In my time here, Regenstrief Institute continues to bring a wide spectrum of leadership, content, innovation and talent to the annual AMIA conference, but also to AMIA as an organization and to the global IT community. Considered by many to be the premier biomedical and health informatics organization in the world, AMIA – the American Medical Informatics Association – provides a place where informatics professionals, researchers and leaders can meet, explore and collaborate to solve some of the most pressing issues facing health and biomedicine.
At the most recent AMIA annual symposium earlier this month in San Francisco, our Regenstrief team again brought its “A-Game.”
Organizational Leadership: Of the officers on the board of directors, Regenstrief investigators occupy three of the four positions. That’s astounding, and a tribute, in large measure, to the quality of the researchers and staff who form the Regenstrief family. As proud as I am to serve as chair of AMIA’s board of directors, I’m even more proud to have as my co-leaders such accomplished colleagues as Titus Schleyer, who serves as AMIA Treasurer, and Theresa Cullen, who serves as AMIA Secretary.
Scientific Leadership: Beyond our role as leaders of the organization, our team has continued to present some of the most groundbreaking work at the symposium. In fact, more than two dozen Regenstrief and partner researchers presented at the symposium. Partners included Indiana University School of Medicine and Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at IUPUI. This representation is a testament to the amazing work of our numerous investigators from across the Institute and the great leadership by Shaun Grannis and his team in CBMI.
Among the significant topics for oral presentations were the identification, management and mortality prediction information needs and requirements for clinical decision support in primary care, HIV case-based surveillance in Africa using medical and health records from OpenMRS and OpenHIE and an assessment of genetic mutations associated with histopathology changes in kidney cancer. Regenstrief researchers also participated in several panels, including sessions on lessons learned from using informatics to address the social determinants of health, challenges and solutions to patient record matching and the employment of implementation science for global health informatics projects. For a full list of Regenstrief investigators and staff who participated, please visit https://www.regenstrief.org/article/ri-researchers-at-amia-2018/.
Innovation: Uppstromstm, an app created by the team from Regenstrief and IU Fairbanks School of Public Health, won first place in the AMIA Pitch IT competition. The app uses social determinants of health to identify patients in need of wraparound services. The team was led by Regenstrief scientist and IU Fairbanks School of Public Health’s Center for Health Policy Director Josh Vest, Ph.D. and included CBMI Director Shaun Grannis, M.D. and new research scientist Suranga Kasthurirathne, Ph.D., from Regenstrief; Nir Menachemi, Ph.D. from Regenstrief who also is professor and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management, IU Fairbanks School of Public Health; and Paul Halverson, DrPH, the founding dean of IU Fairbanks.
This is the second year in a row that a Regenstrief-associated project won the competition, and we couldn’t be prouder.
Regenstrief investigator Titus Schleyer, D.M.D., Ph.D., conceived of and led a FHIR® application showcase. AMIA and Health Level-7 International partnered for the fast-paced presentations, showing cutting-edge apps in practice. Presentations included MITRE Corporation’s Pain Management Summary: A SMART on FHIR Dashboard for Managing Pain and Emory University’s DeepAISE on FHIR — an Interoperable Real-Time Predictive Analytic Platform for Early Prediction of Sepsis.
Talent: Beyond the annual symposium and board participation, Regenstrief is a true collaborator with AMIA year round. The institute is an AMIA industry sponsor, providing crucial support for the continuation of AMIA’s leading edge work.
Also, Regenstrief is an AMIA Academic Forum member. We and other communities provide a framework for education, research, training, administration and practice, and enable access to strategic information, gatherings and opportunities with online collaborative groups to advance knowledge, best practices, policy and networking.
Suffice it to say, I’m very proud of Regenstrief and its relationship with AMIA, providing outstanding intellectual talent and expertise to develop, connect, educate and disseminate innovation in informatics to support improving human health around the globe.
And, of course, AMIA is just one of the many professional societies in which our talented Regenstrief investigators participate. In future issues, I look forward to highlighting similar great accomplishments and service by our investigators across the range of Centers and programs at our great Institute!
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