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.

Vanderbilt’s Master of Science in Applied Clinical Informatics program (MSACI) is now accepting applications for Fall 2021.

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

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.

Vanderbilt investigators have devised a system to alert health IT teams to deteriorating performance in clinical prediction models.

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.

Improvements to the web-based My Health at Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt Health’s online patient portal, have made it easier for health care teams — including patients and their designated health agents — to add and access an End of Life Care Plan to guide medical decision making.