuesday, February 21st from 1:00-2:30 pm, in person at 2525 West End in room 1561 (VICTR large conference room). We will review the material contained in the VCLIPS videos for these topics (found here), and go over the exercises (also found on Confluence) together, with plenty of time for questions with the instructors. Everyone interested is welcome--there are no pre-requisites or requirements for participation! If you can't log into Epic's playground environment to complete exercises yourself, we will pair up and make sure you are able to see how the exercise can be completed. 

A brief overview of the topics covered:

• Get an introduction to how providers interact with the EHR for patient chart review and patient visits  
• Learn how to build Best Practice Advisories (BPAs) for clinical decision support and other related components like groupers and preference lists 

Please sign up for the session here: https://redcap.link/dzo2e1i7

VCLIC Seminar, February 15th, 2023 at 12:00 pm CT with Bryan Steitz, PhD

For our seminar for next month, February 15th, 2023 at 12:00 pm CT, VCLIC is excited to host Bryan Steitz, PhD, an instructor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics and researcher for the Vanderbilt Clinical Informatics Center. Bryan will present on Promoting Engagement through Information Sharing: Understanding the Impact of Open Results on Patients and Providers: The Final Rule of the 21st Century Cures Act mandates the immediate release of electronic health data, including all test results (Open Results) upon patient request. The intent to improve information sharing offers significant benefits to both patients and providers, but limited empiric evidence to guide implementation strategies has prompted concern for patient wellbeing and provider workflow. In this presentation, I will discuss findings and implications from an ongoing body of work on results release policies, patient perceptions, and provider work on immediate release of test results detailing the patient and provider perspectives to highlight current best practices and opportunities for improvement.      

Zoom information is here.

VCLIC Seminar, January 25th, 2023 at 12:00 pm CT with Julia Adler-Milstein, PhD

VCLIC is excited to host Julia Adler-Milstein, PhD, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Clinical Informatics and Improvement Research at UCSF, on January 25th, 2023 from 12:00-1:00 pm CT. Dr. Adler-Milstein will present on Turning Digital Fumes into a Breath of Fresh Air: While EHR data is heavily used for clinical research, there is also significant potential for behavioral and social science research. In my talk, I will describe EHR event logs as a novel source of data that captures individual clinician and clinical team behaviors and give examples of how such data can be applied to address policy- and practice-based questions related to EHR user interface design, clinician burnout, and clinical process outcomes.

The seminar will be presented via Zoom.

VCLIC and DGIM Seminar, November 2nd at 12:00 pm CT with Lisa Rotenstein, MD, MBA

For our November 2nd, 2022 talk, in coordination with VUMC Department of General Internal Medicine (DGIM), VCLIC is so excited to welcome Lisa Rotenstein, MD, MBA, Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School & Medical Director of Population Health, Brigham and Women's Hospital, who will speak about Using Data from the EHR to Understand Patterns & Quality of Ambulatory Care. This talk will shed light on how EHR audit log data can be used to understand multiple aspects of ambulatory care delivery, including differences in EHR use by different specialties and team members and how EHR use is related to quality of care. It will also shed light on strategies to optimize physicians' time on the EHR.

We will host Dr. Rotenstein via Zoom. 

VCLIC Seminar, October 19th, 2022 at 12:00 pm CT with Dara Mize, MD 

Please join us on October 19th at 12:00 pm CT for Dara Mize, MD's talk "Beyond Resiliency Training: Strategies to End Burnout." The dissonant relationship between clinicians and the EHR is well-documented. Personal, organizational, and external factors also influence clinician well-being and contribute to burnout. This session will review the current state of clinician burnout, describe drivers of clinician well-being and demonstrate opportunities for informaticists to respond to the burnout problem.

This seminar will be in person at 2525 West End in room 8110 (8th floor) and streamed via Zoom here.

Stump the Epic Experts!

We are hosting Epic software developers from the clinical informatics team on October 19th, 2022. They've agreed to join us for a "Stump the Epic Experts" session at 1pm, right after the DBMI seminar. If you have challenging questions for Epic, or even just want to learn more about Epic's software development processes and what it's like to work at Epic, join us for the session. You can submit a question before the session using this form (or by emailing elise.russo@vumc.org). 

