Biomedical Informatics

During 2020, the year of Zoom and virtual reinvention, the Division of Biomedical Informatics continued to celebrate milestone achievements. Guided by division chief Richelle deMayo, MD, CM, the team of five jointly appointed physicians and two advanced practitioners drove the rapid deployment and expansion of telemedicine throughout the health system and the application of novel tools enabling best-practice management of patients with suspected or confirmed Covid-19. Division members’ energies were also broadly invested in the design and evaluation of health information solutions to improve the delivery of health care services and quality outcomes.

Endeavors helmed by Biomedical Informatics this year were dominated by intensive, sustained efforts to introduce and expand telemedicine throughout the medical center: training more than 250 providers in telehealth workflows during three weeks in the spring and connecting over 70 percent of outpatient families to the patient portal. In the fall, we celebrated the successes of our contributions, as Connecticut Children’s surpassed its 50,000th completed video visit. The division spent much of the year focused on swift, iterative optimization of telemedicine workflows and implementation of innovative virtual service delivery models including video-facilitated on-site visits and shared medical (group) video visits.

The division’s dual commitment to caring for clinical colleagues and patients – including our most vulnerable – manifested in multiple ways. Dr. deMayo and Christopher Grindle, MD, joined Biomedical Informatics alumna Rebecca Riba-Wolman, MD, to share collective early adopter expertise, presenting Department of Pediatrics grand rounds on “Managing High-Risk and Immunosuppressed Patients via Telehealth.” Drs. deMayo, Grindle and Jane Im, MD, also championed the cause of telehealth care equity, leading efforts to improve availability and adoption of video-integrated interpretation services for non-English-speaking patients. Dr. Im, Andrew Heggland, MD, and Jessica Williams, MD, promoted projects to ensure that systems functionality supported behavioral health providers who were caring remotely for high-needs patients in the Emergency Department and on inpatient floors in times of social distancing. Members of the division launched a multi-institutional research study with three children’s hospital collaborators to examine the effects of pandemic-related virtual care on pediatric provider work and well-being and were involved in the development of core telehealth curricula for Connecticut Children’s faculty and resident trainees. Dr. deMayo served as a reviewer of the American Board of Pediatrics Entrustable Professional Activity in Telemedicine.

Though telemedicine occupied center stage for much of the year, division members continued work in other important areas, diversifying the reach of our advanced peer-to-peer electronic health record (EHR) training, at-elbow support and mentored personalization. The team developed new data literacy workshops and a curriculum in “self-service analytics,” offered initially to the organization’s Patient Quality Safety Officers and then extended to all providers. Dr. Heggland devised a version of the division’s signature “Smart-EHR, Bett-EHR, Happi-EHR” provider experience program specifically for Emergency Department/Urgent Care physicians and advanced practitioners. Organized by Robin Bradshaw, APRN, who has played a pivotal and increasingly prominent role in advanced EHR training over the past few years, the team partnered with operational leadership to better serve provider populations within the medical center, creating “divisional Epic insights” reports and streamlining the process for connecting new and existing providers to Informatics supports. The division also remained devoted to advancing patient safety. Drs. deMayo and Williams led efforts to create analytics tools to prevent care gaps arising from novel Covid-19 workflows. Jill Herring, APRN, nimbly produced updated versions of Covid-19 order sets, sometimes daily, to keep our clinical pathways current with rapidly evolving diagnostic capabilities and evidence-based guidance. Dr. Williams led the re-engineering of medication reconciliation processes, new actionable reporting, and also spearheaded the implementation of AlertSpace, software to improve customization of pediatric dosing alerts. Dr. deMayo’s investigation on the importance of information systems in combating vaccination hesitancy across sectors was presented at the American Public Health Association’s annual conference.

Biomedical Informatics is by nature a multidisciplinary, collaborative specialty. Informaticists cooperate with colleagues from every other academic division within the Department of Pediatrics, and with hospital and specialty group leadership. During the coming year, division members will be busy ensuring organizational compliance with legislative changes related to information-sharing across the care-continuum. The year promises greater access to health-information exchange and, for clinicians, on-demand analytics of aggregate clinical datasets beyond our own institution. The division also looks forward to greater interaction with physician trainees as we amplify our Clinical Informatics rotations. In addition to clinical service and instruction, the division’s members regularly present our scholarship at academic conferences and participate in policy work at state, regional, and national levels.

STAFF

Richelle deMayo, MD, CM, Division Chief Christopher Grindle, MD Andrew Heggland, MD Jane Im, MD Jessica Williams, MD Robin Bradshaw, APRN Jill Herring, APRN