Faculty Directory

Department Leadership

Elizabeth A Shenkman

Elizabeth A Shenkman Ph.D.

Department Chair And Professor
Phone: (352) 265-7220

Elizabeth Shenkman, PhD is the Chair of the Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics and also is the Co-Director of the University of Florida Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and the Associate Director for Community Outreach and Engagement for the UF Health Cancer Center. Dr. Shenkman is a health outcomes researcher with a research focus on: 1) determining which combinations of health care delivery, community, and patient factors influence quality and outcomes of care; and 2) developing and testing corresponding evidence-based strategies to reduce disparities in health outcomes among underserved populations.

In her role as CTSI Co-Director and Co-Principle Investigator, Dr. Shenkman leads the Learning Health System initiative, including interfacing with clinicians, health system leaders, researchers, and patients to align research and clinical operations to systematically improve health outcomes and advance health equity using real world data combined with implementation and improvement science methodologies. In addition, Dr. Shenkman leads the OneFlorida Clinical Research Consortium, which was developed through the CTSI.

The Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute-funded OneFlorida Clinical Research Network is comprised of 10 different health system partners caring for over 15 M Floridians or approximately 60% of the population in the 3rd largest state in the US. The Floridians in this network include vulnerable populations who are rarely or minimally included in traditional clinical trials (e.g., those of lower socioeconomic status, racial and ethnic minorities, children, and older adults). A hallmark of OneFlorida is its centralized Data Trust, which contains linked health care claims, electronic health record, tumor registry, vital statistics, and census data from its health system partners for cohort discovery, study feasibility determination, and to augment primary data collection activities. Dr. Shenkman facilitates investigators’ access to OneFlorida clinical settings and the Data Trust for a wide range of studies including cancer-focused interventional trials.

Dr. Shenkman is an MPI for the NIH Office of the Director-funded All of Us Precision Medicine cohort initiative in collaboration with the University of Miami, Emory University and Morehouse School of Medicine. In that capacity, she is responsible for overseeing community engagement and recruitment and retention efforts focused on rural and underserved populations in North Florida. Dr. Shenkman also is the PI of an R01 funded by the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality examining the effects of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals with chronic conditions. The project uses electronic health record data to better measure health care use and clinical outcomes for adults with T2 diabetes and/or hypertension and who have intersecting identities (e.g., women who are black and residing in rural areas).

Dr. Shenkman’s research is funded by PCORI, the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, NIH, and the National Cancer Institute. Her work is published in such journals as Pediatrics, Health Services Research, Clinical Epidemiology, Pediatric Blood and Cancer, and the American Journal of Public Health. Dr. Shenkman is an elected member of the Society for Pediatric Research and the American Pediatric Society.

Ricky Whitney

Ricky Whitney

Director, Administrative Services
Phone: (352) 294-8435
Stephanie Staras

Stephanie Staras Ph.D.

Associate Chair Of Faculty Development And Associate Professor
Phone: (352) 294-8299

Stephanie A. S. Staras, M.S.P.H., Ph.D., is an associate professor and Associate Chair for Faculty Development in the Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics . She is also the Director of Precision Public Health for the UF CTSI, Associate Director of the Institute for Child Health Policy, and co-lead for the UFHealth Cancer Center’s Cancer Control and Population Science Program.

Dr. Staras is an expert in rigorous and impactful research in prevention of human papillomavirus (HPV)-related cancers and using implementation science methods to increase health equity. She focuses on improving the clinical recommendations for, parent receptiveness to, and access to HPV vaccines among adolescents within Florida. She has served as Principal Investigator on a series of investigator-initiated National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Cancer Institute (NCI) funded grants (R21, R37, R37 extension, and R01) with total federal funding of $8.5 million. These large, high-enrolling projects contributed critically to the UF Cancer Center NCI designation by demonstrating the necessary impact in the catchment area as the 2nd highest enrolling investigator in 2022 comprising 27% of UF’s investigator-initialed clinical trial accruals.

Dr. Staras is a recognized expert in implementation science research methods. Having graduated from the NCI-sponsored training program entitled “Mentored Training in Dissemination and Implementation Research in Cancer,” she applies her expertise to a broad range of research aimed to improve health equity. She has led and co-led implementation in a variety of areas: uptake of Meningitis B vaccination among high school and college students, developing an acceptable decision support tool to aid primary care physicians in preventing opioid overdose, increased enrollment of underrepresented populations in cancer clinical trials, understanding the role of dental practitioners in health risk assessments, and improving hypertension treatment with precision-based solutions.

Carma L Bylund

Carma L Bylund Ph.D.

Professor And Associate Chair Of Education
Phone: (352) 627-9467

I am Professor and Associate Chair of Education for the Department of Health Outcomes & Biomedical Informatics. I also serve as Assistant Director of the Cancer Training and Education Program for the UF Health Cancer Center. I am a behavioral scientist with international expertise in healthcare communication and medical education. My research focuses on the implementation of communication interventions for clinicians, patients, and caregivers to improve outcomes in areas such as cancer clinical trial accrual, HPV vaccination, dementia, and cancer treatment misinformation. I have received significant research funding from the National Institutes of Health and foundations such as The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I have published 180 peer-reviewed papers, co-edited two Oxford books on healthcare communication, and co-edited the Wiley International Encyclopedia of Health Communication. I also serve as the founding Editor-in-Chief of PEC Innovation, an open access sibling journal to Patient Education & Counseling.

I lead the department’s educational programs and am committed to ensuring that students receive training that will prepare them to help answer pressing health-related research questions. As an educator, I equip students with methodological skills that will enable them to pursue their research goals. As a mentor, my primary goal is to help my mentees fulfill their potential. I am a member of the UF College of Medicine’s Society for Teaching Scholars.

Jiang Bian

Jiang Bian Ph.D.