Please sign up to attend the hybrid session (in person at 2525 West End in room 8110, or via Zoom) using the form below--we will send a calendar invite in about a week to hold the time! 

Join via Zoom here

InformaticCon 2022!

Please join us for VCLIC’s first InformaticCon. This special, two-hour event will include lunch, a sampling of short, dynamic talks, and a poster session to showcase clinical informatics work going on across VUMC! It will take place on Wednesday, September 28th, 2022, from 12:00-2:00 pm in the Vanderbilt University Student Life Center Board of Trust Room. The first hour, when the talks will occur, is during the standard DBMI seminar time (InformaticCon will be the DBMI seminar for Sept. 28th), and the poster session will follow. 

Please indicate your interest in attending via the form linked below—we will be serving lunch, so we’d like to get an accurate head count. All VUMC and VU faculty, staff, trainees, and students are welcome to participate and attend, and we hope to see you there on September 28th to kick off our academic year! 

VCLIC Seminar, March 30th, 2022 from 12:00-1:00 pm CT: Exploring the Wond'ry: The Biomedical Innovation Continuum at VU and VUMC

Charleson Bell, PhD and Deanna Meador, MA will be presenting virtually on the Biomedical Innovation Continuum at VU/VUMC and how that is facilitated at the Wond’ry. In its three story, 13,000-square foot space, located in the heart of campus in Nashville, Tennessee, the Wond’ry provides the tools and resources for students, faculty, staff, and community members to bring ideas to life. Learn about all the resources at the Wond'ry that are designed to support anyone from budding entrepreneurs to community change-makers.

Join us via Zoom. 

VCLIC Seminar, April 6th, 2022, from 12:00 pm-1:00 pm CT: Using artificial intelligence to improve mental health care

For our April VCLIC Seminar, we are thrilled to announce some "visitors" from across the pond. Valentin Tablan, PhD, of ieso health will give a talk on Using Artificial Intelligence to Improve Mental Health Care.

This talk will cover the use of artificial intelligence techniques, including natural language processing and deep learning, to the domain of mental health care. These include the generation of novel insights into how psychotherapy works, and the production of smart tools to monitor the quality of care delivered by a large therapists network. Another aspect covered will include research into the applicability of conversational agents (health bots) to increase the dose of therapy delivered to patients.

Join us via Zoom. 

VCLIC Seminar, March 2nd, 2022, from 12:00 pm-1:00 pm CT: Bringing Machine Learning Models to the Bedside

For our March 2nd seminar, we are excited to introduce the work of Karandeep Singh, MD, MMSc! Dr. Singh is an Assistant Professor of Learning Health Systems, Internal Medicine, Urology, and Information at the University of Michigan. 

In this talk, he'll discuss common implementation questions that arise in the process of integrating and using machine learning models as part of a clinical workflow, with a focus on models used as part of early warning systems. He'll share their approach to addressing each of these questions in their health system: Is there infrastructure to implement models? Should we implement a model? Once implemented, how do we measure model performance? Is a model “good enough” to use? Do users agree on how to use the model? Is the model effective when used? What does governance look like for machine learning models?

FHIR App Building Workshop: February 8th, 2022 from 1:00-4:00 pm

The second workshop in our pre-Innovation Challenge and Hackathon series will take place on February 8th, 2022 from 1:00-4:00 pm and will cover developing FHIR applications used the SMART on FHIR API. In this session, Tim Coffman and Simeon Hearring from VUMC HealthIT will provide a hands-on experience with FHIR App development. 

Please sign up for this workshop here: https://redcap.link/FHIRapps

For more information about the upcoming Innovation Challenge and Hackathon, please go here: https://www.vumc.org/vclic/innovation-challenge-and-hackathon

Email elise.russo@vumc.org with any questions.  

VCLIC Seminar, February 2nd, 2022, from 12:00 pm-1:00 pm CT: Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET) to Support Adoption of Digital Therapeutics in a Low Threshold Bridge Clinic – A Pragmatic Trial of Pear Therapeutics RESET-O application

VCLIC is thrilled to announce our February 2022 seminar topic and speakers: In this session, one of the VUMC addiction psychiatry faculty, Dr. David Marcovitz, will partner with Dr. Scott Schepers, the chief medical science liaison for Pear Therapeutics, to discuss the use of Pear’s innovative digital app “RESET-O” in the VUMC Bridge Clinic.  Dr. Schepers will discuss the infrastructure of the app and the evidence supporting its use for patients with opioid use disorder (OUD).  Dr. Marcovitz will provide background information about the VUMC Bridge Clinic and will discuss the development of this industry sponsored research trial in collaboration with Pear and the VUMC Learning Health System.

Join us via Zoom. 

App Design Workshop: January 18th, 2022 from 1:00-4:00 pm

Join us for the first workshop in our pre-Innovation Challenge and Hackathon series: App Design. This hands-on instructional session will be led by Tom Reese, PharmD, PhD, and Megan Salwei, PhD, and will cover using design principles in the development of applications, including defining user needs, iterative design, and evaluation. This interactive session will take place via Zoom and will demonstrate methods and tools used in developing applications while considering human factors and human-centered design approaches. 

We hope you can join us on Tuesday, January 18th, 2022 from 1:00-4:00 pm.

Please sign up for this workshop here: https://redcap.link/appdesignworkshop

For more information about the upcoming Innovation Challenge and Hackathon, please go here: https://www.vumc.org/vclic/innovation-challenge-and-hackathon

Email elise.russo@vumc.org with any questions.  

VCLIC Seminar, January 12th, 2022, Presented by John Torous, MD, MBI: Beyond Telehealth: Advances in Digital Mental Health Research and Practical Clinical Considerations for Smartphone Apps in Care 

VCLIC is excited to announce our January seminar speaker: John Torous, MD, MBI of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Dr. Torous will speak about his work in the digital psychiatric space: 

As use of telepsychiatry in mental health via video/phone visits soars, it is important to also consider how asynchronous telepsychiatry tools like smartphone apps can also advance care. This talk will focus on the evolving field of smartphone digital phenotyping and consider the potential of real time data capture via smartphones, methods necessary to analyze such data, and practical clinical applications of these tools. Looking at the evolving smartphone mental health ecosystem, the talk will also cover the APA app evaluation framework as a tool to help make more informed choices about any related smartphone app for use in research or patient care. 

Join us via Zoom. 

VCLIC Seminar, December 8th, 2021 12:00 pm: Does an age limit exist? Facilitators and challenges to incorporating technology into mental health treatment for older adults, presented by Natalie Benda, PhD, Weill Cornell Medicine

VCLIC is thrilled to have Nat Benda, PhD, present our December Seminar. Dr. Benda is a faculty member with the Division of Health Informatics in the Department of Population Health Sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr. Benda’s work utilizes human factors methods to improve the quality, safety, and equity of healthcare, with a special focus on consumer and clinical informatics technologies.

Current treatments for major depressive disorder are either less effective for older adults (i.e. pharmacotherapy) or are challenging to extend to community settings (i.e. psychotherapy). To improve and extend mental health treatment for older adults, our team designed Engage-M, a streamlined therapy that, in addition to talk therapy, incorporates patient-reported outcome questions (sent via SMS) and a smartwatch. In this talk, we will report on the results of a pilot study that assessed and improved the usability, usefulness, and acceptability of the technology package, and also describe interim results of subsequent clinical trials evaluating the impact of the intervention on mental health outcomes for older adults. We will conclude with a discussion of facilitators and challenges to incorporating technology (specifically mHealth and wearable devices) into mental health treatment for older adults.  

Please join us via Zoom on December 8th at 12:00 pm. 

VCLIC Seminar, November 17th, 2021 12:00 pm: Simple Steps for Safer EHRs, presented by Dean Sittig, PhD, SBMI, UTHSC-Houston

For our November seminar, we are excited to announce that Dean Sittig, PhD, Professor in the School of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston will present on "Simple Steps for Safer EHRs." Electronic Health Record (EHR) Safety is not an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort. This talk will present a 5-step approach to help health care organizations realize a safer EHR. These steps include: Identifying potential risks or actual events that could or did result in patient harm; Investigating the issue(s) that are identified; Fixing the underlying causes of the problems identified; Implementing proactive practices, processes, and procedures to prevent issues from occurring; and developing the tools and techniques to monitor real-time data streams to identify additional EHR-related issues before they harm patients. 

