November 16, 2021

Integrating Pragmatic Trials into Clinical Care: Challenges and Opportunities

Matthew Semler, MD

Assistant Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Informatics

Division of Allergy, Pulmonary, and Critical Care Medicine

Vanderbilt University

Dr. Semler is a critical care physician and federally funded researcher who seeks to understand the effects of common ICU interventions on patient outcomes by conducting randomized trials embedded into clinical care as part of a “Learning Healthcare System.” Dr. Semler’s trials, including five published in the New England Journal of Medicine or JAMA, have challenged longstanding dogma around common practices in fluid management, airway management, and respiratory support.

Watch a recording of Dr. Semler's presentation here

December 14, 2021

How Pulse Oximeter Bias was Ignored for Decades and Why that is Changing Now

Michael Sjoding, MD

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care

University of Michigan

Dr. Michael Sjoding is an assistant professor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care at the University of Michigan. He completed medical school at Loyola University in Chicago, internal medicine training at the University of Chicago, and a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care fellowship at the University of Michigan. He also completed a masters degree in health care research at the University of Michigan. He studies the epidemiology, care delivery and outcomes of patients with the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome and other acute respiratory diseases. One particular focus is in using data science and machine-learning approaches to develop new computational tools to support care of critically ill patients. His research is funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, and National Science Foundation.

Mike and his wife live in Ann Arbor with their three young boys, ages 2, 5, and 7. 

November 25, 2022

Talk title TBD

Lauren Ferrante, MD, MHS

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine

Yale School of Medicine

Dr. Ferrante is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Section of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine and Director of the Operations Core at the Yale Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center.  Her research program is centered at the interface of critical care medicine and geriatrics, with the overarching goal of understanding and improving the functional outcomes of critically ill older adults.  Her work has been recognized with the ANZICS Intensive Care Global Rising Star Award (2018), the inaugural Arti Hurria Memorial Award for Emerging Investigators in the Subspecialties of Internal Medicine (2019), and the American Geriatrics Society Outstanding Junior Investigator of the Year award (2021).  Her work is currently funded by a Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders in Aging Career Development Award from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a COVID supplement from the NIA, the Yale Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, and the Pepper Coordinating Center.  Clinically, she is an attending physician at Yale-New Haven Hospital, where she cares for patients in the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) and the Post-COVID Recovery Program.

March 22, 2022

Talk Title TBD

Kathryn H. Bowles, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI

Professor of Nursing and van Ameringen Chair

School of Nursing

University of Pennsylvania

Throughout her career, Dr. Bowles’ research has focused on the use of information technology and health informatics to improve healthcare for at-risk older adults and support healthcare providers’ efforts to improve planning and provide transitional care following hospital discharge, thereby reducing hospital readmissions. Her ongoing studies, funded primarily by NIH, include the development of decision support tools to determine the best site of care for those needing post-discharge services; telehealth technology applications; the effect of home care and post-acute referrals on patient outcomes; and evaluation of electronic health records.  

Currently, one area of Dr. Bowles’ research involves using electronic monitoring and technologically-advanced devices that help patients monitor pulse rates, oxygen levels, weight, blood sugar and other health factors at home. In one study, patients received stethoscopes and technology-assisted devices that allowed office-based nurses to hear heartbeats and breath sounds remotely.  Engaging patients through telehealth technology – instead of keeping information and managing it exclusively through a physician’s office – allows patients to become partners with medical professionals in managing chronic conditions and post-discharge care, which improves self care and helps prevent re-hospitalizations. 

Dr. Bowles teaches and mentors doctoral students at Penn Nursing to build their own research and information technology solutions. She is director of the Health Informatics Minor at Penn and lectures widely on her research into self-care technology. Dr. Bowles also works with students from multiple disciplines at Penn through the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, where she is a Senior Fellow, and the Center for Integrative Sciences in Aging, where she is the director. Collaboration with the Visiting Nurse Service of New York provides opportunities for research in the growing home health care sector. 

April 18, 2022

Talk Title TBD

Lee A. Fleisher, MD

Chief Medical Officer and Director

Center for Clinical Standards and Quality, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Professor of Anesthesiology & Critical Care

Professor of Medicine

Perelman School of Medicine

Senior Fellow

Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics

University of Pennsylvania

Lee A. Fleisher, MD, was named the Chief Medical Officer and Director of the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in July 2020.  In this capacity, he is responsible for executing all national clinical, quality, and safety standards for healthcare facilities and providers, as well as establishing coverage determinations for items and services that improve health outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries. He is also Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care and Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.  From 2004 through July 2020, he was the Robert D. Dripps Professor and Chair of Anesthesiology and Critical Care and Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Lee received his medical degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, from which he received the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2011. His research focuses on perioperative cardiovascular risk assessment and reduction, measurement of quality of care, decision making, implementation of cultural change and health policy.  He has received numerous federal, industry and foundation grants related to these subjects and has published 175+ original articles, over 200 editorials, reviews and book chapters, and 9 books and collaborates with anthropologists, sociologists, as well as faculty from law, business and nursing.

He was Treasurer of the Board of Directors and Chair of the Finance Committee of the National Quality Forum.   He was a member of the Care Transformation Forum (CTF) of the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network (LAN) He is currently an Affiliated Faculty of the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice and pursuing a Master in Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.   His is a Senior Fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics.   In 2007, he was elected to membership of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly Institute of Medicine) of the National Academy of Sciences and served on Committees of the NAM. 

May 31, 2022

Talk Title TBD

Elie Azoulay, MD, PhD

Professor of Medicine,

Paris Diderot University

June 14, 2022

Talk Title TBD

Lisa Barnes, PhD

Alla V. and Solomon Jesmer Professor

Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine

Rush University Medical Center

Lisa L. Barnes, PhD is the Alla V. and Solomon Jesmer Professor of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine at Rush University Medical Center. Trained as a cognitive neuropsychologist, she received her PhD from the University of Michigan and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in cognitive neuroscience at the University of California, Davis. Her research interests include disparities in chronic diseases of aging, cognitive decline, and risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease.