Process Improvement and Operations Associate Director

HealthIT Program Management Office (PMO)

Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld is board certified in both anesthesiology and clinical informatics. He trained at the Massachusetts General Hospital, where he completed his fellowship in 2010.

Since his first year of medical school, he has been committed to working hard to advance the interests of our patients, our practices, and the field of medicine through advocacy, teaching, and the conduct of research. He was elected to the American Medical Association Board of Trustees.

Dr. Scott Nelson, PharmD, MS, FAMIA, ACHIP is a pharmacist and Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Nelson is the Director of the Master of Science in Applied Clinical Informatics (MS-ACI) online program, and currently works in Medication Safety Informatics in HealthIT, with a focus on medication reconciliation, e-prescribing, artificial intelligence, and clinical decision support at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. In addition, Dr. Nelson's practice and research interests include medication warnings, artificial intelligence, machine learning, knowledge management, medication standards and terminologies, EHR design, and CPOE.

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Laurie Novak, PhD, MHSA, FAMIA, FACMI, is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics in the School of Medicine at Vanderbilt University and Deputy Director of the AI Discovery and Vigilance to Accelerate Innovation and Clinical Excellence (ADVANCE) Center. She is an anthropologist specializing in the cultural intersection of technology with everyday life and work. Her projects currently focus on the implementation of artificial intelligence in medicine, including human-centered design, worker competencies, and organizational capabilities required to deploy and manage AI tools. Another major area of research inquiry has been on health care organizational capabilities, data resources, and practices for addressing differences in healthcare delivery and outcomes across different patient populations. She also works on the structure and practice of biobanking, situational analytics and contextual analysis of technology use, and the experience of chronic illness and caregiving in everyday life. In the biomedical informatics training program, Dr. Novak teaches social science methods in multiple courses, and a Fall seminar: BMIF 7350: Technology & Society. 

Dr. Novak received a BA in finance from Murray State University, MHSA in health management and policy from the University of Michigan, and PhD in medical and organizational anthropology from Wayne State University. 

Shane Stenner, MD, MS joined the VUMC Department of Biomedical Informatics and Department of Medicine in September 2011, commencing over a decade of local applied clinical informatics leadership and national-level recognition. Dr. Stenner began his career at VUMC as an Ambulatory Adult Primary Care Provider, a Supervising Attending in the Internal Medicine Resident Clinic, and as Program Director for Evidence-based Medicine Implementation in HealthIT. Over the next two years he quickly assumed responsibility for major clinical production systems as the Product Director of both RxStar, VUMC’s custom developed electronic prescribing system, and VOOM, VUMC’s custom outpatient order entry and charge capture system.

Dr. Stenner led eight developers and analysts on the RxStar team and applied agile development methodologies to quickly respond to the priorities of clinical and pharmacy leadership and end users. Notably, he designed and specified features that significantly improved prescribing quality and safety and decreased costs across the enterprise, as described in several peer-reviewed publications. With the VOOM team, Dr. Stenner was responsible for all Ambulatory orders and charge capture features and functionality at VUMC. He successfully led the team of fifteen developers and analysts through a significant deployment effort across the enterprise to meet Meaningful Use requirements and later designed and specified features that facilitated successful ICD-10 adoption at VUMC.

In 2016 Dr. Stenner was tasked as Ambulatory Director of VUMC’s ambitious two-year, multi-hospital Epic electronic health record implementation and “big bang” go-live. He led a team of over 40 builders and consultants, with a team project budget of over $10 million, to a successful go-live. Dr. Stenner advised and supported program leaders, executive and operational leaders, subject matter experts, and stakeholders through design, build, and go-live readiness decisions.

In 2018, Dr. Stenner was promoted to Senior Director of Clinical Informatics in the Office of the Chief Health Information Officer, a role in which he led clinical informatics enterprise projects at VUMC, helping to understand technical and workflow challenges, communicate with Clinical Operational and Health IT Executive Leadership, set targeted strategic direction, guide requests and issues through governance, and advise best practices. More recently, Dr. Stenner established the VUMC Clinician Informatics Committee to centralize governance for clinically impactful requests and topics and he has helped lead VUMC’s efforts to meet interoperability requirements of the 21st Century Cures Act.  

Dr. Stenner has continually supported the education mission of VUMC, serving as the Capstone Director of the DBMI Masters of Applied Clinical Informatics program from the program’s inception through 2021 and he has delivered regular lectures in the Department of Biomedical Informatics and School of Medicine.

