Past Grand Rounds

Dr. Jonathan Thierman is the Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO) for Lifebridge Health and the Vice-Chairman of the Medical Staff for Northwest Hospital. He is leading Lifebridge into the digital medicine era with initiatives including a system telehealth platform and big data analytics, to improve patient throughput, system efficiencies, and the delivery of quality care across the continuum. He also oversees and continues to work on projects related to physician system optimization and engagement.
Prior to his role as CMIO, Dr. Thierman served as Associ¬ate Medical Director of Northwest Hospital’s Emergency Department where he also provided clinical care for a number of years. He continues to practice at both Sinai and North¬west Hospitals’ EDs.
Dr. Thierman holds a Ph.D. in mechanical and biomedical engineering from the Health Sciences and Technology Program at MIT. He earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and completed a residency in Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins, where he was chair of the Emergency Medicine Informatics Committee. He is a fellow of the American College of Emergency Medicine and continues to practice in the Emergency Departments at Lifebridge.

Peter Henryk Dziedzic is the founder and director of the Center of mHealth and Innovations at Johns Hopkins University, Department of Neurology. Peter Dziedzic received his Master of Science Degree in Applied Information Technology from Towson University, Maryland in 2002 followed by a Graduate Certificate in Science of Clinical Investigation from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2010. Mr. Dziedzic is currently a candidate for the Master of Science in Technical Innovation Management Program at The Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, 2020. Mr. Dziedzic holds a faculty position as a Research Associate in the Department of Neurology. Mr. Dziedzic area of interest is in data informatics and modern computational technologies role in current Clinical Decision Support Systems. Mr. Dziedzic has developed enterprise-level software to support clinical research laboratories and groups as well as standalone mobile applications to improve patient outcomes, delivering clinical education, and improving the clinical decision process. Mr. Dziedzic championed and oversaw the implementation of Sickbay, multimodality clinical and research acquisition at Neuro Critical Care Unit at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Dr Jose I Suarez graduated from Javeriana University School of Medicine in Bogota, Colombia. He subsequently trained in Internal Medicine in Bogota and at Beth Israel Hospital in New York City. Then he completed his Neurology residency at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH and pursued a fellowship in Neurocritical Care and Stroke at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD (USA). After completion of his training Dr Suarez joined the faculty at the Departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery at Case Western Reserve University where he became the Maxine Stone and John A Flower Chair of acute neurology. He then became the Head of Vascular Neurology and Neurocritical and a tenured Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery at the Baylor College of Medicine and the CHI Baylor St Luke’s Medical Center in Houston, TX (USA) from 02/2007 – 07/2017. He is currently the Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Neurology, and Neurosurgery and Director of the Neurocritical Care Division at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. Dr Suarez has authored or co-authored over 150 publications in the areas of stroke and critical care neurology and neurosurgery in reputable journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Stroke, Critical Care Medicine, and Neurology. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Stroke and Neurocritical Care and is the editor of several books including the Critical Care Neurology and Neurosurgery textbook. He is also a member of the Board of Directors and Secretary of the Neurocritical Care Society. In addition he has been featured in Best Doctors in America for the past 10 years. Dr Suarez areas of research interest include subarachnoid hemorrhage, acute ischemic stroke, cerebral edema, and outcomes in neurocritical care. He has been the principal investigators or co-investigator in important clinical trials investigating neuprotection, blood pressure management, and stem cell infusions in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage, intracranial hemorrhage, and subarachnoid hemorrhage, and cerebral physiology at high altitude and human space travel ground analogs. Dr Suarez was the PI for the NINDS-funded ALISAH Multicenter Pilot Study and is the PI for the ALISAH II International Multicenter Phase II clinical trial. Dr Suarez also has been a member of DSMB for several Phase III clinical trials including the NINDS-funded TBI in Latin America Lifespan Analysis and a member of the Executive Committee for the NINDS-funded ATACH II Trial. Dr Suarez is the principal investigator for the HANAK Project, which is looking to establish a high-altitude research center in Quito, Ecuador. Dr Suarez is a co-investigator for the SPACE-COT and SPACE-CENT Studies both funded by NSBRI/NASA and investigating the intracranial effects of space travel on intracranial physiology in earth analogs. He receives research funding from the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS/NIH) and NSBRI/NASA in the USA, and Yachay from the Government of Ecuador. Dr Suarez has served at several research study sections including NSD-K (NINDS/NIH), BRAIN (AHA/ASA), Hong Kong Research Council. Dr Suarez was the founder of the Neurocritical Care Research Network (NCRN), which is composed of 260 neurocritical care units and investigators from 47 centers and have recently completed the PRINCE Study, the first observational study investigating the practice of neurocritical care.

