Director
HIT and technology usability, event analysis
Email: matt.weinger@vumc.org
Phone: (615) 936-6598
Fax: (615) 936-7373
Core Faculty
Director, Center for Research and Innovation in Systems Safety (CRISS)
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Norman Ty Smith Chair in Patient Safety and Medical Simulation
Professor of Anesthesiology, Biomedical Informatics, and Medical Education
Vice Chair for Faculty Affairs, Department of Anesthesiology
Director of Simulation Research
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Fellow
Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
Email: matt.weinger@vumc.org
Phone: (615) 936-6598
Fax: (615) 936-7373
Dr. Matthew B. Weinger, the Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Research and Innovation in Systems Safety, holds the Norman Ty Smith Chair in Patient Safety and Medical Simulation and is a Professor of Anesthesiology, Biomedical Informatics, and Medical Education at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He is also the Director of the Simulation Technologies Program of Vanderbilt’s Center for Experiential Learning and Assessment. Dr. Weinger has been teaching and conducting research in anesthesia patient safety, human factors engineering, and clinical decision making for more than two decades. Dr. Weinger has received more than $7.5 million in direct research support from federal agencies and major non-profit foundations. He has over 170 publications that cover a range of topics including simulation, human factors, use error, user interface design and evaluation, measures of clinician performance, workload, alarms and vigilance, clinical expertise, automation, clinician fatigue, and clinical decision support. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a Master’s degree in Biology (neurosciences) from Stanford University in 1978. He completed his MD degree at the University of California–San Diego in 1982 and did his anesthesiology residency training at the University of California–San Francisco. Dr. Weinger is Co-Chairman of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) Human Factors Committee that is responsible for developing American national standards for all medical device user interfaces. He is the Associate Editor for Health and Health Systems for the journal Human Factors and on the Editorial Board of Simulation in Healthcare. Dr. Weinger is also the Secretary of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation, a Fellow in the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES), and serves as an advisor for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
B.S. – Electrical Engineering, Stanford University
M.S. – Biological Sciences, Stanford University
M.D. – University of California, San Diego
Internal Medicine Internship – Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Anesthesia Residency – University of California, San Francisco
Postdoctoral Research Fellowship – University of California, San Diego
Fellowship in Management of Perioperative Services – Stanford University
Research Associate Professor
HIT UI design and evaluation
Email: shilo.anders@vumc.org
Phone: (615) 936-4343
Core Faculty
Research Associate Professor (Department of Anesthesiology, Biomedical Informatics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science)
Email: shilo.anders@vumc.org
Phone: (615) 936-4343
Dr. Shilo Anders’ research applies approaches from human factors engineering to improve patient safety in healthcare. She is interested in research on system design, individual and team performance and decision making, and improvements in patient safety and care quality. Dr. Anders is helping to make health information technology (HIT) more efficient, effective and be better integrated into the clinical workflow through user-centered design, workflow analysis, and cognitive task analysis. In addition, she is applying human factors engineering methods to design, develop, and evaluate patient-facing healthcare technologies.
Human-centered design, human factors engineering, human-computer interaction, patient safety, informatics
B.A. – Social Science/Psychology, University of Montana-Western
M.A. – Experimental/Human Factors Psychology, University of Dayton
Ph.D. – Industrial & Systems Engineering, Ohio State University
Postdoctoral Research Fellowship – Vanderbilt University
(Refer to Dr. Ander’s Google Scholar page for a full list)
Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology,
Assistant Professor of Surgery
Education and training, event management
Email: arna.banerjee@vumc.org
Core Faculty
Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology (Department of Anesthesiology, Division of Critical Care Medicine),
Assistant Professor of Surgery
Email: arna.banerjee@vumc.org
Arna Banerjee graduated from N.R.S. Medical College in India and then came to the United States in 1995 to join her family. While preparing for the USMLE Board Exams she worked on clinical trials in rheumatoid arthritis as well basic research in reproductive biology. In 1998 she joined the Department of Anesthesiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center as a resident. During this time she developed an interest in Critical Care Medicine and decided to pursue a fellowship in Critical Care. Dr. Banerjee is married to Saptarshi Biswas, a general surgeon. Upon completion of her fellowship she plans to join the faculty at Vanderbilt and VAH and divide her time between the ICUs and the operating rooms.
