Informatics in the Round

What role can AI play in mental health care? Let’s talk about it! In this year's final episode of Informatics in the Round, we explore how AI can assist both patients seeking diagnoses and treatments for mental health disorders as well as therapists looking to improve their clinical practice. While AI offers exciting possibilities, we also address important concerns around data privacy, potential bias, and the need to maintain human connection in the therapeutic process. It was a fitting discussion to to wrap up our year of AI-themed episodes.

For our expert consultant, we invited Dr. Torrey Creed, an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine and founder of the Penn Collaborative for CBT and Implementation Science. As an NIH-funded researcher, her work focuses on creating pragmatic and sustainable strategies to increase access to high-quality mental health care, especially in low-resourced communities. She also serves as the Senior Implementation Consultant for Lyssn.io, which leverages AI to help scale multiple aspects of clinical care.

We also welcomed back one of our favorite musicians, Jane Bach, to bring her perspective! Jane is an award-winning songwriter who has written for some of the biggest names in music, including Reba McEntire, Tammy Wynette, Collin Raye, and JoDee Messine. She was also recently inducted into the New York State Country Songwriters Hall of Fame.

We wanted to spend some time in this episode honoring our friend, Nolan Neal, who passed away in summer of 2022. Nolan was upfront about his struggles with mental health, and we want to dedicate this episode to him. Nolan, thank you for sharing your life with us through your music. We hope this episode can help serve others like you and make a contribution to providing better mental health care to all.

Mentioned in the episode:

-"Shadow of the Man I Used to Be" by Nolan Neal

-Nolan Neal on America's Got Talent

-"Already Gone" written by Jane Bach, performed by Natalia Malo

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Can AI do our jobs better than we can? Let’s test it!

You might have noticed that this episode got off to a strange start… who were those people talking anyway? That, my friends, was Google NotebookLM’s best shot at recording this very podcast. In it, two AI-generated guests conduct an ironic “deep dive” into the topic we are discussing in this episode: whether AI will come to replace certain jobs and how it will change existing jobs in our healthcare system and beyond.

For this episode, we had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Marylyn Ritchie, a Professor of Genetics and the Director of the Institute for Biomedical Informatics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. An expert in translational bioinformatics, her research focuses on using clinical data to discover the genetic architecture underlying common diseases like cancer and cardiovascular disease. In April, she was appointed Vice Dean of Artificial Intelligence and Computing where she works to develop and implement an AI strategy for the Penn Medicine health system.

We also finally got a songwriter back on our guest panel. Collin Frisch is an indie-pop singer-songwriter who describes himself as “like Ed Sheeran, but less talented and better looking.” After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 2023, he took on the role of Creative Director at the Bridge Church near Trenton, New Jersey. We were so grateful that Collin could represent the right side of the brain in this conversation.

Lastly, we welcomed our co-host Harris Bland back to the show!

We turn a bit philosophical in this episode; while we discuss AI’s potential to rewire and create jobs, we also talk about the undiscovered fields of medicine where humans must still blaze the path forward. Inevitably, our conversation turned into a reflection about which characteristics AI can’t yet emulate, the very things that make us human and—for now—irreplaceable.

Mentioned in the episode:

-What eMERGE actually means: 

-”Will A.I. Kill Meaningless Jobs?” by Emma Goldberg, New York Times, August 2024

-Waymo Stand-off video

-”Swiss cheese model” coined by Dr. James Reason in “Human Error: Models and Management,” British Medical Journal, 2000.

Songs mentioned in this episode:

“Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield (2004)

“She Bangs” by William Hung (2008) (originally performed by Ricky Martin)

“Shake It Off” by Taylor Swift (2014)

“Anti-Hero” by Taylor Swift (2022)

“My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys” by Taylor Swift (2024)

“All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)” by Taylor Swift (2021)

“Ruin Your Heart” by Collin Frisch (2021)

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What exactly is a “learning health system”? In several of our episodes, you’ve heard us talk about how data collection has modernized through new technologies and enhanced approaches to clinical trials. But now that we have all that data, we need to transform it into clinical practice. Learning health systems are all about completing this virtuous cycle from scientific discovery to implementation, and yet, there are few that exist and work well. In this episode, you’ll hear us discuss (and perhaps debate) what a true learning health system looks like, as well as how informatics can help lead the charge.

Up first on our panel of distinguished guests is Dr. Genevieve Melton-Meaux, a Professor of Surgery and Senior Associate Dean of Health Informatics and Data Science at the University of Minnesota. Among her many accolades, she is a Past President of the American College of Medical Informatics, current President of the American Medical Informatics Association, and Director for the Center of Learning Health System Sciences at Minnesota. Her research focuses on clinical natural language processing, surgical informatics, and optimizing AI best practices.

