Neal Patel, M.D., MPH, professor of Clinical Pediatrics and chief medical information officer for inpatient services at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, is the first-place recipient of the 2013 Healthcare Informatics/AMDIS IT Innovation Advocate Award, recognizing leaders who have helped move the health care industry forward through their innovations.

Surgical pathologists are often asked to evaluate tissue samples mid-procedure. These intraoperative consultations entail rapid processing and microscopic evaluation to distinguish diseased tissue from healthy tissue, thus helping guide the surgeon’s hands.

As the United States grapples with a combination of unsustainable growth in health care costs and comparatively lackluster overall population health, Vanderbilt and other leading employers in the region are seeking to improve the value of health care services for their health plan beneficiaries.

Tucked in a data center in the basement of Vanderbilt University Hospital, a new computer the size of a large armoire, called a data warehouse appliance, is delivering a new order of speed to Vanderbilt clinical scientists as they search, filter, analyze and annotate the de-identified medical records of approximately 2 million patients.