Throughout his career Dr. Stenner has been increasingly involved and recognized in the regional community and at the national level. Locally, Dr. Stenner has served on the Tennessee Health Information Management System Society (TN HIMSS) Board of Directors, led the TN HIMSS CXO Initiative Steering Committee, and has been an invited panel member at the TN HIMSS Conference. Nationally, Dr. Stenner has worked closely with leading national vendors in his domain such as First Data Bank, (medication terminology), Surescripts (e-prescribing interoperability), and Nuance (voice recognition). He is an Epic-certified Physician Builder and has spoken at Epic’s national Expert Group Meeting. Dr. Stenner has advocated nationally for changes to the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs’ SCRIPT e-prescribing standard and served on the Scientific Program Committee for the American Medical Informatics Association’s Annual Symposium. Dr. Stenner has been an invited speaker and panel member at national meetings for First Data Bank and Surescripts and has long served on national advisory committees for these industry leaders.

Dr. Stenner’s decade of local applied clinical informatics leadership and national level recognition ultimately led to an executive level leadership opportunity in September 2021 when he was named the Associate Dean for Education Design and Informatics (EDI) at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM). Dr. Stenner is supporting Vanderbilt as a leader and innovator in medical education by creating a vision for the expanding role of educational informatics necessary to deliver on the promise of personalized, data-driven, competency-based education. Locally he is leading the rebuild of VUSM’s custom digital learning platform and designing an educational data architecture that will be foundational to building a learning education system, implementing precision education, and supporting education-related innovation and research. Nationally, Dr. Stenner is expanding his presence and recognition, ensuring that Vanderbilt is engaged in the Association of American Medical College’s (AAMC) Group on Information Resources (GIR) Conference, participating as a member of the AAMC GIR Data Driven Academic Medical Centers Work Group, and active as a member of the MedBiquitous educational standards development program of the AAMC.

Dr. Stenner aims to establish Vanderbilt as a national leader of Precision Education by demonstrating successful precision education interventions in a learning health system environment. He is convinced that a learner-centric model which emphasizes professional learner outcomes and life-long learning is critical to achieving optimized patient outcomes. Dr. Stenner envisions a future in which Vanderbilt-authored educational technologies empower master adaptive learners around the world, ensuring learners’ educational data and artifacts are interoperable, longitudinal, personalized, adaptive, and enduring.

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Kim Unertl, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics in the School of Medicine at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Unertl received her B.S. in biomedical engineering from Marquette University and M.S. and PhD in biomedical informatics from Vanderbilt University. Her current research focuses on the intersection of health information technology and clinical workflow, including the design and implementation of technology. Dr. Unertl’s primary interest for research settings include chronic disease care and community engagement. She also works toward development of evidence-based strategies for organizational change management during technology implementation.

She is the past chair of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) People and Organizational Issues Working Group (POI-WG) and serves as a member of the AMIA POI-WG Diana Forsythe Award Committee.

Beyond her research, Dr. Unertl is a nationally-recognized leader in development of new pathways into the biomedical informatics field. She directs the Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI) summer programs for high school and undergraduate students and is co-PI of DBMI’s NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site, the Program for Access to Training in Health Informatics (REU-PATHI). She is also co-founder and co-director of the NLM-funded AMIA High School Scholars Program, which brings high school students to the annual AMIA Symposium to present their research and build connections to the biomedical informatics community. She was awarded the DBMI Outstanding Educator Award in 2016 and was inducted into the Vanderbilt School of Medicine’s Academy for Excellence in Education in 2017.

She is currently the At-Large Member of the ACMI Executive Committee and serves in other leadership roles at AMIA.

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Asli Ozdas Weitkamp, PhD, FAMIA, is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) with research, teaching and operational responsibilities. She directs the Knowledge Engineering Portfolio in Health IT at VUMC, overseeing the curation of a variety of knowledge bases that drive clinical decision support (CDS) applications integrated into VUMC's clinical systems. 

She has contributed significantly as a principal investigator or co-investigator on extramural grants, authored over 30 peer reviewed manuscripts published in leading journals in the field, and presented numerous abstracts at national conferences. 

She has been an invited lecturer in a variety of graduate level courses and has been the course director for the "Data to Knowledge: Clinical Data Standards" as well as the "Practicum Experience" courses for the Master's in Applied Clinical Informatics (MSACI) program. Dr. Weitkamp has been a member of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) since 2004, serving on AMIA committees including the Scientific Program Committee. 

Research Interests: Designing, developing, and implementing CDS that improve key organizational performance metrics including quality, safety, and resource utilization in a fashion that brings the largest value to the organization, its providers and patients while creating the least possible workflow disruption. Sustainable and sharable decision support, knowledge engineering, clinical knowledge management processes. Current research effort focuses on clinical knowledge management best practices within the framework of sharable, interoperable, and sustainable Clinical Decision Support.

