The DBEI distinctively brings together expertise in biostatistics, epidemiology and informatics, to advance population-health science.
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The 6th Annual DBEI Research Day
February 27, 2024 (8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.)
Biomedical Research Building, Glen Gaulton AuditoriumRegistration for the 6th Annual DBEI Research Day is open. Researchers from the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics (DBEI) will convene on February 27, 2024 to showcase and share the impact of their research with the greater Penn community. Comprised of a keynote lecture, research and faculty spotlight presentations, a poster competition, and networking, this engaging event is an excellent opportunity to learn more about how the DBEI is leading the way in the biomedical and population health data sciences, and to foster connections and future collaborations across the Perelman School of Medicine and the University. Space is limited, so register to secure a spot.
Announcements
Kevin B. Johnson, MD, MS was awarded the NIH Director's Pioneer Award under the "High-Risk, High-Reward Research" program funded by the National Institutes of Health Common Fund. Established in 2004, the NIH Director's Pioneer Award challenges investigators at all career levels to pursue new research directions and develop groundbreaking, high-impact approaches to a broad area of biomedical, behavioral, or social science.
Dr. Johnson is the David L. Cohen University Professor of Pediatrics and a Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor who holds appointments in the Department of Computer and Information Science in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics in the Perelman School of Medicine. He is widely known for his work with e-prescribing and computer-based documentation and, more recently, work communicating science to lay audiences, which includes a documentary about health-information exchange. He has authored more than 200 publications and was elected to the American College of Medical Informatics, Academic Pediatric Society, National Academy of Medicine, International Association of Health Science Informatics, and American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
Dr. Johnson will apply the NIH grant to a research project titled Helping Doctors Doctor: Using AI to Automate Documentation and "De-Autonomate" Health Care.
Learn more about this award and Dr. Johnson's work on Penn Today.
A new research initiative – the Center for AI-Driven Translational Informatics (CATI) – supported by the Penn Institute for Biomedical Informatics (IBI), the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics (DBEI), and the Penn Institute for Immunology and Immune Health (I3H) will be led by Dokyoon Kim, PhD, Associate Professor of Informatics.
The mission of the newly launched center is to bridge the “bench-to-bedside” gap between theoretical frameworks and proof-of-concept methodologies to widespread clinical applications. To achieve this, the CATI plans to focus on demonstrating the reliability and safety of artificial intelligence (AI) methods within the medical sphere. As the role of AI continues to evolve and expand, AI-based recommendations within the field of medicine cannot realize their full potential unless they are accepted and trusted by healthcare providers and patients alike – this means that researchers developing algorithms must also invest in building transparency and accountability around their research.
That’s where the new center aims to make an impact. Dr. Kim and the CATI team envision the development of additional resources and infrastructure for translational research via this initiative as a powerful catalyst for individual labs and interdisciplinary collaborations at the University of Pennsylvania and beyond. Read the full story on the DBEI's LinkedIn.
In the News
September 2023
Joel Gelfand, MD, the James J. Leyden, M.D. Endowed Professor in Clinical Investigation of Dermatology and Epidemiology, and colleagues at Penn found that adults and children with atopic dermatitis (AD) are more likely to develop inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) than their peers. In a new study published in the journal JAMA Dermatology, Dr. Gelfand and his team compared data from more than 409,000 children and 625,000 adults with atopic dermatitis and compared them to more than 1.8 million children and almost 2.7 million adults without the disease. Upon analysis, the scientists reported a “statistically significant” increased risk of incident or new-onset IBD among 44% of children and 34% of adults with atopic dermatitis, compared to the control groups.
"Less work has been done with atopic dermatitis, which is a very common skin disorder, and IBD. Both atopic dermatitis and IBD are diseases with barrier dysfunction, microbiome alterations, and chronic inflammation suggesting commonalities between the two diseases,” said Dr. Gelfand in a recent interview with Medical News Today. According to Dr. Gelfand, these findings are important for better understanding the health trajectories of people with atopic dermatitis.
February 2023
Elizabeth Nesoff, PhD, MPH discusses her recently published study in the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI) blog investigating neighborhood features that were correlated with fatal opioid overdoses among the homeless population in New York City. Dr. Nesoff uses these discoveries to make important policy recommendations with respect to targeted outreach and other interventions.
February 2023
Jeffrey Morris, PhD and Jeffrey Gerber, MD, PhD, MSCE collaborated with researchers to examine measles serostatus among pregnant persons about to give birth and whether rubella serostatus, which is routinely assessed during pregnancy, can serve as a proxy for measles serostatus.
About Us
To understand health and disease today, we need new thinking and novel science —the kind we create when multiple disciplines work together from the ground up. That is why this department has put forward a bold vision in population-health science: a single academic home for biostatistics, epidemiology and informatics.
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