Professor And Division Director Of Biomedical Informatics; Chief Data Scientist & Chief Research Information Officer, UF Health
Phone: (352) 273-8878

Biomedical Informatics is an interdisciplinary field, where the central theme is to explore the effective uses of data, information, and knowledge for scientific inquiry, problem-solving, and decision making, motived by efforts to import human health. I have a diverse yet strong multi-disciplinary background in data integration, semantic web, machine learning, natural language processing, social media analysis, network science, data privacy, and software engineering. Nevertheless, my expertise and background serve an overarching theme: data science with heterogeneous data, information and knowledge resources.

I currently serve as the Chief Data Scientist and Chief Research Information Officer for UF Health, Division Chief of Biomedical Informatics in Health Outcomes & Biomedical Informatics, Director of the Biomedical Informatics Program for the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI; https://www.ctsi.ufl.edu/about/ctsi-programs/biomedical-informatics/), Director of Cancer Informatics Shared Resource (and its eHealth Core program http://bit.ly/36IBw5s jointly supported by the UF CTSI), and the Chief Data Scientist for the OneFlorida+ Clinical Research Consortium (https://onefloridaconsortium.org/).

Research Summary:

I have a diverse yet strong multi-disciplinary background. Nevertheless, my expertise and background serve an overarching theme: data science with heterogeneous data, information and knowledge resources. My research areas can be divided into two logical sections under this overarching theme: (1) data-driven medicine—applications of informatics techniques, including AI/ML methods in medicine on solving big heterogeneous data problems, providing insights into health-related behavior and health outcomes of various populations and finding ways to develop interventions that promote public and consumer health; and (2) development of novel informatics methods, tools, and systems to support clinical and clinical research activities such as tools for data integration and harmonization, clinical trial design, and cohort discovery.

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=ysr–voAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate

Research Interests:
  • Cancer Informatics
  • Social media
  • data privacy in healthcare
  • data science
  • eHealth and user-centered design
  • semantic web
Todd Manini

Todd Manini Ph.D.

Professor; Division Chief Of Clinical And Population Health Integration; Co-Director Of The Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center
Phone: (352) 273-5914

Since the start of my career, I’ve pursued contributing knowledge on a gerontological understanding of mobility deficits during the aging process and impact resulting from health events in late-life. I have a wealth of experience conducting both observational studies and clinical trials involving frail and low functioning older adults (minority and non-minority) that will support the organization, administration, planning, compliance, standardization, documentation, monitoring and reporting activities in the current study. As an added asset, I am or have been a key part of several consortia that involve behavioral modifications (UO1 AG022376, U01 AG048270), medication/neutriceutical (U01 AG050499), and body composition (U01 AG15013) studies that overlap operational and scientific elements of the current work. I am also actively leading or have led numerous government-sponsored studies that have strong connections to the ROAMM infrastructure (SBIR 261201500014C, R21 AG031974, UO1 AG022376, U01 AG050499, and R01 HL121023). I feel well qualified and I’m excited to undertake the responsibilities of being a co-investigator on this important study.

I currently serve as the Co-Director of the University of Florida’s Claude D. Pepper Older American’s Independence Center (OAIC) and the Director of the T32 Translational Research on Aging and Mobility (TRAM – T32 AG062728) program. I serve as a Professor and Division Chief of Clinical and Population Health Integration in The Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics. Lastly, I am the Co-Leader of the Data Science and Applied Technology Core of the UF OAIC. In these roles, I lead an interdisciplinary team of investigators, staff and trainees. I currently lead both clinical trials and observational studies involving cognitive and physical impairments in older adults. In these studies, besides conducting rigorous science, I manage staff, oversee the finances, ensure regulatory compliance, monitor measurement standardization, and report data and safety information for these programs. I involve trainees at all levels for them to gain an appreciation of not just the science methods, but the overall operations of managing a complex primary data collection research program. I also preach rigorous data collection procedures and transparency throughout the scientific process. As an added asset, I am or was a key part of several consortia that involve behavioral modifications (UO1 AG022376, U01 AG048270), medication/nutraceutical (U01 AG050499), body composition (U01 AG15013) studies that encompass both operational and scientific elements that are matched to career development goals. My collaborative nature and diverse experiences have prepared me well to closely integrate with the team while being conscience of timely deliverables.

I’ve mentored or coached 42 men and women at various stages of their careers (post-doctoral fellows, pre-doctoral students and faculty). I also currently serve as a co-primary mentor and co-mentor of post-doctoral fellows in the T32 TRAM program in which I am Principal Investigator. In the past 5 years, I’ve served as the primary mentor of six post-doctoral fellows, one of which remain an active part of our research team. I’ve served as the primary or co-primary mentor for six doctoral students, five of which have subsequently gone on to either tenure-track faculty positions or post-doctoral positions. Of note, one of my recent doctoral students was accepted at John’s Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and was recently promoted to a faculty position in the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Another formal doctoral student, who worked as part of our core, is currently employed at Google’s research and development team. My goal for these advanced scientists is to train and instill the Gerontological philosophies— preservation of function in conjunction with chronic disease management— to a variety of researchers and practitioners in health-related disciplines. As such, I mentor them on how to incorporate gerontology and geriatrics measures into their domain.

Ramzi G Salloum

Ramzi G Salloum Ph.D.

Associate Professor And Division Director
Phone: (352) 294-4997

Dr. Salloum is Associate Professor and the Director of the Division of Implementation Science and Health Interventions in the Department of Health Outcomes & Biomedical Informatics at the University of Florida College of Medicine. Salloum also serves as the Associate Director of Community Outreach and Engagement at the UF Health Cancer Center and the Director of the Learning Health System Program at the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

Dr. Salloum’s research focuses on the implementation and dissemination of evidence-based practices, especially in cancer prevention and control. He has a demonstrated research record in the area of health services research across diverse health system and policy settings, with a particular focus on the implementation of evidence-based programs. This work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, the Florida Department of Health, the International Development Research Centre, and Cancer Research UK. Dr. Salloum is well-versed in implementation science methods and frameworks and has served as faculty for the National Cancer Institute (NCI)’s Training Institute for Dissemination and Implementation Research in Cancer (TIDIRC).