Rotating Internship – NRS Medical College, Calcutta, India
M.B.B.S. – NRS Medical College, Calcutta, India
Resident House Staffship – General Surgery, NRS Medical College, Calcutta, India
Residency – Anesthesiology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Fellowship – Critical Care Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Research Professor
Healthcare system modeling
Email: dan.france@vumc.org
Phone: (615) 322-1407
Core Faculty
Research Professor (Department of Anesthesiology, Department of Medicine, Biomedical Engineering)
Email: dan.france@vumc.org
Phone: (615) 322-1407
Fax: (615) 936-7373
Dr. France is a Research Professor of Anesthesiology, Medicine and Biomedical Engineering at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He is the Assistant Director of Vanderbilt’s Center for Improving Patient Safety, and a past member of the Executive Safety Council and Risk Management and Patient Safety Committee. Dr. France earned a doctorate in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University and a Master of Public Health from the University of Utah. He has also received advanced training in Healthcare Delivery Improvement from Intermountain Health Care in Salt Lake City, Utah. Prior to joining Vanderbilt, Dr. France worked as a systems engineer for the Department of Defense and private defense contractors. His professional focus is in health systems engineering and his primary research aims are to model and explain the relationships between hospital efficiency, provider performance, and patient safety. Dr. France is particularly interested in applying knowledge from other high-risk industries and methods from human factors and systems engineering to study and improve operational efficiency and individual and team performance in complex, high-risk clinical environments. He has active grant support from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundations, Department of Homeland Security, and Veteran’s Health Administration
B.S. – University of Louisville
M.S. – University of Louisville
Ph.D. – Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University
M.P.H. – University of Utah
Assistant Professor, Associate Director of Quality and Patient Safety
Lean six sigma, quality improvement, perioperative outcome-based research
Email: justin.s.liberman@vumc.org
Core Faculty
Assistant Professor (Department of Anesthesiology), Associate Director of Quality and Patient Safety (Department of Anesthesiology)
Email: justin.s.liberman@vumc.org
Phone: (615) 875-2831
Fax: (615) 936-7373
Dr. Liberman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. After completing medical school at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, he completed residency training in Anesthesiology at Virginia Mason Medical Center. During his time at Virginia Mason he became interested in the Virginia Mason Production system which started his interest in patient safety and quality improvement. Currently, Dr. Liberman serves as the Associate Director of Quality and Patient Safety for the Department of Anesthesiology. His research interests include Lean Six Sigma implementation in medicine, quality improvement, and perioperative outcome-based research.
Lean, Lean Interventions, Lean Thinking, Six Sigma, Quality Improvement, Patient Safety
B.A. – Chemistry, Whitman College
M.D. – University of Arizona
M.P.H. – Vanderbilt University
Anesthesiology Residency – Virginia Mason Medical Center
Veteran Affairs Quality Scholars Fellowship – Tennessee VA Healthcare System
Assistant Professor
Patient safety and quality improvement
Email: amanda.lorinc@vumc.org
Phone: (615) 936-0023
Fax: (615) 936-4294
Core Faculty
Assistant Professor (Pediatric Anesthesiology)
Email: amanda.lorinc@vumc.org
Phone: (615) 936-0023
Fax: (615) 936-4294
Dr. Lorinc is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. After completing medical school at the Medical College of Georgia, she completed her residency training in Anesthesiology followed by a fellowship in Pediatric Anesthesiology at Vanderbilt University. While in training, Dr. Lorinc became a B.H. Robbins scholar, performing basic science research on the hERG channel and its effect on cardiac electrophysiology. This work led to the prestigious AUA Resident Travel Award in May 2012. She joined the faculty in the Department of Anesthesiology in 2012 and practices at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. Her professional interests include patient safety and quality improvement.
B.S. – Exercise and Sports Science, University of Georgia
M.D. – Medical College of Georgia
Anesthesiology Residency – Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Pediatric Anesthesiology Fellowship – Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
(Generate a PDF of Dr. Lorinc’s curriculum vitae)
Assistant Professor
Impact of HIT on work patterns
Email: laurie.l.novak@vumc.org
Phone: (615) 936-6497
Fax: (615) 936-1427
Core Faculty
Assistant Professor (Department of Biomedical Informatics)
Email: laurie.l.novak@vumc.org
Phone: (615) 936-6497
Fax: (615) 936-1427
Laurie Lovett Novak, Ph.D., M.H.S.A., is an anthropologist specializing in medical and business/industrial applications, and is Assistant Professor in the Vanderbilt University Department of Biomedical Informatics. Her research has focused on the relationship between information systems and work in clinical settings, especially activities related to design and implementation of large-scale clinical informatics systems. Current projects focus on the implementation of AI in medicine, consent practices in biobanking, the development of conceptual resources and technology for understanding technology use in everyday contexts, and the experience of chronic illness and caregiving in everyday life. Other areas of interest include the social construction of risk and safety among clinicians and patients, and strategies employed by clinicians to create safety and time during the implementation of new technology. Dr. Novak also has a professional background in health care quality improvement and a master’s degree in health services management and policy from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. In the biomedical informatics training program, Dr. Novak teaches social science methods in multiple courses, and a Fall seminar: BMIF 7350: Technology & Society.