Formerly a MS in Applied Clinical Informatics student (Fall 2022-Spring 2024) and fellow of the DBMI Clinical Informatics Program

Originally from Chicago, Dr. Julie Bauml is a private practice radiologist. She graduated medical school from UI Chicago in 2010 and did her radiology residency there as well, and completed an MRI fellowship at UW Madison. She has worked as an attending physician at Mercy Hospital in Chicago, an assistant professor in radiology at UI Chicago Hospital, and most recently for private practice in Elmhurst, IL.

"Working in various environments has shown me how much opportunity there is for improving medicine with health informatics. The same issues keep cropping up: high volumes, inefficient paperwork, burned out providers and overly complex systems for patients to navigate. I would really like to draw on my experiences to improve the environment for medical providers and patients alike so that the entire system can be more sustainable."

Dr. Bauml started her 2‐year clinical informatics fellowship in July 2022 and as part of it, enrolled in the MS‐ ACI program as well. Her interests are in the world of imaging informatics including process improvements, AI/ML solutions (both interpretive and non‐interpretive), inter‐facility data sharing, and patient outreach.

Read more about Dr. Bauml on the VUMC Radiology page here.

Fall 2022-Spring 2024

Adam is native of Middle Tennessee and has been a part of the Vanderbilt community since 1997. He completed his undergraduate studies in electrical and biomedical engineering and immediately started working in healthcare informatics at VUMC. Professionally, he started working as an analyst/developer at VUMC in the anesthesia and perioperative space. Currently, he works as a director in HealthIT responsible for technical ownership of clinical applications in the perioperative and procedural space across our health system.

In the MS‐ACI program, he hopes to gain greater exposure and knowledge of clinical informatics outside of the periop arena and to build relationships within the program that can foster innovation and concepts to better the field of healthcare informatics.

Fall 2022-Spring 2024

I am an ophthalmologist practicing at the Vanderbilt Eye Institute where I see and surgically treat patients with glaucoma. In the ophthalmology department, I am also the glaucoma fellowship program director and involved with resident education and interviewing. With an interest in technology, I have been part of the department's Epic physician build team to help modify and optimize the EHR for our ophthalmologists and optometrists. I also have been involved in department projects, both research and operations, to assist in extracting information from the EHR or in interpreting the data with statistics.

In the MS‐ACI program, I am hoping to learn about more than just informatics' current applications in ophthalmology. I am interested in learning the potential of informatics to leverage the years of clinical data and imaging studies obtained on our department's patients to speed diagnosis and assist making treatment decisions. Along the way, I hope to establish connections with others in non‐ophthalmology roles to get a different perspective and to share ideas and techniques.

Fall 2022-Spring 2024 (Omnicell Fellow)

My name is Nick Goldsmith, and I will be completing this program as part of my Post‐Doctoral Informatics Fellowship. My fellowship is sponsored by Omnicell, but I will be working at VUMC. I recently completed my PharmD and Master of Health‐Services Administration at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in Erie, PA. Prior to professional school, I completed my BS in Biological Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh.

Professionally, I hope to be a leader in health‐system pharmacy operations or work in industry pharmacy in automation and technology. I hope to gain more formal training in informatics during this program, so that I could leverage that knowledge to advance pharmacy operations in a hospital setting. I hope to bridge the gap of knowledge that is often present between clinicians, administrators, and people in informatics or data science. Already having experience in the clinical pharmacy and administrative aspects, I feel I bring good value, but there is a lot I could learn from the informatics perspective. I completed an administrative rotation with a director of pharmacy, that heavily involved implementing Omnicell technology, and using data to optimize workflow, but I feel as though I barely scratched the surface of what I can do as far as informatics goes. I am excited to work on Omnicell automation and technology projects at VUMC and believe this program will complement the work very well.

Read more about the Omnicell partnership with the MSACI program here.

Fall 2022-Spring 2024

Jay Patel graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a PharmD degree. He is now pursuing a fellowship with Omnicell, partnered with Henry Ford Hospital, in Michigan focused on clinical informatics.

He has a strong interest in understanding and improving the evolution and integration of digital technology within our healthcare system. He has experience with evaluating the current digital landscape, conducting epidemiological research, working directly with patients and healthcare professionals, and more. 

Read more about the Omnicell-MSACI partnership here.

Fall 2022-Spring 2024
I was born and raised right outside of Pittsburgh, PA and have been in Lexington, KY the last 6 years for school. I attended the University of Kentucky for two years of undergrad, followed by four years of pharmacy school. The last three years of receiving my PharmD, I was also in the evening MBA dual‐degree professional program. The MBA program allowed me to work with all genres of healthcare professionals and gain/respect different perspectives when it comes to business decisions. During those 3 years, I took the liberty to further expand my knowledge by receiving the Project Management and Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certifications through Transplace. Around the time of graduation, I accepted a post‐doctoral fellowship at Omnicell / Wake Forest Baptist Health.