Dr. Salloum teaches Fundamentals of Dissemination and Implementation Research (GMS 6851).

Biomedical Informatics Faculty

Jiang Bian

Jiang Bian Ph.D.

Professor And Division Director Of Biomedical Informatics; Chief Data Scientist & Chief Research Information Officer, UF Health
Phone: (352) 273-8878

Biomedical Informatics is an interdisciplinary field, where the central theme is to explore the effective uses of data, information, and knowledge for scientific inquiry, problem-solving, and decision making, motived by efforts to import human health. I have a diverse yet strong multi-disciplinary background in data integration, semantic web, machine learning, natural language processing, social media analysis, network science, data privacy, and software engineering. Nevertheless, my expertise and background serve an overarching theme: data science with heterogeneous data, information and knowledge resources.

I currently serve as the Chief Data Scientist and Chief Research Information Officer for UF Health, Division Chief of Biomedical Informatics in Health Outcomes & Biomedical Informatics, Director of the Biomedical Informatics Program for the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI; https://www.ctsi.ufl.edu/about/ctsi-programs/biomedical-informatics/), Director of Cancer Informatics Shared Resource (and its eHealth Core program http://bit.ly/36IBw5s jointly supported by the UF CTSI), and the Chief Data Scientist for the OneFlorida+ Clinical Research Consortium (https://onefloridaconsortium.org/).

Research Summary:

I have a diverse yet strong multi-disciplinary background. Nevertheless, my expertise and background serve an overarching theme: data science with heterogeneous data, information and knowledge resources. My research areas can be divided into two logical sections under this overarching theme: (1) data-driven medicine—applications of informatics techniques, including AI/ML methods in medicine on solving big heterogeneous data problems, providing insights into health-related behavior and health outcomes of various populations and finding ways to develop interventions that promote public and consumer health; and (2) development of novel informatics methods, tools, and systems to support clinical and clinical research activities such as tools for data integration and harmonization, clinical trial design, and cohort discovery.

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=ysr–voAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate

Research Interests:
  • Cancer Informatics
  • Social media
  • data privacy in healthcare
  • data science
  • eHealth and user-centered design
  • semantic web
Aokun Chen

Aokun Chen

AST SCTST
Research Interests:
  • Clinical Trials Design & Analysis
  • Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Clinical Natural Language Processing
  • Lung Cancer Screening
Megan E Gregory

Megan E Gregory Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Phone: (352) 627-9467

Dr. Gregory is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Outcomes & Biomedical Informatics.

Her research broadly examines individual, social, and organizational factors and conditions that impact health care safety and quality, with a particular focus on improving healthcare teamwork and patient care. Dr. Gregory also seeks to develop, implement and evaluate interventions, clinical informatics tools (including mHealth and telehealth), and educational programs (including simulation and virtual reality methods) to improve health care quality. As part of this work, she studies the development and validation of survey measures, and has developed and validated self-report measures around topics such as COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, organizational readiness to address diversity, and resident self-efficacy. She has served as Co-Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator on numerous funded projects, including from AHRQ, NIH, and Ohio Department of Medicaid grants and contracts. She is highly involved in the international Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES), where she serves as Program Chair—Elect for the Health Care Technical Group and is on the Editorial Board for the Human Factors in Healthcare Journal.

Dr. Gregory holds a Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from the University of Central Florida, and completed an Advanced Fellowship in Health Professions Education, Evaluation and Research at the Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness & Safety with the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

Yi Guo

Yi Guo Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Phone: (352) 294-5969
Email: yiguo@ufl.edu

I have a multi-disciplinary background in the analysis of real-world data such as those from electronic health records (EHRs) and administrative claims, experimental and observational study design, predictive modeling (e.g., statistical and machine learning), causal modeling, and analysis of patient-reported outcomes. Together, my areas of expertise serve an overarching research theme: generating real-world evidence to support healthcare decision-making for disease prevention and control. Under this overarching theme, my research areas and expertise can be divided into three key methodologies: (1) EHR-based phenotyping and risk stratification – the identification of sub-populations with certain conditions or at higher risk for diseases, (2) Causal modeling and inference – the examination of causal relationships and pathways in clinical research, particularly treatment studies, and (3) Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in clinical and public health applications – the development, validation, assessment, analysis, and reporting of PROs among various populations, especially vulnerable populations.

Kylie Harrall

Kylie Harrall Ph.D.

Research Assistant Professor
Phone: (352) 627-9466
Xing He

Xing He

Research Assistant Professor; Assistant Director Of Research Infrastructure For Office Of Data Science And Research Implementation (ODSRI), UF Health
Phone: (813) 573-3122
Mei Liu

Mei Liu

Associate Professor
Phone: (352) 627-9143

Dr. Liu is an Associate Professor with Tenure in the College of Medicine, Department of Health Outcomes & Biomedical Informatics (HOBI) at the University of Florida. She also serves as the Director of Predictive Analytics and Associate Director of Graduate Education in HOBI.

Dr. Liu received her PhD in Computer Science from the University of Kansas and completed her National Library of Medicine (NLM) postdoctoral fellowship in biomedical informatics at Vanderbilt University. Her research interest in bioinformatics began during her doctoral study with the development of novel machine learning algorithms to improve prediction of protein-protein interactions and protein functions. Her research interest expanded to medical informatics while at Vanderbilt with the development of machine learning models to detect and predict adverse drug reactions using electronic health records (EHRs). Her other research interests include the secondary use of EHR data to model patient risks and disease trajectory and discover underlying risk factors.

Dr. Liu’s current research focus is on the development of novel machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques to accelerate risk factor identification and discovery in medicine using EHR data. Clinical applications of her research include adverse drug reaction, diabetic kidney disease, acute kidney injury (AKI), and sepsis predictions. She is the Principal Investigator for a NIDDK R01 project and an NSF Smart and Connected Health project that focus on the identification of personalized risk factors of AKI with personalized modeling and causal learning and building a secure and robust AKI prediction model with privacy-preserving federated transfer learning using EHR data from 11 PCORnet sites across 9 states.

Research Interests:
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Biomedical informatics
  • Machine Learning
  • machine learning for predictive analytics
Mamoun Mardini

Mamoun Mardini Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Phone: (352) 273-8962

Dr. Mardini is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics at the University of Florida (UF). He is a trained computer scientist and engineer with research expertise in applied artificial intelligence and wearable technology in healthcare

Research Summary:

Dr. Mardini’s research interests lie in using data science approaches and wearable technology to improve healthcare. This plan is significant because it is highly responsive and in line with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) vision for artificial intelligence: “the NIH is dedicated to harnessing the potential of the computational and quantitative sciences to elevate the impact and efficiency of biomedical research”

Dr. Mardini is directing the GeronTechnology lab that aims to employ data science and wearable technology to extract insightful knowledge from data & solve age-related health problems. Dr. Mardini is mainly interested in pursuing two research directions. The first focuses on mining electronic health records (EHR) to build evidence-based platforms that can aid in clinical decision-making. This research can help facilitate the communication between patients and clinicians to maximize benefit and minimize hurt.

The second direction focuses on building a digital phenotyping framework that can facilitate data collection from personally-held devices, such as smartwatches. This direction has great impact on understanding individuals’ behaviors momentarily in their real-life environment (a.k.a. ecological momentary assessment) and allowing clinicians to intervene quickly.

Note: I am always looking for motivated students and postdocs to join my research lab. Drop me a brief email about your background and your research interests

Research Interests:
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Digital Health
  • frailty
  • mHealth
Keith E Muller

Keith E Muller Ph.D.

Professor
Phone: (352) 294-5975

Professor Muller has external research funding from a variety of federal and state agencies. His more than 150 peer-reviewed journal publications are split roughly equally between scientific collaborations and biostatistical methodology developments. In addition, Professor Muller is the first author of two books on the theory and practice of linear models. He is a fellow of the American Statistical Association.

With funding from a series of NIH grants, Professor Muller serves as co-principal investigator in collaboration with Dr. D. H. Glueck (University of Colorado Denver Medical School) for the development of GLIMMPSE software and the website SampleSizeShop.org. The site includes a free online short course on design, power and sample size for studies with multilevel (clustering) and longitudinal dimensions. The site also includes free and open-source software, GLIMMPSE, that requires only a web browser to compute power and sample size for multilevel and longitudinal designs.

Research Summary:

Professor Muller’s current research centers on power and sample size for multilevel and longitudinal designs, especially with trajectories as predictors. He and colleagues also pursue advances in adaptive designs and High Dimension, Low Sample Size (more variables than participants).

Research Interests:
  • Biostatistics
  • Health outcomes research
  • Statistical methods
Protiva Rahman

Protiva Rahman

Research Assistant Professor
Phone: (352) 627-9467

Dr. Rahman is interested in building tools to democratize data science, with a focus on empowering domain experts in healthcare. Her research spans the disciplines of data science, natural language processing, and human-computer interaction in domains of infectious diseases and cancer. Dr. Rahman’s overarching goal is to bridge the gap between data science and domain experts. To this end, her Ph.D. thesis presented a framework to amplify expertise in clinical data pipelines while her postdoctoral work aimed to automate data extraction from unstructured texts such as EHR notes and biomedical literature. She received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from The Ohio State University in August 2020 and completed her postdoctoral training in Biomedical Informatics at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Deepa Ranka

Deepa Ranka

Assistant Scientist
Phone: (352) 265-0111
Jessica Ray

Jessica Ray

Assistant Professor
Phone: (352) 627-9467

Dr. Ray is interested in how technology can support clinical and patient decision-making in the complex socio-technical healthcare delivery system. She brings expertise in leading observations in the clinical setting, qualitative interviews, physiologic measurement of stress and workload, complex system process improvement and design, and studying system impacts on human performance including decision making. She joins the University of Florida after four years as a faculty member in Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Emergency Medicine where she supported a variety of simulation educational programs and research in the areas of clinician stress, decision-support, and teams. Prior to returning to academia and research, she worked as a simulation learning consultant for Yale-New Haven Health where she facilitated interprofessional groups working on process improvement efforts across a variety of clinical settings including supporting simulation-based design sessions for the Yale Center for Healthcare Innovation, Redesign and Learning’s (CHIRAL) work on care transitions. During her graduate training, she worked as a graduate research fellow studying technology-based adaptive training methods for complex cognitive skill development. Dr. Ray has extensive experience in design facilitation, holds a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification, and is a TeamSTEPPS master instructor. Her current work focuses on how we can better understand and support clinician decision-making and patient-clinician interactions through informatics and technology-based interventions.

Qianqian Song

Qianqian Song

Assistant Professor & Director Of Translational Bioinformatics

Dr. Qianqian Song is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the College of Medicine, Department of Health Outcomes & Biomedical Informatics at the University of Florida. She also serves as the Director of Translational Bioinformatics in the UFHCC Cancer Informatics Shared Resource (CISR) and the UF CTSI Biomedical Informatics program.

Research Summary:

Dr. Song’s research focuses on developing innovative computational methods and graph-based artificial intelligence algorithms to decipher disease mechanisms and identify therapeutic biomarkers. Her primary research interests are to advance precision medicine and personalized therapy through the data-driven informatics approach and the integration of multi-modality biomedical data. With specialized expertise in the large-scale biomedical data, spanning from the molecular level including genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics data, to the cell-level with the cutting-edge single-cell and high-plex spatial imaging data, and to the population-level EHR data, Dr. Song has developed a series of tailored deep learning, machine learning, and statistical methods for data analysis, representation, and interpretation, to facilitate the understanding of human diseases such as cancers and neurodegenerative diseases.

