Duke Institute for Health Innovation Announces 2023 Innovation Awards

Duke Health leaders have selected seven high-potential innovation projects to be implemented as part of the Duke Institute for Health Innovation (DIHI)’s annual call for project ideas in Automation to Enhance Healthcare Operational Efficiency. In addition to providing funding for these projects, the DIHI team will work with various Duke Health and Duke University partners to provide access to data, analytics, statistical analysis, machine learning and AI resources, while driving project and implementation management.

“Our commitment to innovation at Duke Health remains strong, as evidenced by the strong slate of projects brought forward by our clinical teams at the forefront of patient care,” said Tom Owens, MD, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Duke University Health System (DUHS) and Executive Director for DIHI. “The winning teams, selected from a highly competitive pool of applications will have significant impact on automating processes, helping us realize greater efficiencies while bringing the highest-quality care to our patients,” he added.

2023 DIHI Innovation Projects: Principal Innovators and team

Automating CMS Quality Measure Curation

  • Cara O’Brien, MD, Associate Vice Chair of Inpatient Services, Dept. of Medicine
  • Dustin Tart, RN, Duke University Hospital
  • Kai Deshpande, MD, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care

Automating Behavioral Health Evaluation in Primary Care

  • Mya Sendak, MD, Pediatrician, Durham Pediatrics, Duke Primary Care
  • Lisa Ferrari, MD, Practice Medical Director, Durham Pediatrics, Duke Primary Care
  • Sara Johnson, MBA, Director, Population Health, Duke Primary Care
  • Kitty O’Hare, MD, Senior Medical Director for Pediatrics, Duke Primary Care
  • David Halpern, MD, Medical Director, Population Health, Duke Primary Care
  • Gary Maslow, MD, Director of Child and Family Mental Health and Community Psychiatry
  • Richard Chung, MD, Adolescent Health, Duke Children’s Primary Care
  • Carolyn Avery, MD, Practice Medical Director, Duke Children’s Primary Care

Using Machine Learning to Appropriately Triage Patients with Low Back Pain (LBP)

  • Muhammad Abd-El-Barr MD, PhD – Neurosurgery, Orthopedic Surgery
  • Christine Goertz, DC, PhD – Orthopedic Surgery, DCRI
  • Oren Gottfried, MD – Neurosurgery
  • Walter Wiggins MD, PhD – Radiology
  • Timothy Dunn, PhD – Biomedical Engineering
  • Shilpa Shelton – Service Line VP, Musculoskeletal, Spine, and Rehabilitative Services

Automated Post-Hospitalization Track for Patients Discharged on Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy (OPAT)

  • Molly Hillenbrand, MD, Fellow, Infectious Diseases
  • Michael Yarrington, MD, MMCi, Medical Director of Informatics & Analytics, ID
  • Kristen Dicks, MD, MPH, Vice-Chief for Clinical Affairs, ID; Medical Director, Parenteral Antibiotic Therapy Program

EASY Telehealth Care: Optimizing telehealth in rheumatology

  • David Leverenz, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Rheumatology and Immunology
  • Jayanth Doss, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Rheumatology and Immunology
  • Mary Solomon, Associate in research, Department of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics
  • Megan Clowse, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Division of Rheumatology and Immunology
  • Isaac Smith, MD, Medical Instructor, Department of Medicine
  • Edna Scarlett, Clinical Research Coordinator III, Duke University Medical Center

Machine Learning for Interpreting PFTs: Improving operational efficiency of pulmonary medicine

  • Kaivalya Deshpande, MD, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care
  • Daniel Guidot, MD MPH, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care
  • Aparna Swaminathan, MD, Assistant Professor, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care

Automated Patient Care Assignment: Accelerating every-day operational efficiency

  • Zahra Mahbooba, MPH, Performance Services
  • Eliseu Chuang, MD, MHA, Hospital Medicine, Associate Medical Director
  • Nadia Pasha, MD, Hospital Medicine, Associate Medical Director
  • Ruwan Gamarallage, MD, Hospitalist
  • Nathaniel Thompson, MD, Hospitalist
  • Vanitha Gopal, MD, Hospitalist
  • Peter Berry, DNP, ACNO, Inpatient Nursing
  • Katia Ferguson, MSN, Clinical Operations Director, Inpatient Nursing
  • Kelsey Seidl, MSN, Clinical Operations Director, Oncology
  • Diane Mitchell, MHA, Operations Administration, Administrative Director
  • Tiffany Taylor, MHA, Operation Administration, Manager
  • Dawn Dolby, Operations Coordinator
  • Ethel Houston, Bed Placement Coordinator
  • Barbara Griffith, MD, President, Duke Raleigh Hospital

DIHI will begin working with the project teams on design and development of ideas into implementable solutions. For an update on projects funded and implemented through the previous RFAs, please refer to the DIHI Impact Report Volume 23. For further information, please contact Suresh Balu.