AI in medicine, patient and caregiver work, technology and society, design research
B.A. – Finance, Murray State University
M.H.S.A. – Health Management and Policy, University of Michigan
Ph.D. – Medical and Organizational Anthropology, Wayne State University
Associate Professor
HIT, alarm development, multisensory integration, music perception & cognition
Email: joseph.j.schlesinger@vanderbilt.edu
Phone: (615) 343-6268
Fax: (615) 943-6272
Core Faculty
Associate Professor (Department of Anesthesiology, Division of Critical Care Medicine)
Email: joseph.j.schlesinger@vanderbilt.edu
Phone: (615) 343-6268
Fax: (615) 343-6272
Dr. Schlesinger is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Division of Critical Care Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and Adjunct Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. After earning his Bachelor of Arts in Music with a concentration in Jazz Piano Performance from Loyola University in New Orleans, Dr. Schlesinger earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. He completed residency training in Anesthesiology followed by a fellowship in Critical Care Medicine at Vanderbilt University. While in training, Dr. Schlesinger became a B.H. Robbins scholar. Dr. Schlesinger’s research interests include multisensory integration, human factors, aural perception, temporal precision, alarm development, patient monitoring, and medical education. This work led to the prestigious 2014 Education Specialty Award from the Society of Critical Care Medicine. Besides his publication history in high-impact scientific journals, Dr. Schlesinger is a patented inventor and has been featured on the podcast “99 percent invisible,” CNN Health, and the New York Times.
B.A. – Music, Loyola University, New Orleans
M.D. – University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston
Anesthesiology Residency – Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Critical Care Fellowship – Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Associate Professor
Statistical computing and inference
Email: matt.shotwell@vumc.org
Phone: (615) 875-3397
Core Faculty
Associate Professor (Department of Biostatistics)
Email: matt.shotwell@vumc.org
Phone: (615) 875-3397
Dr. Matthew Shotwell is Associate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He is active in the American Statistical Association, currently serving as the Program Chair Elect for the Section on Statistical Graphics, as well as a Chapter Representative for the Middle Tennessee Chapter. Dr. Shotwell is also a member of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics.
B.S. – East Tennessee State University
M.S. – East Tennessee State University
Ph.D. – Medical University of South Carolina
Research Associate Professor
Task, workload and event analysis
Email: jason.slagle@vumc.org
Phone: (615) 936-5519
Core Faculty
Research Associate Professor
Email: jason.slagle@vumc.org
Phone: (615) 936-5519
Fax: (615) 936-7373
Dr. Slagle has a Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. He has conducted and published studies on performance differences related to anesthesiology resident experience and expertise, fatigue, and teaching during routine and non-routine situations. He plans to apply human factors techniques (e.g., job and task analysis and workload assessment) and observational methodologies in order to conduct further research here in the OR, ICU, simulated environments, and in other clinical settings in order to study the effects of a wide variety of factors (e.g., equipment and technology, experience and expertise, novel situations, provider characteristics, workload, team effectiveness and communication, motivational factors, production pressure, fatigue, etc.) on the performance of anesthesia care providers, nurses, and other clinicians as well as unexpected clinical events, medical errors, and medication events.
B.S. – Texas Tech University, Lubbock
M.S. – California School of Professional Psychology, San Diego
Ph.D. – Alliant International University, San Diego
Assistant Professor
HIT, workflow, user-centered design
Email: kim.unertl@vumc.org
Phone: (615) 936-5035
Core Faculty
Assistant Professor (Department of Biomedical Informatics)
Email: kim.unertl@vumc.org
Phone: (615) 936-5035
Kim Unertl, PhD, is an Assistant 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 current chair-elect for the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) People and Organizational Issues Working Group (POI-WG), serves as a member of the AMIA POI-WG Diana Forsythe Award Committee, and is a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA).