Research Interests:
  • Bioinformatics
  • Biomedical informatics
  • Computational Oncology
Ruoqi Wei

Ruoqi Wei

AST SCTST
Phone: (352) 627-9467
Yonghui Wu

Yonghui Wu

Associate Professor & Director Of Natural Language Processing
Phone: (352) 294-8436

Dr. Yonghui Wu is an Associate Professor with Tenure in the College of Medicine, Department of Health Outcomes & Biomedical Informatics at the University of Florida. He also serves as the Director of Natural Language Processing (NLP) at UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and OneFlorida Clinical Research Consortium. Dr. Wu’s research interests include natural language processing (NLP), machine learning, computational drug repurposing, and applications of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to electronic health records for clinical and translational research. He has published over 80 peer-reviewed papers and has been the principal investigator for grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

Dr. Wu received his Ph.D. from the Harbin Institute of Technology, School of Computer Science with a focus on natural language processing. Then, he entered medical informatics research with a motivation to help improve the quality of healthcare delivery and the safety of patients. He has Biomedical informatics training at Vanderbilt University and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Jie Xu

Jie Xu Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Phone: (352) 627-9467
Email: xujie@ufl.edu

My research interests are focused on the intersection of machine learning and health informatics, with a particular emphasis on disease progression subtyping, predictive modeling, and federated learning techniques. Prior to joining UF, I completed postdoctoral research at Cornell University’s Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, working closely with Dr. Fei Wang and Dr. Jyotishman Pathak in the Department of Population Health Sciences. I earned my Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Xidian University in 2018, during which time I completed a joint doctoral program in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Texas at Arlington from 2016 to 2018. I am enthusiastic about continuing my research in this field at UF and contributing to the advancement of healthcare through innovative machine learning techniques.

Research Summary:

I have been working on developing novel computational algorithms, including advanced AI methods for analyzing various kinds of healthcare data, including Electronic Health Records (EHRs), medical and pharmacy claims data, and medical imaging data. One research direction that I am pursuing in fundamental AI methods development is patient similarity evaluations, i.e., assessing the clinical similarity between patients based on their medical histories. Such AI-driven approaches can be applied to advance disease surveillance, disease sub-phenotyping, and comparative effectiveness research. I also have strong expertise in predictive modeling, including developing models for various risk predictions, such as mortality, disease onset, and disease state change. Furthermore, I am actively investigating federated learning (FL) techniques, which allow for training an algorithm across multiple decentralized institutions without sharing their data samples. My research has yielded over 30 peer-reviewed publications in both machine learning and health informatics venues, with papers appearing at top-tier artificial intelligence and machine learning conferences such as NeurIPS, AAAI, KDD, IJCAI, at health informatics conferences such as AMIA, as well as at journals such as JHIR, JMIR.

Research Interests:
  • Machine learning and applications
Rui Yin

Rui Yin

Assistant Professor

My research mainly focuses on applying and developing machine learning approaches (CNN, RNN, GNN, Transformer, etc.) and protein language models to address biomedical problems, especially in (1) RNA virus and infectious diseases, e.g., mutation and variant identification, viral antigenicity and virulence prediction; (2) rare disease study, e.g., variant pathogenicity prediction and gene prioritization; (3) cancer study, e.g., miRNA-mRNA target identification in colorectal cancer patients and renal tumor classification, (4) Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD), e.g., computational drug repurposing for AD/ADRD; and (5) Health equity, e.g., identify social determinants of health that impact healthy aging people.

Research Interests:
  • Biomedical informatics
  • Genomics and precision medicine
  • Health Equity
  • Machine learning and applications
  • Protein language model

Clinical and Population Health Integration Faculty

Christopher N Kaufmann

Christopher N Kaufmann PhD, MHS

Assistant Professor
Department: MD-HOBI-BIOMED INFORMATICS
Phone: (352) 294-5800
Mailing Address:
PO Box 100147
GAINESVILLE FL 32610
Physical Address:
1889 Museum Rd, Suite 7000
GAINESVILLE FL 32611

Dr. Kaufmann is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics (HOBI) at the University of Florida College of Medicine. He is a public health researcher with interests at the intersection of aging, sleep, and health services research. His research focuses on using epidemiologic data to identify patterns in use of health services for sleep disorders among older adults and examining how such patterns affect trajectories of aging (e.g., cognitive decline and neurodegeneration) across the life course.

Publications:
Grants:
  • Jun 2023 ACTIVE
    Longitudinal impact of narcolepsy and cardiovascular disease: A claims-based study
    SLEEP RESEARCH SOCIETY FOUNDATION · Principal Investigator
  • Aug 2022 ACTIVE
    Sleep apnea treatment and risk for cognitive decline and Alzheimers disease
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Principal Investigator
  • Jun 2022 ACTIVE
    University of Florida Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Other
  • Jan 2022 ACTIVE
    Sedative-Hypnotic Use Patterns and Risk for Cognitive Decline and Alzheimer's Disease
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Principal Investigator
Dominick Lemas

Dominick Lemas Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Department: MD-HOBI-BIOMED INFORMATICS
Phone: (352) 294-5971
Mailing Address:
PO Box 100147
GAINESVILLE FL 32610
Physical Address:
1889 Museum Rd, Suite 7000
GAINESVILLE FL 32611

Dominick Lemas is an assistant professor in the Department of Health Outcomes & Biomedical Informatics at the University of Florida. Dr. Lemas received his bachelor’s degree in biology at the University of Vermont in 2006 and completed his doctorate in biochemistry & molecular biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2012. His research is devoted to understanding the fetal origins of pediatric obesity with a specific interest in the functional implications of gut microflora and the critical host-microbe interactions that regulate maternal-infant metabolism.