Dr. Smisha Agarwal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research advances maternal and child health through the innovative use of digital tools for clinical decision-support and the use of predictive analytics-based algorithms to improve quality of care. Over the last decade, she has developed methods to evaluate the impact of health programs that employ mobile tools and led a series of Cochrane reviews commissioned by the WHO to develop global guidelines on digital health. In addition, Dr. Agarwal serves as a technical advisor to the WHO on developing global guidelines for digital health, as well as on numerous global advisory panels to strengthen health management information systems in low-and-middle income countries. Her work is largely focused in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Haiti, Bangladesh and India. She has an MPH and MBA from Johns Hopkins, and a PhD from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Dan Lemkin has been a practicing Emergency Medicine Physician at the University of Maryland School of Medicine since 2003. He has served as the Department of Emergency Medicines Director of Informatics and IT since 2005. His team of software developers, and IT professionals support 14 emergency departments across the University of Maryland Medical System. Over the last 14 years he has developed hundreds of technology innovations to improve the workflows of his physicians and staff. He joined the UMMS IT department in 2012 and has helped in the design and product development of the Epic EHR platform in the role of System Physician Architect. With is IT peers, he started the UMMS physician builder program in 2014 and has a team of 10 funded physicians, NPs, and PAs from various specialties which work to improve provider facing EHR tools. Their focus is on improving patient safety, quality, finance, and operational efficiency. Since 2016 Dan has served as a Co-director of the University of Maryland, Baltimore Center for Healthcare Innovation. This Center’s mission is to facilitate development of research and clinical projects which leverage technology to improve patient care and experiences. In 2019, Dan won Epic’s National Physician Academy Award for the physician who has had the greatest positive impact on the Epic EHR community in the past year. He continues to work on projects which leverage technology to improve healthcare at UMMS.

Dr. Eun-Shim Nahm is a Professor and the Program Director for the Nursing Informatics program at the University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON). She also serves as a co-director of the Biology and Behavior Across the Lifespan Center of Excellence at the UMSON. Her research focuses on the use of technology-based interventions to engage patients and their caregivers in their care and to promote self-management. She has conducted various studies in this field, including qualitative, measurement. theory testing, and usability studies, as well as longitudinal intervention trials. Dr. Nahm is the recipient of multiple grant awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). In her recent R21 study, her team is investigating effects of a theory-based patient portal eLearning program on selected health-related outcomes in older adults with chronic illnesses” (AHRQ, R21HS024739 , 07/2016–06/2019). Additionally, with the grant from the MHEC Nursing Support Program II grant, she developed and implemented an RN-BSN focus area, “Care Coordination with Health IT,” which is the first focus area among RN-BSN programs. She has published more than 65 peer-reviewed journal articles and five book chapters in her area of expertise. She has also given numerous presentations at regional, national, and international scientific conferences. At the UMSON, Dr. Nahm teaches graduate-level nursing informatics courses and doctoral-level research courses and has mentored numerous graduate and doctoral students, as well as junior faculty members. She also coordinates all nursing informatics practicum placements and serves as an executive planning group member for the Summer Institute in Nursing Informatics.

Stephanie S. Poe is director of nursing, and clinical quality, and is the chief nursing information officer at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. She holds a joint appointment with The Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She is a respected author and speaker on a wide variety of interdisciplinary quality, safety, informatics, and evidence-based practice topics. Poe was one of the original developers of the Johns Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice (JHNEBP) Model. She has extensive experience developing EBP competencies in nurse leaders and bedside nurses, and guiding clinical information system design to embed evidence-based nursing practices into clinical work flow.

Dr. Gibbons is the Founder and CEO of The Greystone Group, a digital health research, innovation and strategy consulting firm. Greystone focuses on health sector ecosystem visioning & design, health innovation, diversity populations and emerging health sector revenue models. Dr. Gibbons is also the Chief Health Innovation Adviser at the Federal Communications Commission’s Connect2Health Task Force and a Visiting Professor at Duke University Schools of Medicine. Dr. Gibbons research focuses on the role of digital technologies in health and healthcare particularly for underserved populations. Previously Dr. Gibbons was an Associate Director at the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute and an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Public Health and Health Informatics at Johns Hopkins schools of Medicine and Public Health. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Alabama and then completed a federal health policy fellowship at CMS as well as a residency in Preventive Medicine, a basic science research fellowship and a Master of Public Health degree all from Johns Hopkins.

Dr Borotkanics’ interdisciplinary expertise applies a range of biostatistics approaches to a variety of biomedical, clinical, health services research and public health research collaborations. His current research collaborations include cancer (breast, prostate, liver), toxicology (chemical and pharmaceutical safety, alternatives to animal testing) and biomarkers (prostate). He is the lead statistician on a number clinical trials (diabetes, orthopedics, child health), including multiple international trials in the United States, Australia and the European Union.
He has served in numerous capacities over his career. Dr. Borotkanics is actively involved in toxicology policy. He was in the civil service at the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). He served as a government project officer on a US Institute of Medicine report, “Patient Safety: Achieving a New Standard for Care.” Dr. Borotkanics is a former Guest Researcher at the US National Institutes of Health, within the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. He was also a US National Institutes of Health’s of Informatics Research Fellow.

