Announcements
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.
Yong Chen, PhD, FASA, FAMIA, Professor of Biostatistics, and the Founding Director of the Computer, Inference, and Learning Lab at the University of Pennsylvania (PENNCIL) and the Center for Health Analytics and Synthesis of Evidence (CHASE) will be inducted, along with twenty-two other new Fellows, into the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) on November 12 at a ceremonial dinner during the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) 2023 Annual Symposium. New Fellows are elected annually to the College by the 473-member body of Fellows.
According to the ACMI biography on Dr. Chen: “Dr. Yong Chen has made profound contributions to biomedical sciences and public health, pioneering research in clinical evidence generation, evidence synthesis, data integration, and federated learning for multi-institutional collaborations.His exceptional quantitative skills, engineering expertise, and outstanding leadership exemplify all we hope for in an ACMI Fellow.”
“This year we welcome a large and diverse cohort of highly acclaimed ACMI Fellows to the College," said ACMI President Kevin B. Johnson, MD, MS, FACMI, FAMIA, FIAHSI, David L. Cohen University Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Computer and Information Science, Pediatrics, and Science Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. "The FACMI designation is one of distinction and pride. They represent excellence from academia, government and industry and are the best and brightest stars in our field demonstrating thought leadership, stellar experience and established scholarship. Together their important contributions to biomedicine and healthcare inform, educate and inspire the informatics community to improve human health."
Russell "Taki" Shinohara, PhD was selected as the 2023 Mortimer Spiegelman Award recipient by the Applied Public Health Statistics Section of the American Public Health Association (APHA). Each year, the APHA presents the award to honor a statistician under the age of 40 who has made outstanding contributions to health statistics, especially public health statistics. Dr. Shinohara was selected from a robust pool of nominees representing the diversity and talent of the biostatistics field nationally and internationally. The award recognizes his important contributions to biostatistics and imaging, as well as his proven track record of leadership and mentorship. In addition to being a Professor of Biostatistics in the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics at the Perelman School of Medicine, Dr. Shinohara is also the founder and director of the Penn Statistics in Imaging and Visualization Endeavor (PennSIVE) center.
Professor of Biostatistics, Wensheng Guo, PhD, has been named a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS). Dr. Guo received the award for his contributions to statistical theory and methodology in the analysis of high dimensional correlated data such as those occurring in longitudinal studies, funtional modeling, and time series. The designation of IMS Fellow has been a significant honor for over 85 years. Each Fellow is assessed by a committee of their peers and has demonstrated distincition in research or leadership that has profoundly influenced the field. Read the complete list of 2023 IMS Fellows.
Earlier this year, John Farrar, MD, PhD and Enrique Schisterman, PhD were named to National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine ad-hoc committees.
Farrar serves on “Evaluating the Effects of Opioids and Benzodiazepines on All-Cause Mortality in Veterans." Due to the effects of active duty and combat-related injuries, among other potential predisposing factors, the Veterans Administration population has higher rates of chronic pain, traumatic brain injury, posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, substance use disorder, and accompanying mental health problems than civilians. Those often co-occurring conditions increase the risk for suicidal ideation and suicide. Veterans may be prescribed opioids (for pain) and benzodiazepines (for anxiety or insomnia). The committee will conduct a study to evaluate the effects of opioids and benzodiazepines on all-cause mortality of veterans, including suicide.
Schisterman serves on “Developing a Framework to Address Legal, Ethical, Regulatory, and Policy Issues for Research Specific to Pregnant and Lactating Persons." Approximately 4 million pregnant people in the United States give birth annually, and 70 percent of these individuals take at least one prescription medication during their pregnancy. Yet, pregnant and lactating persons are often excluded from clinical trials, and often have to make treatment decisions without an adequate understanding of the benefits and risks to themselves and their developing fetus or newborn baby. The committee will develop a framework for addressing medicolegal and liability issues when planning or conducting research specific to pregnant and lactating persons.
In April 2023, the American Statistical Association (ASA) bestowed its prestigious distinction of Fellow on Phyllis Gimotty, PhD, Alisa Stephens-Shields, PhD, and 45 other ASA members for their professional contributions, leadership, and commitment to the field of statistical science. View the list of 2023 ASA Fellows.
Vincent Lo Re III, MD, MSCE, has two new and one pending appointment to national efforts. Dr. Lo Re is Co-Chair of the Infectious Diseases Society of America Hepatitis C Guidance Panel, Scientific Co-Chair of the 2023 American Conference for the Treatment of HIV, and will soon become Chair of the FDA’s Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee.
Knashawn Morales, ScD, and Wei-Ting Hwang, PhD, have been named as new Fellows of the American Statistical Association. The world’s largest community of statisticians, the ASA is known as the “Big Tent for Statistics.” Read more about Dr. Morales. Read more about Dr. Hwang.
US News & World Report has issued its first-ever ranking of doctoral programs in biostatistics — and the one taught by our faculty is #6, up from #12! “A field where career opportunities are expected to grow.” See those rankings here.
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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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