We were also joined by Dr. Chuck Friedman, a Professor of Medical Education and Chair of the Department of Learning Health Sciences at the University of Michigan Medical School. He is also the editor-in-chief of the open-access journal Learning Health Systems. Drawing from his time at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology in the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services, he helped transform Michigan’s medical education department into one of the first in the nation to focus on learning health at all levels, including large-scale information infrastructure.

Finally, we had Dr. Peter Embí, Professor and Chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Prior, he served as President and CEO of the Regenstrief Institute, a not-for-profit health care research organization in Indianapolis, Indiana that seeks to develop, conduct, and disseminate scientific research across communities. A Past President of the American Medical Informatics Association, his research centers on data-driven learning health systems.

We are also pleased to share an original learning health systems “anthem,” composed by Molly Sinderbrand, called “System Problems Need System Solutions.” In our jazzy rendition, it was performed by pianist Phil Barrison and our very own Kevin Johnson on vocals! We appreciate all their contributions and are excited to feature it at the end of this episode!

Tackling a topic like this required top-notch guests, and they delivered! We hope you enjoy listening.

Links mentioned in this episode:

-Evaluation Methods in Biomedical and Health Informatics by Charles P. Friedman, Jeremy C. Wyatt, Joan S. Ash

-“Where’s the Science in Medical Informatics?” by C.P. Friedman

-Learn more about the Indiana Network for Patient Care 

-Patti Brennan’s Presentation referred to as “Care Between the Care”: “High-Reliability, Person-Centered Health Care Systems: It Can’t Happen Without the National Library of Medicine,” presented at GoldLab Symposium 2018

-“Creating Local Learning Health Systems: Thinking Globally, Act Locally” by William E. Smoyer, Peter J. Embí, Susan Moffatt-Bruce 

Make sure to follow our Instagram, Twitter, Threads, and TikTok accounts so you can stay up to date on all our new content. Also don't forget to follow us on Twitter @kbjohnsonmd. You can find us wherever you typically get your podcasts. Thanks for listening!

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Live from the studio, it's Informatics in the Round! Okay, we aren't technically live, but we are bringing you an extra special episode from the Penn Engineering Online studio! Since all our guests are from the University of Pennsylvania, we thought we would sit down in-person to enjoy this lively discussion. Today we are talking all about chatbots and the future of generative AI in medicine. We discuss topics such as what chatbots are, whether they present the markers of true artificial intelligence, what innovations we are looking forward to, and the benefits and barriers to integrating them into our healthcare settings. 

First, we had Dr. Angela Bradbury, an Associate Professor of Medicine and a medical ethicist at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also founder of the Penn Telegenetics Program, a national program using telehealth and digital tools to increase access to genetic medicine. Her research program has been developing patient-centered digital tools, including chatbots, to address the use of genetics in medicine and a limited genetics workforce. As a medical ethicist, she is particularly interested in how we responsibly deploy digital tools and generative AI in medical practice to improve patient outcomes.

We also had Lyle Ungar, a Professor of Computer and Information Science at Penn. He researches the psychological dimension of natural language processing and artificial intelligence. His research group of psychologists and computer scientists study what language reveals about physical and mental well-being. They are building culturally aware chatbots for mental health support and teaching "soft skills" to high school students.

Finally, we had Chris Callison-Burch, a Professor of Computer and Information Science whose AI course at Penn has one of the highest enrollments at the university with about 750 students. His research focuses on applications of large language models to address long-standing challenges in artificial intelligence. He’s a leading expert on AI and has appeared in front of Congress as well as on many podcasts to discuss the future of generative AI and intellectual property. We are so grateful to have all these expert guests on this episode and in the room with us!

Oh, and we had a guest star hosting this episode—Ellie Shuert, our production assistant, stepped out from behind the scenes. She is freshly graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in English and Linguistics. Her curiosity about AI and natural language processing gave our guests lots to think about, and it was so fun to let her direct an episode.

Thank you so much to Penn Engineering Online for hosting us in your beautiful studio space! It was the perfect place to enjoy this conversation. If you are listening, we suggest maybe going over to our YouTube channel to watch us film in such a cool space!

This is truly one of our favorite episodes of the year, and we are so excited to share it with you!

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Welcome, everyone, to your introductory course in public health informatics! On today's episode, we discuss all things public health, including what it is, how it varies on a state and national level, and how health departments respond to public health crises. We demystify some of our misconceptions about how the public health system works, like how state departments are separate from the CDC, how we share disease statistics such as during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how our medical history may or may not travel with us from state to state. Of course, our question always is, why does informatics matter in this conversation? Our guests have many ideas about how we can utilize informatics to create more efficient means of sharing data and, by extension, improving our overall public health.