Danny Lee, M.D., practices internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Community Physicians Odenton. He received his medical degree from Albany Medical College, and completed residencies in radiation oncology at Mount Sinai Medical Center and internal medicine at University of Rochester Medical Center. Dr. Lee is board-certified in internal medicine.

Andrew Mellin, MD, MBA, is Vice President of Medical Informatics at Surescripts, where he helps the Surescripts Network Alliance improve the care experience for both providers and patients with a focus on technology and smart workflow solutions. Dr. Mellin has over 20 years of experience in health information technology, patient quality and safety, consumer health and EHR implementation and adoption. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and worked as a part-time hospitalist in St. Paul, MN for 15 years.

Ram D. Sriram is currently the chief of the Software and Systems Division, Information Technology Laboratory, at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Before joining the Software and Systems Division, Sriram was the leader of the Design and Process group in the Manufacturing Systems Integration Division, Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory, where he conducted research on standards for interoperability of computer-aided design systems. Prior to joining NIST, he was on the engineering faculty (1986-1994) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and was instrumental in setting up the Intelligent Engineering Systems Laboratory. Sriram has co-authored or authored more than 250 publications, including several books. Sriram was a founding co-editor of the International Journal for AI in Engineering. Sriram received several awards including: an NSF’s Presidential Young Investigator Award (1989); ASME Design Automation Award (2011); ASME CIE Distinguished Service Award (2014); the Washington Academy of Sciences’ Distinguished Career in Engineering Sciences Award (2015); ASME CIE division’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2016); and CMU CEE Lt. Col. Christopher Raible Distinguished Public Service Award (2018). Sriram is a Fellow of ASME, AAAS, IEEE and Washington Academy of Sciences, a Distinguished Member (life) of ACM and a Senior Member (life) of AAAI. Sriram has a B.Tech. from IIT, Madras, India, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA.

The Center for Population Health IT (CPHIT) is a new interdisciplinary research and development center at Johns Hopkins. CPHIT seeks to improve the health and well-being of populations by advancing the state-of-the-art of Health IT across public and private health organizations and systems.

Malinda Peeples, MS,RN, CDE, FAADE is the Vice President of Clinical Services, Programs, and Research at WellDoc, a digital health company focused on chronic disease care. In this role at WellDoc over the last decade Malinda has been a leader and champion in the digital health arena. She has been at the forefront of defining the digital health domain and remodeling how practitioners implement these clinically effective and cost containing innovative tools. By background Malinda is a registered nurse, certified diabetes educator and clinical and informatics nurse specialist. She earned a Master’s degree and completed a postgraduate research fellowship in health sciences informatics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She currently serves as an Adjunct Assistant Faculty member in the Division of Healthcare Informatics at Johns Hopkins. Malinda has been a dedicated volunteer for numerous local and national professional organizations. In 2005-2006 she served as President of the American Association of Diabetes Educators and in 2018 she was awarded their Allen Van Son Distinguished Service Award.

Muhammad Abdul-Mageed is Assistant Professor of Computational Linguistics, Information Science, and Computer Science and Director of the Natural Language Processing Lab at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He is a core fundamental methods member of UBC Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems and Centre for Artificial Intelligence Decision-making and Action. His research focuses on developing novel deep learning methods for natural language socio-pragmatics, with a goal to build `social’ machines to enhance human health and well-being. Dr. Abdul-Mageed has published more than 40 research papers in the areas of natural language processing and deep learning of natural language. His research has been funded by Google, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and Canada Foundation for Innovation. Dr. Abdul-Mageed completed a dual Ph.D. in Computational Linguistics and Information Science at Indiana University in 2015. Before UBC, he was a Visiting Scholar in the Center for Computational Learning Systems, Columbia University (2010-2012), a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Computer Science at the George Washington University (2012-2015), a Visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Informatics and Computing, Indiana University (2015-2016), and a Visiting Scholar in the World Well-Being Project, University of Pennsylvania (2016-2018). He has been serving as a member of the standing reviewing committee for Transactions of the Association for Computational Linguistics (TACL) since 2013.

Sanjay Agravat, MS, PhD
Machine Learning Architect
Google Cloud
(Not webcasted but recorded- will update with a link for the recording)

Caitlin Carter, MLIS, is the Scholarly Communication and Open Access Policy Fellow at the William H. Welch Medical Library at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. After graduating from the University of Maryland, she began a career in IT government contracting before returning to Maryland to pursue her MLIS. At Maryland she worked in both a Collection Development role and in supporting the Open Access digital repository (DRUM) where she discovered the importance of scholarly communication and open access initiatives in academic libraries. Upon graduating she worked at Franklin & Marshall College as the Research and Scholarly Communications Librarian before returning to a research institution setting in 2018. At Franklin & Marshall, she grew interest in adopting and creating open educational resources, and started the campus' first Open Access Publishing Fund. Now at Johns Hopkins, her primary responsibilities are to socialize the new campus-wide Open Access Policy among faculty and to educate patrons about author rights and resources, open access publishing and open science.