Highlighted Activity Archive
PeRC Releases Tool for Searching and Viewing Clinical Research Studies
PeRC Releases Tool for Searching and Viewing Clinical Research Studies :
View descriptions and recruiting information for clinical research studies that are actively utilizing the practice-based research network.
CBMi Hosts Second Annual Healthcare Informatics Symposium
CBMi Hosts Second Annual Healthcare Informatics Symposium:
The Second Annual Healthcare Informatics Symposium was held at The Union League of Philadelphia on April 24, 2009. Events of the day included keynote presentations by Don Detmer, President of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) and John Halamka, CIO of Harvard Medical School, as well as presentations from other healthcare informatics experts.
Analysis of Gene Expression Microarray Data Reveals Indicators of Flu Severity
Analysis of Gene Expression Microarray Data Reveals Indicators of Flu Severity:
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia researchers, with help from the Research Institute's Bioinformatics Core, have analyzed gene expression microarray data to reveal potential contributors to the development of secondary infections.
Informatics-based Research Studies Sudden Cardiac Death in Children
In July 2005, an investigative team of investigators from Children Hospital's Center for Biomedical Informatics and the Youth Heart Watch program embarked upon a project to study the clinical genomics of pediatric cardiology. Initially funded by a 4-year, $1.3 million grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts, this project's overall objective is to enhance patient care and more accurately characterize risk profiles for children at risk for sudden cardiac death (SCD), and for patients with cardiac defects resulting from 22q11 chromosomal deletions. Investigators are conducting this research through the electronic integration of genetic information with clinical disease descriptions. Project components include:
- A knowledgebase incorporating Hospital- and externally-derived information regarding SCD and 22q11 chromosomal deletions that is generally extensible to additional biomedical problems
- Rational electronic interfaces suitable for any point-of-contact encounter for browsing and querying this information
- Methodologies to codify discrete data types into controlled syntax and vocabulary sets and to represent knowledge of the genomic and clinical information
- An educational structure to allow clinicians and researchers to utilize and expand upon the knowledgebase system, its components and its content
Our ongoing cardiology translational research is currently focusing upon long-QT syndrome (LQTS). The team has constructed a clinical cardiology data warehouse from a wide range of data sources and populated it with more than 2,000 patients who have either a diagnosis of LQTS or symptoms indicating a related disorder. Data includes genetic profiles, molecular information about LQTS-causative genes, and clinical data for each patient. The team is currently mining this data to derive new information about LQTS and to expand efforts into related cardiac disorders. Ongoing work includes natural language extraction of phenotypes from specialist letters and the generation of a machine-learning classifier to determine the likelihood that a patient has LQTS. In addition, the team has identified and documented clinical processes for LQTS diagnosis and treatment used at the Hospital. The researchers expect to be able to optimize the current decision-making process to provide better clinical services to patients.
Hospital Electronic Health Record is Improving and Monitoring Immunization Rates
Primary care practices are increasingly challenged with the task of providing high-quality healthcare to a greater number of patients while using ever-improving standards of care. Proactive informatics-based solutions can optimize the time spent with each patient to ensure that preventative procedures are provided for age groups as specified.
One excellent example of the ability of informatics to affect clinical improvements is the development of automated vaccination prompts to practicing physicians using the electronic health record (EHR) employed at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and its entire healthcare network.
During each visit, the EHR decision support software employed at the Hospital's primary care practices reviews the patient's immunization record and compares it to prescribed standards. Immunizations that are due are actively highlighted on the screens presented to the physician before and during the visit. The physician acknowledges the prompt, provides the vaccine, and updates the electronic record for the patient, thus updating the prompting mechanism.
A 2007 study headed by Alex Fiks, MD, compared vaccination levels before and after implementation of the prompt at the Hospital's four urban primary care practices for over 3,000 patients and over 35,000 individual visits. The results showed:
- Vaccination rates at well visits increased by approximately 12 percent due to the prompt.
- Vaccination rates at sick visits increased by approximately 20 percent due to the prompt.
- Children were considered up-to-date on their immunizations earlier with the prompt than in the absence of the prompt.
Read more about this study in the journal, Pediatrics.
Software Tool Improves Molecular Diagnostics of Childhood Diseases
High-resolution single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based oligonucleotide arrays allow an unprecedented survey of the human genome. In collaboration with Tamim Shaikh, PhD, Eric Rappaport, PhD, and the Center for Applied Genomics, the Bioinformatics Core has developed a set of tools to interrogate the SNP genotyping data for chromosomal copy number variations (CNVs). Such variations may be associated with disease and could be used for diagnostic and other clinical utilities.