Dr. Bryant Thomas Karras is the Chief Medical Informatics Officer at the State of Washington Department of Health and a faculty member at the University of Washington's School of Public Health. He is a physician, biomedical engineer, and informatician who uses his multifaceted experience to promote interoperability and help various agencies utilize new technologies in their public health efforts. He's advised health departments on a local, state, and national level, including the Center of Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr. Jessie Tenenbaum is an Associate Professor at Duke University School of Medicine, and she recently concluded a five-year tenure as the Chief Data Officer for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Her work focuses on enhancing data-driven decision-making to improve public health outcomes and finding AI methods to improve whole person health. She's served on the editorial board for the Journal of Biomedical Informatics, on AMIA's Board of Directors, and on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Library of Medicine, all while advocating for women in STEM and precision medicine efforts. We were so thankful to have both of these experts on this episode!

Last but not least, we were joined by a new guest—Lauren Malloy joined us as a co-host for this episode. Lauren is the administrative coordinator for the Artificial Intelligence for Ambulatory Care Innovation Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, which investigates how technology can address healthcare challenges. Her insights into how public health issues manifest in our daily lives were invaluable, and we were honored to have her as a guest star!

We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did filming it!

"Cheat Sheet" to the acronyms discussed in this episode:

-AMIA: American Medical Informatics Association

-APHL: Association for Public Health Laboratories

-CDC: Center for Disease Control and Prevention

-CDO/CIO/CMIO: Chief Data Officer, Chief Information Officer, Chief Medical Informatics Officer

-ECR: electronic case reporting

-EHR: electronic health record

-EIS: Epidemic Intelligence Service

-IIS: Immunization Information System

-IPS: International Patient Summary (Canada)

-HHS: Department of Health and Human Services

-NPI: National Patient Identifier, also National Provider Identifier

-PPRL: Privacy Protecting Record Linkage

-VCI: verifiable clinical information

Make sure to follow our Instagram, Twitter, Threads, and TikTok accounts so you can stay up to date on all our new content. Also don't forget to follow us on Twitter @kbjohnsonmd. You can find us wherever you typically get your podcasts. Thanks for listening!

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It’s no secret that handling medical data is complicated and time-consuming. Of course, the goal is to address the patient buried beneath the in-depth patient notes, multiple EHRs, and drug prescriptions. Perhaps technology can make that a bit easier! In this episode, we have the special privilege of hearing the research of two graduate students who have found the biggest pain points in our primary healthcare system and have brainstormed ways that technology, especially emerging AI, can help address these issues. Every listener will find a way to relate to the stories shared in this episode, and we hope our discussion about the short-term and long-term goals for the application of AI in medicine makes you optimistic about the future of primary healthcare!

Trevor Martinez is a current master’s student at the University of Pennsylvania pursuing an MSE in bioengineering. He is primarily interested in the fields of biomedical data science, healthcare, and medical devices. Pavan Patel is a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania pursuing a dual MBA/MA from the Wharton School and the Lauder Institute, and he is also a computer science student at Penn Engineering. Previously, he worked in healthcare at Hazel Health and in private credit and equity at Bain Capital and CI Capital. It was great to hear what these young minds came up with, and they graciously shared some of the visuals they created to explain information silos. If you want to view the visuals along with the podcast, make sure to watch via our YouTube channel!

We also had Dr. Ross Koppel hop on this episode. Dr. Koppel is a professor of sociology and medical informatics at the University of Pennsylvania, a Senior Fellow at Penn’s Center for Public Health Initiative, and a Senior Fellow at Penn’s Institute for Biomedical Informatics. His hundreds of articles focus on the cybersecurity, usability, and ethics of healthcare information technology and has greatly impacted the field’s understanding of how we can improve human-computer interactions and better integrate HIT into hospital workflow. He was the perfect person to chime in on Trevor and Pavan’s research!

Finally, we had the great pleasure of welcoming a new co-host to our podcast! Dr. Stacy Iannone is the project manager for Dr. Johnson’s lab, which researches computationally-enhanced healthcare. She brings with her an extensive background in clinical research. We were so excited to have her share her insights and experiences on this episode! 

We really enjoyed discussing these students’ insightful research and debating how we see AI entering the conversation. We hope you enjoy listening!

Mentioned in this episode:

-”5 Tactics to Break Down Silos and Support Cross-Functional Collaboration” by Rhonda Stewart

Check out Rhett McDaniel's newest album Rhett McDaniel's Contribution to the Noise Floor

Make sure to follow our Instagram, Twitter, Threads, and TikTok accounts so you can stay up to date on all our new content. Also don't forget to follow us on Twitter @kbjohnsonmd. You can also find us wherever you typically get your podcasts. Thanks for listening!