Please join us via Zoom on November 17th at 12:00 pm. 

Data Resources and Analytics: Intermediate Workshop on November 16, 2021 from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm

To expand on skills and topics covered in our Data Resources and Analytics: Basics workshop, Bryan Steitz, PhD, and Sanjay Mishra, PhD, will present a more advanced workshop, focusing on R and the R Shiny platforms. In order to participate, it is suggested that you have some basic experience with STATA, R, Python, and/or SQL.

This workshop focuses on using R for large scale data analysis and statistical computing. Through hands-on experience, participants will learn about data structures; important packages for analytics and visualization; and scaling analyses using the R Shiny platform. 

If you have questions, please email elise.russo@vumc.org or complete this REDCap form to sign up: https://redcap.link/intermediateanalysisworkshop 

VCLIC Seminar, October 27th, 2021 12:00 pm: Vanderbilt SafeCourse: Multidisciplinary Informatics to Prevent Suicide, presented by Colin Walsh, MD, MA

For our October seminar, we are thrilled to welcome Colin Walsh, MD, MA, Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Medicine, and Psychiatry at VUMC. Dr. Walsh and his team have several completed and ongoing projects that focus on topics related to optimizing mental healthcare delivery through informatics and using artificial intelligence approaches to predict suicide risk at point-of-care. For this seminar, Dr. Walsh will discuss Vanderbilt SafeCourse: Multidisciplinary Informatics to Prevent Suicide.

Please join us on October 27th from 12:00-1:00 pm central via Zoom. 

Data Resources and Analytics in Mental Health: Basics Workshop on October 5th, 2021 from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm

Please join Allison McCoy, PhD, and Bryan Steitz, PhD for our October workshop. In this workshop, participants will learn about available data sources at VUMC within Epic (SlicerDicer, Reporting Workbench, Clarity) and developed locally (Synthetic Derivative, Research Derivative) and gain hands-on experience in manipulating data. This workshop will cover similar concepts to the Disparities Data Lab workshop from February 2021 but will use mental health data and examples.

If you have questions, please email elise.russo@vumc.org or complete this REDCap form to sign up: https://redcap.link/MentalHealthDataBasics 

VCLIC Seminar September 22, 2021 at 12:00 pm: Innovative Care Delivery Models for Mental Health, Cheryl Cobb, MD 

For our second year, VCLIC is focusing our attention on Innovative Care Delivery Models for Mental Health. Mental illnesses are some of the most common health conditions in the United States, and “more than 50% of people will be diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder at some point in their lifetime” (cdc.gov). We hope to spend the year learning about how informatics can assist or support care delivery as it pertains to mental health services. 

For our kick-off, we are honored and excited to welcome VUMC’s own Cheryl Cobb, MD, who is the Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences as well as the Medical Director of Outpatient Services for Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Cobb will give an overview of mental health, including definitions, prevalence, burden on the system, etc., and will discuss the ways that technology impacts (including benefits and challenges) the provision of mental health care as well as some potential ideas for a way forward using technology and innovative care delivery methods to enhance this area.  

Please join us for this talk, which will take place during the DBMI Seminar time (12:00-1:00 pm on Wednesday, September 22nd, 2021) via Zoom.  

Intro to eStar: Workshop on September 14th, 2021 from 9:00 am-12:00 pm

VCLIC is back with our first workshop of this academic year! Please join us on Tuesday, September 14th, 2021 to learn about Epic! This workshop will be co-led by Allison McCoy, PhD and Aileen Wright, MD, MS. The first half of the course will focus on clinical workflows (led by Dr. Wright), and the second half will focus on CDS and build capabilities in Epic (and will be led by Dr. McCoy). Participants are welcome to join for either half of the session or the entire session, and we are determining the possibility for in-person attendance (you will be able to indicate all of these selections on the sign up form, linked below). We hope you can join us!