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 a member of the AMIA Education Committee and serves on the Women in AMIA Pipeline Subcommittee.
Workflow, user-centered design, health information technology, STEM pathways development, sociotechnical systems, people and organizational issues
B.S. – Biomedical Engineering, Marquette University
M.S. – Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University
Ph.D. – Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University
(Refer to Dr. Unertl’s Google Scholar page)
Adjunct Faculty
Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Biomedical Informatics (Division of Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine)
Associate Director, Vanderbilt Anesthesiology & Perioperative Informatics (VAPIR) Division
Email: robert.e.freundlich@vumc.org
Phone: (615) 936-6608
B.A. – German Literature, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
M.S. – Biotechnology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
Fellowship – University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Research Fellowship – University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Residency – University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
M.D. – Baylor College of Medicine, Houston
(Generate a PDF of Dr. Fruendlich’s curriculum vitae)
Adjunct Faculty
Chair, Department of Biomedical Informatics
Professor of Biomedical Informatics
Professor of Pediatrics
Email: kevin.johnson@vumc.org
Phone: (615) 936-6867
Dr. Johnson is an internationally-respected developer and evaluator of clinical information technology, and an advocate for pediatric needs in healthcare information technology. He received his M.D. from Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and his M.S. in Medical Informatics from Stanford University. His research interests have focused on developing and encouraging the adoption of clinical information systems. In the early phases of his career, he directed the development and evaluation of evidence-based pediatric care guidelines for The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He has been the project director of Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s RxStar since 2004. His roles on the project also include some development (he wrote the code to construct what gets printed on the prescriptions) as well as lots of local and national advocacy about the use of e-prescribing for patient safety. Dr. Johnson has received multiple grants from federal and non-profit agencies to study e-prescribing, and is the author of over 60 publications and books or book chapters, is Assistant Editor for the preeminent journal in biomedical informatics (JAMIA), and serves on the editorial board of Ambulatory Pediatrics.
B.S. – Biology, Dickinson College
M.S. – Stanford University School of Medicine
M.D. – Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Residency – Johns Hopkins Hospital, Department of Pediatrics
Postdoctoral Research Fellowship – University of California, San Diego
Fellowship in Management of Perioperative Services – Stanford University
Adjunct Faculty
Assistant Professor (Department of Anesthesiology)
Email: jonathan.p.wanderer@vumc.org
Phone: (615) 936-5194
Fax: (615) 936-4294
Dr. Wanderer is an Instructor in the Department of Anesthesiology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. After completing medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, he completed his residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA. While in training, Dr. Wanderer developed perioperative informatics applications and performed usability testing of the institution's anesthesia information management system. He joined the faculty in the Department of Anesthesiology in 2012 and practices at Vanderbilt University Hospital. His professional interests include predictive modeling, perioperative outcomes and data visualization.
B.S. – University of Pennsylvania, College of Arts and Sciences
B.A.S. – University of Pennsylvania, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
M. Phil. – University of Cambridge, Department of Pharmacology
M.D. – University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine
Internal Medicine Intership – Pennsylvania Hospital
Anesthesiology Residency – Massachusetts General Hospital
Adjunct Faculty
Assistant Professor, Center for Psychological Sciences, Zhejiang Univesity, China
Assistant Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, Vanderbilt Univesity
Email: xujie0987@zju.edu.cn
Phone: (615) 936-6598
Website: person.zju.edu.cn/en/xujie
Dr. Xu is a human factors engineer who has studied the principles and methods of human factors and ergonomics, human-computer interaction, and systems engineering and their application in the design of sociotechnical systems in healthcare and nuclear power industries. He has conducted human factors research related to trust in technology, group affect, team physiological compliance, physician-patient communication, user-centered design, simulation training, and event reporting. These studies were conducted in various environments, such as the laboratory, primary care, emergency care, surgical room, intensive care, cancer care, and nuclear power main control room. His current research interests include neuroergonomics, augmented cognition, teamwork, and user experience. His goal is to advance the theory and practice of human factors engineering and design effective, efficient, and safe work systems.
B.E. – Donghua University, China
B.S. – East China Normal University, China
M.S. – University of Wisconsin – Madison
Ph.D. – University of Wisconsin – Madison
Postdoctoral Training – CRISS, Vanderbilt University
(Refer to Jai’s Zhejiang University page)