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What happens when you bring together three previous heads of biomedical informatics departments? A lot of reflection, storytelling, and joking around! In this episode, we bring together guests who have previously run informatics departments and are still involved in various ways, whether through research, teaching, or creating content to educate the public. We get the inside scoop into all the administrative responsibilities of these department chairs, their favorite parts of the job, and how they hope to see the field respond to modern technological developments like AI.

We had some fantastic guests on this episode.  Dr. William (Bill) Hersh is a Professor in the Department of Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology (DMICE) in the School of Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). Dr. Hersh served as the inaugural Chair of DMICE from its inception in 2003 through 2022. He also served as Director of OHSU's Biomedical Informatics Graduate Program, from its inception in 1996 through 2023. Dr. Hersh also conceptualized and implemented the first offering of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) 10x10 ("ten by ten") program; his course has been completed by more than 3000 individuals since 2005. In addition, he serves as Editor of the textbook, Health Informatics: Practical Guide, 8th Edition. Since stepping down as department chair, Dr. Hersh has maintained his research and teaching activities, and writes the Informatics Professor blog.

Dr. George Hripcsak is the Vivian Beaumont Allen Professor at Columbia University's Department of Biomedical Informatics. He led Columbia University's informatics department for 15 years. He currently leads the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics coordinating center, which organizes the health records of almost one billion patients. He has authored over 350 scientific papers, serves as the PI for Columbia's recruitment center for the All of Us precision medicine program, and focuses his research on developing the next generation of health record systems.

Finally, our host turned guest for this episode! Dr. Kevin Johnson is the David L. Cohen University Professor of Pediatrics, Biomedical Informatics, and Science Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Before Penn, he was the Chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt University from 2012-2022. He currently researches how to integrate advanced technology and artificial intelligence with health documentation systems. And, of course, he loves sharing informatics with a wider audience whether through his children's books, his documentary projects, or this podcast!

Thanks to our host Harris Bland and our production assistant Ellie Shuert for leading us through this discussion. We loved reminiscing together, and we hope you enjoy getting an inside look into informatics departments!

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How does social media challenge or reinforce our own biases? On this episode, we sat down with the University of Pennsylvania's Desmond Upton Patton to discuss his research on social media and adolescence. We talk about the many roles social media has for young people and how they have taken advantage of social media as a storytelling mechanism and a tool for navigating safety. We discuss how social media can also be reductionist, reinforce negative stereotypes, and even perpetuate misinformation, revealing the flaws in AI and similar technologies. Desmond talks us through all these facets of social media in relation to his work and challenges us to think about what it would look like to recognize social media as increasingly integrated into our reality.

We were so excited to have Dr. Desmond Upton Patton with us for this episode. Desmond is not only a great friend, but an incredible scholar. As a social worker, researcher, and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Desmond has published groundbreaking research on the linkage between grief and aggressive behavior on social media platforms, and now his research focuses on the topics such AI, social media, machine learning, empathy, and race with the goal to create unbiased and culturally conscious algorithms. In addition, he serves on the research and safety advisory boards of Twitter, Spotify, and TikTok, and he has been chosen as part of the inaugural cohort of Obama Foundation Leaders for his research. Now, he is the director for the research initiative known as SAFELab at the Annenberg School for Communication, a project we will hear more about in this episode!

We also had with us songwriters Alissa Abeler and Hannah Smith from the Americana duo The Daily Fare. They shared amazing insights not just on their own experiences with social media, but also on songwriting and the storytelling process.

We were so thankful to have this group of people in discussion with us, and we hope you enjoy the episode!

Mentioned in this episode: 

-Sing Me a Story

-AIDS Memorial Quilt

-Follow SAFELab on Twitter

Make sure to follow our Instagram, Twitter, Threads, TikTok, and Facebook accounts so you can stay up to date on all our new content. Also don't forget to follow us on Twitter @kbjohnsonmd and @htbland21. You can also find us wherever you typically get your podcasts. Thanks for listening!

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Is every clinical trial created equal? In this episode, we learn some shocking information about the proportions of populations normally included in clinical trials. We specifically cover recent treatments for Alzheimer’s disease to discuss how we may have failed to consider minority populations in our research and how we can use precision medicine to create more equitable clinical trials. We also discuss how we can redevelop trust in scientific institutions in the wake of the pandemic and how health professionals can adapt their research techniques to include data from historically underrepresented populations.

We had a wonderful cast join us for this episode. We had Stephanie Monroe, Vice President and Senior Advisor of Health Equity and Access for UsAgainstAlzheimer’s, a national advocacy group that aims to diversify the movement to cure Alzheimer’s disease. After working on Capitol Hill and holding the position of Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights for three years, Stephanie’s work has focused on raising awareness about the disparate impact of Alzheimer’s disease on communities of color and women.