Research Interests:
  • Biomedical informatics
  • Child-maternal health
  • Computational biology
  • Metagenomics
  • Molecular epidemiology
  • Pediatric obesity
Publications:
Grants:
  • Sep 2023 ACTIVE
    Understanding the short- and long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the overdose crisis
    NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE · Principal Investigator
  • Aug 2023 ACTIVE
    Efficacy and safety of nanoparticle mediated placental gene therapy in nonhuman primates
    NATL INST OF HLTH NICHD · Co-Investigator
  • Jul 2021 ACTIVE
    Preserving Kidney Function in Children with Chronic Kidney Disease (PRESERVE)
    CHILDRENS HOSP PHILADELPHIA · Principal Investigator
  • Jun 2021 – Sep 2021
    Study on the Use of Donor Human Milk
    FLORIDA MEDICAL SCHOOLS QUALITY NETWORK · Project Manager
  • Jul 2020 – Mar 2022
    Together Transforming and Translating Discovery to Improve Health
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCATS · Project Manager
  • Jul 2019 ACTIVE
    OoR Matching Support for CTSI
    UF DIV OF SPONSORED RES MATCHING FUNDS · Project Manager
  • Jan 2019 ACTIVE
    Human milk metabolomics and microbe-host interactions associated with pediatric obesity
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIDDK · Principal Investigator
  • Nov 2015 – Jan 2016
    assessing the evidence for the microbiome as a potential
    ROBIN HOOD FOUNDATION · Principal Investigator
Todd Manini

Todd Manini Ph.D.

Professor; Division Chief Of Clinical And Population Health Integration; Co-Director Of The Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center
Department: MD-HOBI-BIOMED INFORMATICS
Phone: (352) 273-5914
Mailing Address:
PO Box 100147
GAINESVILLE FL 32610
Physical Address:
1889 MUSEUM RD STE 7000 FL 7
Gainesville FL 32611

Since the start of my career, I’ve pursued contributing knowledge on a gerontological understanding of mobility deficits during the aging process and impact resulting from health events in late-life. I have a wealth of experience conducting both observational studies and clinical trials involving frail and low functioning older adults (minority and non-minority) that will support the organization, administration, planning, compliance, standardization, documentation, monitoring and reporting activities in the current study. As an added asset, I am or have been a key part of several consortia that involve behavioral modifications (UO1 AG022376, U01 AG048270), medication/neutriceutical (U01 AG050499), and body composition (U01 AG15013) studies that overlap operational and scientific elements of the current work. I am also actively leading or have led numerous government-sponsored studies that have strong connections to the ROAMM infrastructure (SBIR 261201500014C, R21 AG031974, UO1 AG022376, U01 AG050499, and R01 HL121023). I feel well qualified and I’m excited to undertake the responsibilities of being a co-investigator on this important study.

I currently serve as the Co-Director of the University of Florida’s Claude D. Pepper Older American’s Independence Center (OAIC) and the Director of the T32 Translational Research on Aging and Mobility (TRAM – T32 AG062728) program. I serve as a Professor and Division Chief of Clinical and Population Health Integration in The Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics. Lastly, I am the Co-Leader of the Data Science and Applied Technology Core of the UF OAIC. In these roles, I lead an interdisciplinary team of investigators, staff and trainees. I currently lead both clinical trials and observational studies involving cognitive and physical impairments in older adults. In these studies, besides conducting rigorous science, I manage staff, oversee the finances, ensure regulatory compliance, monitor measurement standardization, and report data and safety information for these programs. I involve trainees at all levels for them to gain an appreciation of not just the science methods, but the overall operations of managing a complex primary data collection research program. I also preach rigorous data collection procedures and transparency throughout the scientific process. As an added asset, I am or was a key part of several consortia that involve behavioral modifications (UO1 AG022376, U01 AG048270), medication/nutraceutical (U01 AG050499), body composition (U01 AG15013) studies that encompass both operational and scientific elements that are matched to career development goals. My collaborative nature and diverse experiences have prepared me well to closely integrate with the team while being conscience of timely deliverables.

I’ve mentored or coached 42 men and women at various stages of their careers (post-doctoral fellows, pre-doctoral students and faculty). I also currently serve as a co-primary mentor and co-mentor of post-doctoral fellows in the T32 TRAM program in which I am Principal Investigator. In the past 5 years, I’ve served as the primary mentor of six post-doctoral fellows, one of which remain an active part of our research team. I’ve served as the primary or co-primary mentor for six doctoral students, five of which have subsequently gone on to either tenure-track faculty positions or post-doctoral positions. Of note, one of my recent doctoral students was accepted at John’s Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and was recently promoted to a faculty position in the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Another formal doctoral student, who worked as part of our core, is currently employed at Google’s research and development team. My goal for these advanced scientists is to train and instill the Gerontological philosophies— preservation of function in conjunction with chronic disease management— to a variety of researchers and practitioners in health-related disciplines. As such, I mentor them on how to incorporate gerontology and geriatrics measures into their domain.