If you have questions, please email elise.russo@vumc.org or complete this REDCap form to sign up: https://redcap.link/introtoestar 

Discovery Lecture: “Next Steps in Health Care Transformation: The Moral Determinants of Health,” by Donald Berwick, MD, MPP. 

Tableau Workshop: April 7th, 2021 from 1:00-4:00 pm CT

Join us for our final workshop of the year on April 7th, 2021 from 1:00-4:00 pm CST where we will focus on data visualization using Tableau! In this workshop, given by Scott Nelson, PharmD, MS, and Joseph LeGrand, PharmD, MS, participants will learn what Tableau is, why they should use it, when they should use it, and how to use it, including connecting data sources, what visualizations work best with certain data types, and how to create various visualizations and dashboards from sample data. Workshop leaders will demonstrate various functionalities of Tableau, and participants will also be asked to follow along. We will provide details as the workshop gets closer on what resources you will need and how to get set up. 

If you have questions, please email elise.russo@vumc.org or complete this REDCap form to sign up: https://redcap.link/VCLICtableau

Techquity Design Challenge Final Presentations

The VCLIC Techquity Design Challenge is an 8 week program that invited teams of students, clinicians, faculty, and staff from different scientific disciplines and of various backgrounds to propose novel solutions to problems related to healthcare equity and technology. We welcomed a range of informatics, technical, and socio-behavioral approaches to solving these complex problems and have been repeatedly impressed by the passion and tenacity demonstrated by the participating groups, who are all striving to make VUMC a more equitable system and place. Teams worked with each other as well as with mentors from VCLIC to develop either a low-or high-fidelity prototype of their solution which will be recorded, judged, and then presented on April 7th at 12:00 pm.

Panel: How to kick-start your career in clinical informatics, March 10th, 2021 at 12:00 pm CST

Technology now touches almost everything we do in healthcare. The world of clinical informatics can be a new experience for many of us, with all the additional education requirements, new terms, and new ways of seeing the world all around us. However, once you have the training and desire needed to pursue a career in clinical informatics, how do you kick-start your career? This panel of experts will help to answer this question, and many more you may be having. How can I get my department to buy down my time to do more informatics work? How can I become more integrated with HealthIT at my organization? Where do I go now that I finished my training? How can I get connected to the data? Come join us and bring your questions for this interactive discussion with panelist from several different backgrounds and experiences. 

Moderator: 

• Scott Nelson, PharmD, MS, CPHIMS, FAMIA 

 Speakers:

• Lindsey Knake, MD 

• Dara Mize, MD, MS, FAMIA 

• Yaa Kumah-Crystal, MD, MPH, MS, FAMIA 

• Jake Lancaster, MD, MS 

• Claude Pirtle, MD, MS 

• Sharidan Parr, MD, MSCI, MS 

• Josh Peterson, MD, MPH 

The Zoom link for this talk is here. (DBMI Personnel, please note that this is the link for the Wednesday seminars on your calendar as sent by Rischelle). 

FHIR Application Building Workshop: March 10th, 2021 from 1:00-4:00 pm CST

The FHIR App Building Workshop will be a wonderful opportunity to get hands-on experience with FHIR App development! VCLIC and HealthIT will cohost a 3-hour workshop for those wishing to learn how to conceptualize, build/develop, test, and put into production a FHIR application that meets all standards and interfaces with Epic. Participants will build an app, which will involve a user interface for summarization and visualization. There will be an Epic App Orchard overview at the end of the session.

To sign up, please email elise.russo@vumc.org or complete this REDCap form: https://redcap.link/FHIRworkshop

In Conversation with Judy Faulkner: February 17th, 2021 at 12:00 pm CST

Judy Faulkner, CEO of Epic systems corporation will join VCLIC and DBMI for a presentation and conversation moderated by Dara Mize, MD. Judy will speak about Epic’s values and culture; available and upcoming resources for researchers, clinicians, and developers; the EHR vendor-customer relationship; and EHR policy. 

We are thrilled to host this talk and hope to "see" you there on February 17th at 12:00 pm CST. 