We also had Consuelo Wilkins, Senior Vice President and Senior Associate Dean of Health Equity and Inclusive Excellence, and a Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and works with the All of Us Research Program, a national precision medicine project. She is also the Principal Investigator of three NIH-funded centers which aim to decrease health disparities for communities of color and create new approaches to recruiting marginalized communities for clinical trials. 

This conversation was so fun and yielded so many valuable insights regarding how we can create more equitable research for communities of color. We hope you enjoy the episode!

Interested in how misinformation circulates? Listen to our previous podcast episode with guest Evan Thornburg.

Make sure to follow our Instagram, Twitter, Threads, TikTok, and Facebook accounts so you can stay up to date on all our new content. Also don't forget to follow us on Twitter @kbjohnsonmd and @htbland21. You can also find us wherever you typically get your podcasts. Thanks for listening!

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In this episode, we tackle an all-too-familiar topic: misinformation. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen how technology and social media can be used to both spread health information awareness and popularize misinformation. The question remains: in the age of technology, how can we be sure about the validity of the information we are receiving online, and how can we all be vigilant against the spread of misinformation?

To help us, we had the wonderful Evan Thornburg join us for today's podcast. Evan is a bioethicist and health equity officer for the City of Pennsylvania's Department of Public Health. In the past, they've also worked in the Philadelphia Mayor's Office as Deputy Director of LGBT. After completing a Master's of Arts in Urban Bioethics at Temple University's Lewis Katz School of Medicine and writing their thesis on the spread of misinformation, Evan took to TikTok, utilizing the platform to share their knowledge about bioethics, comment on current health news, and challenge the online community to be discerning about how they absorb and converse about health information. You can find Evan on TikTok at EVN the (Bio) Ethicist.

We loved talking with Evan, and we hope you come out of this episode with some practical tools to help you filter the information you see on social media!

Learn more about ethical research conduct from government websites such as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the American Psychological Association. 

Check out what the American Board of Internal Medicine has to say about the rise of misinformation:

-https://blog.abim.org/an-update-on-our-efforts-to-address-medical-misinformation/

-https://blog.abim.org/new-paper-recommends-creating-a-durably-funded-infrastructure-for-media-monitoring-and-effective-coordinated-responses-to-medical-misinformation/

Learn more about the work Desmond Upton Patton is doing with SAFELab here: https://www.asc.upenn.edu/research/centers/safe-lab

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In this episode, we look at the genetic basis for different psychiatric disorders, the interconnectedness of psychological and physical symptoms, and how they apply to our ongoing conversation regarding health equity. For this episode, we welcomed back some of our previous guests:

Lea Davis Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Division of Genetic Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Her work explores the genomic architecture of complex traits, defined as the type, frequency, and function of DNA variants en masse that contribute to the genetic predisposition of a given trait.

We also welcomed back the talented Jane Bach, a successful songwriter from Nashville, to help us dissect how exactly gene inheritance works and share her stories and music with us! Ellie Shuert, our new production assistant from the University of Pennsylvania, also joined in for the discussion. They both made our conversation so lively and fun, and they really helped us dig deep into the fundamentals of genetics and the importance of listening intentionally to patients' stories and symptoms.

We have new social media pages! Make sure to follow our new Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and Threads accounts so you can stay up to date on all our new content. Also don't forget to follow us on Twitter @kbjohnsonmd and @htbland21. Thanks for listening!

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In this episode, we talk a bit about the recent advances in large language models, also known as GPT/ChatGPT.  We have two wonderful guests:

Christoph U. Lehmann, M.D., is a Professor of Pediatrics, Population and Data Sciences, and Bioinformatics at UT Southwestern, where he directs the Clinical Informatics Center. In addition, Chris was the first chair of the Examination Committee of the American Board of Preventive Medicine, Subcommittee for Clinical Informatics. Dr. Lehmann’s research focuses on improving clinical information technology and clinical decision support.

Yaa Kumah-Crystal Crystal MD, MPH, MS is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Pediatric Endocrinology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Yaa’s research focuses on studying communication and documentation in healthcare and developing strategies to improve workflow and patient care delivery. Yaa works in the Innovations Portfolio at Vanderbilt HealthIT on the development of Voice Assistant Technologies to improve the usability of the EHR through natural language communication.

Chris and Yaa bring very complementary perspectives to the topic of our future. Yaa's research focuses on how we can innovate to improve the use of technology in medicine. Chris is also internationally known as the Editor in Chief of Applied Clinical Informatics,

as well as one of the leaders in our clinical informatics board certification work.  He is intimately familiar with the potential uses of this technology beyond clinical care, but, as an actively practicing neonatologist, more than holds his own when it comes to how medicine can benefit from--or be harmed by--new technologies such as AI. 