Accomplishments:
  • Associate Editor
    2021-current · Journals of Gerontology: Medical Sciences
  • Division Chief of Epidemiology and Data Science in Gerontology
    2019-2021 · University of Florida, Department of Aging & Geriatric Research
  • Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America (FGSA)
    2017 · Gerontological Society of America
  • Chair of the American College of Sports Medicine Strategic Health Initiative on Aging
    2016-2021 · American College of Sports Medicine
  • NIH Standing Study Section member
    2014-2018 · Standing member: Neurological, Aging & Musculoskeletal Epidemiology (NAME)
  • Adjunct Professor
    2011-current · Department of Rehabilitation Sciences
  • Exemplary Teachers Award
    2011 · University of Florida
  • Assistant Professor Excellence Award
    2010 · University of Florida
  • Adjunct Professor
    2009-current · Department of Epidemiology
  • Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine (FACSM)
    2009 · American College of Sports Medicine
  • Adjunct Professor
    2008-current · Department of Applied Physiology & Kinesiology
Publications:
Grants:
  • Sep 2022 ACTIVE
    Functional Decline in Low Functioning Older Adults; Role of iron dysregulation
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Co-Investigator
  • Jun 2022 ACTIVE
    ROAMM-EHR: Pilot Trial of a Real-Time Symptom Surveillance System for Post-Discharge Surgical Patients
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Principal Investigator
  • Jun 2022 ACTIVE
    University of Florida Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Principal Investigator
  • Jun 2022 ACTIVE
    Biopsychosocial pain predictors of mobility decline in aging
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Co-Investigator
  • May 2022 ACTIVE
    Assessment of Cortical Bone Mechanics Technology (CBMT) Fracture Discrimination Capability
    OsteoDx · Principal Investigator
  • Apr 2022 ACTIVE
    Wearable Technology Infrastructure to Enhance Capacity for Real-Time, Online Assessment and Mobility (ROAMM) of Intervening Health Events in Older Adults
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Principal Investigator
  • Jan 2022 ACTIVE
    OneFlorida+ Phase 3 Clinical Research Network
    PATIENT-CENTERED OUTCOMES RES INST · Co-Investigator
  • Sep 2021 ACTIVE
    Multi-Stakeholder Engagement for Interdisciplinary Telehealth in Lewy Body Dementia
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Other
  • May 2021 – Oct 2022
    Preventing the Calcium Channel Blocker Lower Extremity Edema Loop Diuretic Prescribing Cascade in Older Adults
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Other
  • Feb 2021 – Jan 2024
    Empowering the Management of Pain-Obesity-Weight through Enhanced Reward
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Project Manager
  • Jun 2020 – May 2023
    Coordinating Center of the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Centers
    WAKE FOREST UNIV · Principal Investigator
  • May 2020 ACTIVE
    Translational Research Training on Aging and Mobility (TRAM)
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Principal Investigator
  • Feb 2020 – Jan 2024
    Investigating Movement-evoked Pain in osteoArthritic Conditions (IMPACT): An Observational Study to Inform Culturally-Tailored Intervention Development
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIAMS · Other
  • Mar 2019 – Feb 2022
    Wearable Technology Infrastructure to Enhance Capacity for Real-Time, Online Assessment and Mobility (ROAMM) of Intervening Health Events in Older Adults
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2018 ACTIVE
    Multimodal imaging of brain activity to investigate walking and mobility decline in older adults
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Principal Investigator
  • Aug 2018 – Apr 2023
    INTERmittent pneumatic ComprEssion for Disablility rEversal in PAD: the INTERCEDE Trial
    NORTHWESTERN UNIV · Faculty
  • Sep 2017 ACTIVE
    The University of Florida Jacksonville Aging Studies Center (JAX-ASCENT)
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Co-Investigator
  • Sep 2017 – May 2020
    The acute development and persistence of frailty, comorbidity and disability in critically ill elderly patients after severe traumatic injury: induced frailty
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Co-Investigator
  • Apr 2017 – Mar 2022
    University of Florida Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (OAIC)
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Other
  • Dec 2016 – Sep 2023
    MoTrPAC Consortium Coordinating Center
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIAMS · Co-Investigator
  • Apr 2016 – Mar 2017
    Claude D Pepper Older Americans Independence Center
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Project Manager
  • Jan 2016 – Dec 2021
    ufhcc-ioa cancer-aging collaborative team grants
    UF HEALTH SHANDS HOSPITAL · Project Manager
  • Sep 2015 – Jun 2018
    Muscle mass and strength cut-points associated with mobility limitation in older adults
    BRIGHAM AND WOMENS HOSPITAL · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2015 – Mar 2018
    PEAKS: Validation of mobile technologies for clinical assessment, monitoring, and intervention
    EVERYFIT INC · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2015 – May 2021
    The ENRGISE Study
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Project Manager
  • Apr 2015 – Jan 2019
    Low intensity exercise intervention in peripheral artery disease
    NORTHWESTERN UNIV · Co-Investigator
  • Apr 2015 – Mar 2017
    A pilot study to evaluate the role of brain integrity on post-hospital sarcopenia
    UF FOUNDATION · Principal Investigator
  • Apr 2015 – Mar 2016
    Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Project Manager
  • Sep 2014 – Apr 2017
    Measuring Cognitive Fatigability in Older Adults
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Project Manager
  • Sep 2014 – Jan 2019
    Neural Mechanisms of Dynapenia
    OHIO UNIV · Principal Investigator
  • Jul 2014 ACTIVE
    CARDIOPULMONARY EXERCISE TESTING EQUIPMENT (MV02) OPERATING ACCOUNT
    214 OPERATING ACCOUNT · Principal Investigator
  • Feb 2014 – Feb 2016
    Sarcopenic transitions for predicting physical disability states
    SANOFI US SERVICES · Principal Investigator
  • Jan 2014 – Dec 2018
    MtDNA variant modifiers of cardiopulmonary responsiveness to physical activity
    NATL INST OF HLTH NHLBI · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2013 ACTIVE
    COM Deans Commitment Matching Funds for UF OAIC
    FL CLINICAL PRACTICE ASSO · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2013 – Dec 2019
    REVIVE – Resveratrol to enhance vitality and vigor in elders
    NATL CTR FOR COMPLEM AND INTEGRATIVE HLT · Co-Investigator
  • Jul 2013 – Mar 2019
    Metabolic Costs of Daily Activities in Older Adults
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2011 – Nov 2018
    The LIFE Study
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Project Manager
  • Jul 2006 – Dec 2020
    21st Century Research & Economic Development Investment Program (REDIP)
    STATE UNIV SYS OF FL BOARD OF GOVERNORS · Project Manager
Education:
  • 2006
    Post-Doc in Epidemiology
    National Institute on Aging
  • 2004
    PhD in Geriatric Exercise Physiology
    Syracuse University
  • 2001
    Certificate of Advanced Study in Gerontology
    Syracuse University
  • 2000
    Masters of Science in Exercise Physiology
    Syracuse University
  • 1997
    Bachelors of Science in Biology
    Ohio University
Larissa J Strath