During my advanced pharmacy practice rotations I took a healthcare informatics rotation, where I worked a lot with IT problem solving (i.e. ScriptPro and Epic interfaces), shadowing multiple administration meetings, and completing projects for a UK Clinic to help better standardize their pharmacy practices (updated call sheet, cheat sheet for billing codes, binder for IT tickets). What I am looking forward to the most in the MS‐ACI didactic portion is the chance to understand those interfaces on a more clinical level and appreciate all they can do to help streamline a healthcare facility.

Learn more about the Omnicell-MSACI partnership here.

Fall 2024-Spring 2026

Jacob Beckstead has been a research assistant at Vanderbilt University’s Pharmacology Department for eight years, investigating the roots of colorectal cancer metastasis and developing neuropharmacological research tools. His journey into clinical informatics began while investigating links between metastatic risk and atopic disease, where he manually reviewed thousands of patient records for study eligibility. This introduction to electronic health records (EHR) and the immense wealth of information they contain inspired me to pursue the efficient exchange of information between the research and clinical sectors. Additionally, the recent commercialization of large language models has opened new possibilities in data processing but has also introduced security risks. One of his chief goals as a researcher is to develop methods and policies to ensure the integrity of research models and the safety of patient data.

Fall 2024-Spring 2026

Tim Coffman is an application developer specializing in building SMART on FHIR applications and integrating them with VUMC eStar and EHRs at other institutions. His goal is to build and support an ecosystem of tools that enable clinicians, researchers, and others to build innovative new EHR-integrated tools as easily as possible. He's built systems here at VUMC to manage recurring oncology regimens, respond to voice queries, calculate risk factors for pneumonia and heart failure, and support exploring FHIR resources available in eStar.

Fall 2024-Spring 2026

Rebecca Flaherty is a program manager in the Department of Pharmacy at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City. She earned her bachelor's degree from New York University and later completed a Master of Public Health at Boston University, focusing on healthcare management. During her studies in Boston, she found particular interest in lean management, healthcare delivery systems, and digital disruption in health. She gained valuable experience as a data coordinator for the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) clinical pathways team at Brigham and Women's Hospital and deepened her understanding of patient quality and safety. Upon returning to New York, she joined Mount Sinai, initially working with the 340B drug pricing program team before transitioning to my current role. She collaborated closely with the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, particularly its subcommittees like the Medication Safety Committee and the Anticoagulation Steering Committee. Her focus lies in standardizing policies and practices across the system, leveraging systems approaches to identify vulnerabilities and enhance care efficiency for both patients and providers. 

Natalie Hsiao-Fang-Yen, MD, works as an internal medicine physician at Williamson Medical Center in Franklin, TN. Originally, she is from a small town called Wichita, Kansas. After earning her medical degree from the University of Limerick, Ireland, Dr. Hsiao-Fang-Yen completed her internal medicine residency at Meharry Medical College. She continues to mentor medical students at her Irish alma mater and supports educational activities as a community faculty member at the Thomas Frist College of Medicine. She worked as an investigator with clinical research organizations in the past where she performed studies involving stem cell treatments for osteoarthritis, COVID vaccines, and therapies for advanced asthma.

She is currently pursuing a Master’s in Applied Clinical Informatics at Vanderbilt University and is an active member of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA). Her research interests include workflow optimization in hospital settings, improving patient safety measures, and the use of artificial intelligence to help identify and diagnose disease.

Fall 2024-Spring 2026

Sarah Stern is a resident at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, I participated in the residency program’s clinical informatics pathway, which sparked my interested in clinical informatics. As a resident and chief resident, she participated as a physician builder working on projects ranging from resident workflow optimization, clinical documentation efficiency, harmonization between two different EHR instances, to inpatient hypoglycemia risk modeling.

She is an internal medicine physician working in the walk-in clinics during the fellowship but love practicing both inpatient and outpatient general medicine! She looks forward to delving deeper into informatics during the MS-ACI program and informatics fellowship, especially using informatics and data to make care better for patients and more efficient for clinicians.

Molly Talman is a clinical fellow in pediatric hematology and oncology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She intends to become a clinician-scholar with a focus on clinical informatics approaches to address challenges in cancer care delivery in pediatric oncology. She aims to evaluate and utilize emerging technologies to determine their suitability in clinical use and improve patient care, including incorporation of evidence-based guidelines. She hopes to use this program to provide didactic instruction and a solid foundational background in clinical informatics, health information technology, and clinical decision support. She plans to use the knowledge and skills she gains in the MS-ACI program to supplement her fellowship research project during which she proposed to develop and test a tool to streamline creation of care plans for survivors of pediatric cancer.