We leave it to you to decide both which direction we're heading, and how we can put up the guardrails to keep us on the preferred track. And, I suspect this won't be our last discussion about AI in Medicine!----more----

By the way, in case you want to learn more about topics we brought up in this episode:

Belmont principles include autonomy

• • Beneficence:  AI is designed explicitly to be helpful to people, who use it or on whom it is used, and to reflect the ideals of compassionate, kind, and considerate human behavior

• • Autonomy:  Context AI: operates without human oversight.  Context Ethics: “protecting the autonomy of all people and treating them with courtesy and respect and facilitating informed consent”
  • Nonmaleficence:  “Do No Harm”.  Every reasonable effort shall be made to avoid, prevent, and minimize harm or damage to any stakeholder.
  • Justice:  Equity in representation in and access to AI, data, and the benefits of AI.  Fair access to redress and remedy be available in the event of harm resulting from the use of AI.  Affirmative use of AI to support social justice

Artists and AI:  

• https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/chrisstokelwalker/art-subreddit-illustrator-ai-art-controversy
• https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-image-generators-artists-copying-style-thousands-images-2022-10

TikTok voiceover person:   https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/29/22701167/bev-standing-tiktok-lawsuit-settles-text-to-speech-voice

GPT and test performance:  https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/26/tech/chatgpt-passes-exams/index.html, https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.05.23286533v1.full

Deepfake concerns: 

• https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessedamiani/2019/09/03/a-voice-deepfake-was-used-to-scam-a-ceo-out-of-243000/?sh=292f03982241
• https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/threats/protect-yourself-from-deep-fake
• https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/deepfake-porn-ai-mr-deep-fake-economy-google-visa-mastercard-download-rcna75071

MidJourney and bias:

• https://uxdesign.cc/midjourney-is-incredible-but-you-can-see-there-are-definite-existing-biases-in-its-dataset-4b1131fb0533.
• https://nftnow.com/features/the-objectification-of-women-in-ai-art/
  
• https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.11261

Amazon AI Tool Bias: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-jobs-automation-insight/amazon-scraps-secret-ai-recruiting-tool-that-showed-bias-against-women-idUSKCN1MK08G

Apple credit biased against wives: https://www.wired.com/story/the-apple-card-didnt-see-genderand-thats-the-problem/

AMIA document about ethical principles around AI: https://amia.org/news-publications/amia-position-paper-details-policy-framework-aiml-driven-decision-support

AI in Medicine JAMA Viewpoint: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36972068/

Sophia:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_(robot)

This episode is going to introduce the concepts of health equity and biomedical informatics. We'll revisit this theme multiple times in 2023 but ST and I wanted to kick off the year with this overview that will also serve to provide a framework for some of what we will be discussing as we revisit this theme. We are really lucky to have two guests, both of whom are great colleagues and friends, whose careers have focused on this topic from two very different disciplines.

Lea Davis Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Division of Genetic Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Her work explores the genomic architecture of complex traits, defined as the type, frequency, and function of DNA variants en masse that contribute to the genetic predisposition of a given trait.

Consuelo H. Wilkins, MD, MCSI, is a nationally recognized physician-scientist leader in health equity research focused on integrating social, cultural, and environmental factors into clinical and translational research. Dr. Wilkins is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatric Medicine within the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She is Senior Vice President, Health Equity and Inclusive Excellence, VUMC; and Senior Associate Dean, Health Equity and Inclusive Excellence, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

 We also welcome back The Daily Fare Northern-born songwriters Alissa Abeler and Hannah Smith who’ve joined creative forces to form a musical duo with a unique sound and look for Nashville performers. The pair grew up on opposite sides of the music world with influences ranging from Judy Garland and Adele to Beethoven and Bach, with a healthy dose of Broadway, punk cabaret, and 80s ballads sprinkled in the mix.  They also share a story common with many newish groups breaking into the music biz that makes the topic of today one they relate to in ways you’ll readily appreciate.

St and I tried to keep this at high level, but we also weren’t afraid to push our friends to explain some difficult concepts. It was as important a discussion as it was enlightening and engaging, and I’m glad to be able to share it with the world. 

This episode, ST and I cover one of the hottest non-COVID topics in healthcare today.  We strike at the heart of clinician burnout and in particular issues related to unnecessary documentation.

Our guests today were discovered by Sam Butler from Epic, who invited them to present their incredible work at a national meeting where I was an attendee. I  thought this was work that needed to get noticed as quickly as possible. And so we decided to develop this podcast to discuss what they’ve been doing.

