Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2011
Mentor: Ruben Amarasingham, MD, MBA, Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine, UTSW
Department: Internal Medicine
Room number: Center for Clinical Innovation at Parkland, Support Services Building B, G106
Mail Code: 8302
Phone number: 214-590-6724
E-mail: ruben.amarasingham@phhs.org
Project title: Parkland Information Exchange Portal Project
Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): N/A
Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): N/A
Project Type (patient-based research, animal-based research, or basic research; this characterization is only to permit a general classification for grouping similar types of projects)
Patient-based research
Brief Description of Project:
The Center for Clinical Innovation at Parkland was recently awarded a $1 million grant from the W.W. Caruth, Jr. Foundation to design the Parkland Information Exchange Portal (IEP). The IEP project aims to design a web-based information exchange to enable real-time communication between Parkland Hospital and social sector organizations in Dallas to facilitate care coordination across sectors and ultimately, to reduce readmissions and avoidable hospitalizations for patients with diabetes and heart failure. The IEP will facilitate exchange of critical health and case management information at the point of care, such as when the patient is being discharged from the hospital or when a social service agency evaluates a patient for the first time. The IEP will also lay the groundwork for an innovative system of care delivery by allowing health & social interventions to occur away from traditional care settings; creating a longitudinal perspective of care via referral tracking; and increasing access to a broad array of services to improve individual well-being and community health.
To achieve this effort, we are conducting surveys to assess unmet clinical needs among clients at social sector organizations and to assess unmet social needs among patients at Parkland. These surveys will gather valuable information about barriers to accessing healthcare and social services as well as utilization patterns across healthcare and social sector services. The survey findings will contribute directly to the design of the IEP as well as to the identification of appropriate process and outcomes measures to evaluate success of the IEP. The student would be actively involved in administering the surveys, analyzing survey results, and developing a final report of survey findings. In preparation for the surveys, the student would conduct literature review about the interaction between social and clinical outcomes as well as perform analysis of aggregate community data to characterize the clinical and social profile of the Dallas community. Students would engage in further community-based participatory research through design meetings with leadership of social sector organizations. Examples of potential partner social sector organizations include Catholic Charities and The Salvation Army.
We fully expect students who participate in this project to publish their findings in the health services research and informatics peer-reviewed literature.
As this project has a very broad scope, the student will also have the opportunity to engage in other aspects including technical design of the information exchange, financial models, and legal issues regarding privacy and confidentiality of protected health information. As a result of an internship with the Parkland IEP Project, the student will be exposed to high level work in public health informatics, health services research, and community-based participatory research.
Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:
Students, Internal Medicine Housestaff, Clinical Fellows, and Junior Faculty have completed or are working on projects in our Center. A list is included below:
Medical Students
1. Andy Tyan, “Literature Review on Information Technologies and Disparities”, Summer 2007
2. Saurin Patel, “Literature Review on Information Technologies and Disparities”, Summer 2007
3. Anson Tang, “Comparison of S-TOFHLA Scores and Electronic Measure of Literacy” 7/2008-6/2009
4. Eric Arnold, "E-Identification of Patients at Risk for Renal Insufficiency” 1/2009-present
Internal Medicine Housestaff
1. Michael Jolly, MD,” Literature Review of Electronically Based Hand-off Apparatus”, April 2007
2. Linda Calvillo-King, MD, “Literature Review of Social Factors in Hospital Readmissions”,
January 2008
3. Thomas Dalton, MD “Predictors of Out-of-ICU Cardiac Arrest”, October 2008
4. Isaac See, MD, “Comparative Approaches to Liver Abscess Treatment”, February 2009
5. Oanh Nguyen, MD “Natural Language Processing Approaches to Identify Heart Failure Patients”, July 2009
6. Anil Makam, MD “Natural Language Processing Approaches to Identify Heart Failure Patients”, July 2009
7. Chibuike Okoro, MD “Clinical and Cost-Effective Analysis of Emergent Dialysis Program at Parkland Health & Hospital System”, August 2009
8. Snehal Patel, MD “Comparing Physician Chart Review Against Automated Data Mining Approaches to Identify Heart Failure Patients”, January 2010
9. Timothy Trojan, MD “Comparing Physician Chart Review Against Automated Data Mining Approaches to Identify Heart Failure Patients”, February 2010
10. Lauren Cooper, MD “Identifying Electronic Predictors of Out of ICU Cardiac Arrest”, May 2010
Clinical Fellows
1. Justin Bachmann, MD, “Automated Detection Approaches for Deteriorating Patients on the Internal Medicine Ward: Improving Out-Of-ICU Cardiac Arrest Rates at Parkland Health & Hospital System”, Fellow, Division of Cardiology, December 2009- Present
Faculty:
1. Carlos Alvarez, RPh, MSc “Development of Electronic Pharmacovigilance Approaches”, Assistant Professor, Department of Clinical Sciences and Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 7/09 to present
2. Linda Calvillo-King, MD, MPH “Development of an Instrument to Identify Social Vulnerabilities on Admission to the Hospital”, Assistant Professor, Division of General Internal Medicine, 7/09 to present
3. Subhasri Kannan, MD “Rate and Predictors of Limb Amputation Among Patients Admitted with Diabetic Foot Infections at Parkland Health & Hospital System”, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Hospitalist Section, Division of General Internal Medicine, 8/09 to present
4. Colleen Sam, MD, MPH “Predictors of Thrombotic or Bleeding Events at Parkland Health & Hospital System”, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, 12/08 to present