Department of Biomedical Informatics Archive

August 15, 2019

REDCap data management tool reaches million user mark

Fifteen years after it was launched, REDCap, Vanderbilt University’s research data management tool, has reached 1 million users throughout the world.

August 14, 2019

All of Us Research Program Takes Aim at Precision Population Health

Scarcely a year after its national launch, the “All of Us” research program, which aims to accelerate the prevention and treatment of disease, has enrolled more than 230,000 research participants — more than a fifth of its recruitment goal of 1 million people.
All

June 20, 2019

VUMC forms new Center for Improving the Public’s Health Using Informatics (CIPHI)

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is forming a new Center for Improving the Public’s Health Using Informatics (CIPHI, pronounced “Sci Fi”) to be co-directed by Michael Matheny, MD, MS, MPH, and Melissa McPheeters, PhD, MPH.

February 21, 2019

Skin diseases study uses crowdsourcing to gather data

In 1906, English statistician Francis Galton happened to visit a livestock fair where fairgoers were invited to guess the dressed weight of an ox scheduled for imminent slaughter. Some 800 attendees took part and afterwards Galton got hold of the contest data.

Lisa Bastarache, MS, Josh Denny, MD, MS, and colleagues are helping researchers study associations among de-identified genotype data and electronic health records data. (photo by John Russell)
February 7, 2019

PheWAS Core helps researchers make sense of electronic health record data

Some biomedical researchers may be unsure about routine electronic health record (EHR) data and how useful it ultimately may prove for drawing meaningful, actionable associations that warrant changes to clinical practice and lead to improved clinical outcomes.

January 17, 2019

Study tracks repercussions from reduced pre-op testing

When clinical teams at Vanderbilt University Medical Center dramatically reduced several types of preoperative testing for elective surgery patients, there were no repercussions for these patients in terms of case cancellation rates, average length of stay in the hospital or rates of readmission to VUMC.