This set of tools, called "CHOPPY," enables genome-wide scans with high accuracy and sensitivity for CNVs as small as a few kilobases. Once identified, CNVs are compared to a comprehensive database of previously identified CNVs found in either healthy individuals or patients suffering from any one of a number of pediatric diseases. Further, genomic annotations of the CNV regions are available through direct integration with the University of California Santa Cruz Genome Browser, ensuring the most current interpretation of results.
CHOPPY can be used for a number of activities, including identification of candidate regions or genes that are associated with any genetic or complex diseases, diagnosis of genetic diseases, and confirmation of diagnose for diseases where traditional methods yield less than definitive results.
A publication on CHOPPY is pending.
Resourceful Collaboration Tool For Researchers to be Released
The Center for Biomedical Informatics (CBMi) and Research Information Systems (Research IS) will be releasing a Stokes-administered wiki collaboration tool called 'Share' throughout the month of April. The tool enables highly interactive exchange of information and data for the Stokes community's research and business programs.
Principal Investigators, Directors, or other departmental heads are welcome to request workspace on the tool for their groups by emailing shareadmin@chop.edu. Individual users can request an account through that same email.
Look for announcements and more information throughout the month of April, and a presentation at the PI Town Hall meeting on April 28.
For an overview of how Share works, please Click Here to see the Share research poster
Healthcare Informatics Symposium 2008
The first Greater Philadelphia Healthcare Informatics Symposium was sponsored by the Center for Biomedical Informatics (CBMi) of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in April of 2008. The focus of the symposium was "Advancing Health Through Informatics," with emphasis on gaining a better understanding of informatics as it enhances health through research, translational and clinical informatics, and education. While facilitating networking among healthcare professionals with a common interest in informatics, the symposium also provided a continuing opportunity for sharing information and resources in the greater Philadelphia region.
Agenda (pdf version of program)
| 8:00-9:00 a.m. | Registration |
| 9:00-10:00 a.m. | Introductions and Keynote Presentation |
| 10:00-11:30 a.m. | Brief Overview of the Agenda and Breakout Sessions |
| 11:30-12:00 p.m. | Break |
| 12:00-1:15 p.m. | Breakout Session I (with lunch *) Click here for details on the breakout sessions |
| 1:15-1:45 p.m. | Break |
| 1:45-3:00 p.m. | Breakout Session II (with dessert) |
| 3:00-3:15 p.m. | Wrap-up and Announcements |
| 3:15-3:45 p.m. | Poster Session and Awards |
| 3:45-4:15 p.m. | Optional Town Hall Meeting |
Click here to see additional sponsors that helped make the Greater Philadelphia Healthcare Informatics Symposium possible
Assessment
The symposium was a great success, with more than 135 participants in attendance, representing more than 38 different institutions (click here to see a list of participating institutions) The symposium also featured a poster session in which presenters had the opportunity to showcase their research and work relating to healthcare informatics. There were a total of twenty-two presenters with prizes going to two of the presenters whose work exemplified exceptional research related to healthcare informatics.
Click here to see the attendees evaluation of the Symposium
AHRQ Asthma Study Contract Awarded to CBMi Faculty and Staff
Members of the Pediatric Research Consortium (PeRC), Center for Biomedical Informatics and Center for Pediatric Clinical Effectiveness were awarded their first contract as a National Practice Based Research Network (PBRN) Master Contractor, an exclusive status granted to PeRC and nine other PBRNs by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in 2007.
This retrospective study aims to "determine whether specific outpatient asthma care processes are associated with reductions in asthma hospitalization in children with asthma managed in the primary care setting."
The study will analyze the EpicCare electronic health records over a 5-year period for patients who were diagnosed with asthma and cared for at one or more of six Children's Hospital outpatient facilities, including the four primary care centers, the faculty practice and Kids First Roxborough.
The study is comprehensive in its view of asthma care practices. For instance, the study associates hospitalization with physician usage of electronic health record-mediated tools such as the Hospital's asthma control tool and captures participation in nonclinical programs like the Community Asthma Prevention Program.
Robert Grundmeier M.D., F.A.A.P., director of Clinical Informatics within CBMi and faculty director of the Clinical Reporting Unit core facility, serves as principal investigator on the $200,000, 18-month contract. Other key personnel include Louis Bell, M.D., medical director of PeRC; Marguerite Swietlik, M.S.N., C.R.N.P., PeRC network director; Ron Keren M.D., director of Center for Pediatric Clinical Effectiveness; and Joseph Zorc. M.D., attending physician in Emergency Medicine and CBMi faculty member.