Department of Biomedical Informatics

March 15, 2021

Artificial intelligence calculates suicide attempt risk at VUMC

A machine learning algorithm that predicts suicide attempt recently underwent a prospective trial at the institution where it was developed, Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

By Paul Govern
February 25, 2021

Epic founder Faulkner highlights DBMI online seminar

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 recently at the Department of Biomedical Informatics weekly online seminar.

By Paul Govern
February 11, 2021

Grant supports speedy sorting of health records by phenotype

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

By Paul Govern
February 11, 2021

Ancker named vice chair for Educational Affairs in the Department of Biomedical Informatics

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.

By Mia Garchitorena-Scancarelli
January 7, 2021

Building a cohort, the easy way

An automated system using keyword searches can help identify candidates for clinical trials on adverse drug reactions.

By Paul Govern
December 17, 2020

COVID-associated delays for elective services studied

This spring in the U.S., there were widespread delays in elective health care procedures and screenings. Hospitals, in observance of federal guidelines, were, for a time, conserving beds and protective equipment in preparation for a surge in COVID-19 admissions. And, perhaps on a more prolonged basis, patients in many areas of the country stayed away due to anxiety over catching COVID-19 from other patients or their health care team.

By Paul Govern
December 10, 2020

Model students: improving clinical decision-making

Vanderbilt investigators have devised a system to alert health IT teams to deteriorating performance in clinical prediction models.
By Paul Govern
December 3, 2020

Team tracks sources of false positives in urine drug screens

False positives on urine drug screens are common and are frequently due to cross-reactivity of these tests to medications. Last year, Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers Jacob Hughey, PhD, assistant professor of Biomedical Informatics, and Jennifer Colby, PhD, at that time assistant professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, devised, tested and published a method to systematically identify medications that interfere with screenings for drugs of abuse.
By Paul Govern
November 4, 2020

Study tracks physician use of electronic health records

According to a new large-scale descriptive study in the journal Pediatrics, for each outpatient encounter, pediatricians on average spend 16 minutes using the electronic health record (EHR).
By Paul Govern
October 29, 2020

New tool rapidly identifies health records for studies

Electronic health records (EHR) are increasingly a resource for biomedical discovery, and automated searches for records that reflect a phenotype of interest, typically a disease, are a common starting point.
By Paul Govern
September 21, 2020

Throwing weight around on the internet

What users mention in online weight loss forum tracks with how much weight they lose.
By Paul Govern
September 17, 2020

Stead to step down from Chief Strategy Officer role after decades of remarkable contributions

Visionary — someone who thinks about the future or advancements in a creative and imaginative way, a person who is ahead of her or his time and who has a powerful plan for change in the future. Such a person is William “Bill” Stead, MD, Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Chief Strategy Officer, McKesson Foundation Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Professor of Medicine.
By John Howser
August 27, 2020

Study uses AI to sort patient messages by complexity

Taking an interest in electronic message threads between surgical patients and their health care teams, a research group at Vanderbilt University Medical Center has tested how well certain commonly used machine learning algorithms can classify such exchanges according to their clinical decision-making complexity.
By Paul Govern