Dr. Heidi Twedt is Associate Chief Medical Information Officer, UW Health, and Clinical Professor of the division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Dr. Peter Kleinschmidt is the Medical Informatics Director of Quality and Safety and Assistant Professor in the division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Wisconsin.

The two of them have developed an entire program dedicated to reducing the length and complexity of physician documentation.  As they tell us during the episode, it's simple to implement technically, but, as one might imagine, very challenging to make "sticky" from a change management perspective. 

By the way, here's a link to a presentation by Heidi and Peter for those who want to hear more about this.

This promises to be an incredibly informative podcast for most of us.,  If there was anything learned from the pandemic, it was the importance of data and helping most of us track SARS CoV2 prevalence wherever we traveled when we traveled, as well as to manage vaccine compliance within specific regions or states.  Health information exchange was vital to many public health organizations. And our speakers today were front and center during the pandemic, as well as in some cases, decades before the pandemic, evangelizing this technology for the rest of us. We’ll hear from them and discuss both what health information exchange is and what health information hubs could be going forward. I learned a ton during this podcast. I hope you enjoy it.  ST Bland and I are proud to introduce you to three guests:

Brian Dixon is a Professor at Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health and a world expert on the public health information ecosystem, including how things are accomplished and the information or tech used to accomplish them.

John Kansky is President and CEO at Indiana Health Information Exchange in Indianapolis, which is arguably the exemplar for health information exchanges around the world.

Morgan Honea is Executive VP of Contexture an IT services and consulting group in Denver and CEO of CSRI, the Consortium for State and Regional Interoperability, as well as CEO of CORHIO. The Colorado Regional Health Information Organization.

Hello and welcome to Informatics in the Round,  a podcast designed to help everyone become a part of the dialog about topics in biomedical informatics. 

I’m Kevin Johnson, a physician and informatics researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. @kbjohnsonmd on Twitter, www.kevinbjohnsonmd.net on the web! 

The overturning of Roe v. Wade has had a significant impact on our country. What many may not realize is the impact it might have across all of the health care system as we know it, including the informatics community.  However, this episode will enlighten us all about this, and, unfortunately, will probably make a few people lose sleep.

We are joined in this episode by Professor Bradley Malin, Accenture Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Biostatistics, and Computer Science, as well as Vice Chair for Research Affairs in the Department of Biomedical Informatics.  He is one of the world’s experts on data privacy, having invented or helped to debunk myths around the most common approaches used to protect electronic medical records from use or to facilitate safe data sharing.  He is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI), the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics (IAHSI), and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).  In addition, he was honored as a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from the White House.

Brad is joined by Dr. Ellen Wright Clayton, JD, MD. Ellen is an internationally respected leader in the field of law and genomics who holds appointments in Pediatrics and in Health Policy at VUMC, and in the Law School as well as the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University. Ellen has helped to develop policy statements for numerous national and international organizations, including the Public Population Project in Genomics, Human Genome Organization, Council of International Organizations of Medical Sciences, the American Society of Human Genetics, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Ellen has worked on a number of projects for the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine) and is currently a member of its National Advisory Council, director of its Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice, and the Report Review Committee. For her service, she received the David P. Rall Medal from the IOM in 2013.  

In addition to these amazing guests, we’re excited to have ST Bland, a leader in Vanderbilt’s Center for Precision Medicine here, as well as Jane Bach, an extremely successful “performing” songwriter in Nashville. Jane is joined again by Jeanie McQuinn of http://www.greatbigrivermusic.com, a partner with Jane in songwriting. 

This episode of IIR focuses on the functions we want in our EHR portals, including some research into some surprising new uses for portal information.

Our special guest is a brilliant young faculty member from Johns Hopkins. Kevon-Mark Jackman is a Dr.PH and MPH, and an assistant professor of pediatrics, in adolescent medicine. We met a few months ago, and I thought it would be fun to discuss some of what he’s doing with EHR patient portals with the group.

Sarah Bland, a leader in Vanderbilt’s Center for Precision Medicine is here, as is Jane Bach, an extremely successful “performing” songwriter in Nashville. Jane is joined by Jeanie McQuinn, a partner with Jane in songwriting. They go back many years—Jeanie was a huge fan of Jane’s,  as you’ll hear, and now work with her from time to time.  You’ll get to hear from all of them discussing Kevon’s work, as well as work that still needs to be done to improve the use of patient portals. 

During the episode, we made reference to the following work/people:

• Special shout-out to Deborah Estrin, whose work on breadcrumbs informed our "wish list" for interoperability. Her TED talk on the topic is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAEhSGYEHWU
• Jeanie's production company is Great Big River Music. Check them out!
• Jane has a new project that hasn't been formally announced, but you can follow her on https://janebachmusic.com/

In this episode of Informatics in the Round  we have a small but MIGHTY team.