The Zoom link for this talk is here. (DBMI Personnel, please note that this is the link for the Wednesday seminars on your calendar as sent by Rischelle). 

Disparities Data Lab: February 9th, 2021 from1:00-3:00 pm CST

Allison McCoy, PhD and Bryan Steitz, PhD will offer an interactive, hands-on session for anyone interested in learning about available data sources at VUMC within Epic (e.g., SlicerDicer, Reporting Workbench, Clarity) and developed locally (e.g., Synthetic Derivative and Research Derivative). Participants will receive de-identified data sets from these sources and will gain hands-on experience in manipulating the data sets in programs such as Microsoft Excel and Tableau to answer questions about health disparities, patient portals, and telemedicine. 

Please email elise.russo@vumc.org with any questions.

"Patient and Clinician Perspectives on Open Notes: How Note Transparency Can Forge Better Care and Stronger Relationships,” January 27th at 12:00 pm Central  

OpenNotes aims to strengthen patient-clinician relationships through more transparent communication. In this presentation Liz Salmi and Sigall Bell, MD, will share their experiences; first from the perspective of a patient who reads their notes and then from a physician researching the impact of open notes over the last decade. 

Based at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, OpenNotes is not a product or software, but a non-profit academic research and advocacy group studying the effects of sharing visit notes with patients and families on patient engagement, safety, and quality of care. 

Please join us on January 27th at 12:00 pm Central by using this Zoom link. (DBMI Faculty please note that this is the link for the Wednesday seminars on your calendar as sent by Rischelle—this talk will be the DBMI seminar for Wednesday the 27th of January). 

VCLIC November Seminar: 

Best practices for effective mHealth: how to reach, engage and improve outcomes in underrepresented groups

On Tuesday, November 10th at 1:00 pm, we are honored and excited to have Lindsay Mayberry, MS, PhD and Lyndsay Nelson, PhD present their phenomenal work on using text messages to engage patients, especially those who are underserved.

Please register for the webinar here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_oemT9vD_QHOd0dwTtFFCPw 

VCLIC Special Seminar: 

How design thinking can put theory into practice

On Tuesday, November 3rd, 2020 at 1:00 pm, we are thrilled to have Thomas Reese, PharmD, PhD, a researcher in the School of Medicine at the University of Utah and ambulatory care pharmacist in a clinic for underserved patients, present on designing information displays for critical care. 

Please register for Dr. Reese's talk here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_yNx1MtyLRNmWdVkzoH9s4g

Bio: Thomas Reese, PharmD, PhD is a researcher in the School of Medicine at the University of Utah and an ambulatory care pharmacist in a clinic for underserved patients. He serves on the Editorial Board for the Journal of American Medical Informatics Association. Broadly, Dr. Reese is interested in improving healthcare decisions through health IT and evidence-based interventions. While Dr. Reese’s research training was focused on the human-computer interaction, he has experience with interoperable clinical decision support and health services research.

VCLIC October Seminar: 

Telehealth: A Virtual Background (get it?!)

In conjunction with the DBMI Colloquium series, VCLIC is excited to have DBMI Faculty and VCLIC Member Yaa Kumah-Crystal, MD, MPH, MS present on her work related to increasing telehealth access and use for VUMC providers and patients. She will be joined by Trent Rosenbloom, MD, MPH, fellow DBMI Faculty member and one of this year's VCLIC Theme Champions!

The lecture will take place on Thursday, October 22nd, 2020 at 12:00 pm central time (during the "usual" DBMI colloquium bloc). 

Zoom link (no registration required): https://vanderbilt.zoom.us/j/95141172180?pwd=MkdGb1FqTk9JdWFGcDZLeWFDQkIxZz09

*Please note that this is the link the department has set up and sent out previously, so if you already have the invitation from Rischelle on your calendar, you are all set!

VCLIC Keynote and 2020-2021 Focus Area Kickoff Seminar 

In partnership with the Department of Biomedical Informatics Retreat Week, the Vanderbilt Clinical Informatics Center held our first event:

Making Health Care More Equitable through Technology

A Seminar given by VUMC's own Consuelo Wilkins, MD, MSCI 

Friday, September 18th, 2:00-3:00 pm