Sarah Bland, a leader in Vanderbilt’s Center for Precision Medicine is here, and offers her usual insight coupled with wit!

We’re happy to introduce you all to Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld, who is the Senior Associate Dean and Director of the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment, and Professor of Anesthesiology Medical College of Wisconsin.  But wait, there’s more. Jesse is chair of the American Medical Association Board of Trustees, a commander in the U.S. Navy and combat veteran,  the head of perioperative informatics at Vanderbilt before leaving for Wisconsin, and so much more.  

All the guests today have one or more non-heteronormative characteristics on our “problem list.”  We’re all in the SOGI remarkable group.  We are all in the LGBTQ+ tribe.  We’re all gay!

Our topic for this conversation focuses on the inclusion of LBGTQ+ data in the EHR.  In case you’re wondering how we can fill 50 minutes on that topic, suffice it to say that we had more than enough material. By the way, did I mention that Jesse was the former director of the Vanderbilt Program for LGBTQ Health, that he’s been a staunch supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, and has been at the center of much of the knowledge now published about the unique health requirements of patients who identify as LGBTQ+.   Oh, and then there’s his book, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Healthcare: A Clinical Guide to Preventive, Primary, and Specialist Care.  

Hello and welcome to Informatics in the Round,  a podcast designed to help everyone become a part of the dialog about topics in biomedical informatics. 

I’m Kevin Johnson, a physician and informatics researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. @kbjohnsonmd on Twitter, www.kevinbjohnsonmd.net on the web! 

In this episode of Informatics in the Round  I’m joined by a half dozen guests.  

• Sarah Bland, a leader in Vanderbilt’s Center for Precision Medicine is here, along with her son Bradley.
• Dr. Yaa Kumah Crystal, a clinical informatics expert and role model for African American women, is here with her son Jude.
• Jane Bach (songwriter and storyteller extraordinaire) is here
• Shannon Rich (my very smart and very courageous friend) is here.

Why all these guests? Because today’s topic is all about me and my new Children’s book called Who, Me? I’m a Biomedical Informatics Expert Now.  It’s part of a series that Professor David Weintraub, Professor Ann Neely, and I are producing. 

I want to warn you that the guests ask me some very personal questions that I answer honestly. It might not be for everyone’s tastes. But that’s what the fast forward button is for. 

Anyway, I hope you learn a bit about me, and about my journey from this episode.

We end with a wonderfully fitting song for this episode, written by Jane Bach and sung by Jo Dee Messina:  Dare to Dream. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg2aF1z9myw. Thanks for letting me end with such great music!

Hello and welcome to Informatics in the Round,  a podcast designed to help everyone become a part of the dialog about topics in biomedical informatics. 

I’m Kevin Johnson, physician and informatics chair at Vanderbilt. @kbjohnsonmd on twitter, www.kevinbjohnsonmd.net on the web! 

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In this episode of Informatics in the Round, we get some follow-up information.  A few episodes back, Dr. Trent Rosenbloom led a discussion about impending changes and a lot of national concern about a statutory response to information blocking that has resulted in patients having immediate access to clinical encounter summaries but also lab results.  We were wrapped in anticipation of the fallout from implementing this change, and have eagerly awaited hearing from a patient and from Trent.  So….

Here we are! Digging into the aftermath. The nuclear option, or tempest in a teapot?

Trent is Professor of Biomedical Informatics, nursing, medicine and pediatrics. He directs the Vanderbilt patient portal, known as MyHealthatVanderbilt.   MyHealth for short.  He’s also an avid runner, with his own marathon.  Here's a link to his marathon:   https://www.harpethhillsmarathon.com/

Sarah Bland is a regular guest on this podcast. By day, she’s a senior project manager and all around funny person, but, as you’ve been learning and will hear more about today…she has layers.  She’s also at Vanderbilt.

We were able to get a friend of Trent's, a geek, and a musician all in one in the form of Karl Kersey.  Karl’s band, Doonthebray, represents yet another form of music in Music City. And then there's Karl—He’s low key, with a wonderful dry wit, and asks the hard questions. Trent didn’t disappoint. He knows this stuff, and had great information to share both in response to questions we asked during the episode, and questions other listeners will undoubtedly be asking. 

https://www.facebook.com/doonthebrae

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By the way, tell a friend about the podcast. I’d love to get our listenership over 5K, and I need your help. If you have suggestions or ideas, hit me up on Twitter @kbjohnsonmd, or if think tweeting is for twits, email me at [email protected]. I love hearing from you!