Larissa J Strath

RES AST PROF
Department: MD-HOBI-GENERAL
Phone: (352) 273-5971
Mailing Address:
PO Box 100147
GAINESVILLE FL 32610
Physical Address:
1889 Museum Rd, Suite 7000
GAINESVILLE FL 32611

My research is largely focused on the effects that dietary composition has on the modulation of the pain experi ence, specifically through epigenetic and immune mechanisms. With that in mind, I have dealt with a variety of painful conditions and pathologies ( i.e. chronic low back pain, knee osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia etc.) and understanding of nutrient status and their effects on the system at a variety of ages (i.e. inflammation and oxidative stress). My areas of expertise include nutritional biochemistry, pain medicine, neuroscience, and epigenetics. My experience cross es borders, having basic science, clinical science, and epidemiological opportunities over the course of my doctoral training. My PhD work employed the use of nutritive model s to identify factors that may contribute substantially to the development and per petuation of chronic pain , with an emphasis on sex, gender and racial disparities therein . I have extensive experimental skills in the acquisition, protocol design and execution, and analyses of a variety of nutrition – based models (i.e. diet pattern analy sis, nutrient analysis, Dietary Inflammatory Index) in humans and rodents. I have advanced theoretical and practical skills in designing , i mplementing and analyzing various neuroscience – based pain – related measures. My doctoral training gave me extensive e xperience in the use of dynamic quantitative sensory testing, as well as experience investigating blood – based inflammatory and oxidative stress mediators and standardized measures of psychosocial assessment. Over my career, I have used several statistical methods including multivariate regressions, modified Poisson regressions, analysis of variance (ANOVA), as well as mediation and moderation analyses to understand these data. My dissertation work has resulted in the publication of 4

first – author, experime nt – based manuscripts, 4 first author review articles, and 1 collaborative manuscript related to HIV and chronic pain. My current research interests center around understanding the nutriepigenomic mechanisms that contribute to the pain experience observed i n various types of acute and chronic pain. Additionally, my future research interests include how the nutriepigenomic/pain relationship impacts cognition and the development of neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease over time. At the Universit y of Florida (UF) , Dr. Cruz – Almeida ’s mentorship has afforded me a unique opportunity to employ my research skills related to nutri – biological and psycho social pain phenotyping in a an aging population and to expand the existing body of literature specific to epigenetic and neuroscientific pain – related mechanisms

Accomplishments:
  • Junior Investigator of the Year for Pain in Older Persons
    2023 · International Association for the Study of Pain
  • Gregg Steele Outstanding Graduate Student in Behavioral Neuroscience
    2021 · The University of Alabama at Birmingham
Research Interests:
  • Aging
  • Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Chronic Pain
  • Clinical Nutrition
  • Clinical Translational Neuroscience
  • Epigenetics
  • Immune-Mediated Disease
  • Interventional pain medicine
  • Neuroimmune interactions in Neurodegenerative diseases
  • Nutrition and Wellness
Publications:
Grants:
  • May 2023 ACTIVE
    Pain and Nutrition in Dementia and Alzheimers PANDA
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Principal Investigator
  • Jul 2019 ACTIVE
    OoR Matching Support for CTSI
    UF DIV OF SPONSORED RES MATCHING FUNDS · Project Manager
Education:
  • 2021-2023
    Post Doctoral Associate
    University of Florida
  • 2016-2021
    Doctor of Philosophy – Behavioral Neuroscience
    The University of Alabama at Birmingham
  • 2012-2016
    Bachelor of Science – Biology: Pre-Med; Minor: Chemistry
    Faulkner University

Implementation Science and Health Interventions Faculty

Caterina Alacevich

Caterina Alacevich Ph.D.

Research Assistant Professor
Phone: (352) 627-9467
Mailing Address:
PO Box 100147
GAINESVILLE FL 32610
Physical Address:
1889 Museum Rd, Suite 7000
GAINESVILLE FL 32611
Education:
  • 2016
    Ph.D. in Economics
    Università Cattolica – DEFAP Graduate School of Public Economics
Carma L Bylund

Carma L Bylund Ph.D.

Professor And Associate Chair Of Education
Phone: (352) 627-9467
Mailing Address:
PO Box 100147
GAINESVILLE FL 32610
Physical Address:
1889 MUSEUM RD STE 7000 FL 7
GAINESVILLE FL 32611

I am Professor and Associate Chair of Education for the Department of Health Outcomes & Biomedical Informatics. I also serve as Assistant Director of the Cancer Training and Education Program for the UF Health Cancer Center. I am a behavioral scientist with international expertise in healthcare communication and medical education. My research focuses on the implementation of communication interventions for clinicians, patients, and caregivers to improve outcomes in areas such as cancer clinical trial accrual, HPV vaccination, dementia, and cancer treatment misinformation. I have received significant research funding from the National Institutes of Health and foundations such as The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I have published 180 peer-reviewed papers, co-edited two Oxford books on healthcare communication, and co-edited the Wiley International Encyclopedia of Health Communication. I also serve as the founding Editor-in-Chief of PEC Innovation, an open access sibling journal to Patient Education & Counseling.

I lead the department’s educational programs and am committed to ensuring that students receive training that will prepare them to help answer pressing health-related research questions. As an educator, I equip students with methodological skills that will enable them to pursue their research goals. As a mentor, my primary goal is to help my mentees fulfill their potential. I am a member of the UF College of Medicine’s Society for Teaching Scholars.

Publications:
Grants:
  • Aug 2023 ACTIVE
    Implicit racial bias in pediatric emergency medicine: A foundational investigation of physician behaviors
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIMHD · Other
  • Aug 2023 ACTIVE
    Incentive funds for Graduate Medical Education Trainees
    LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOC · Principal Investigator
  • Aug 2023 ACTIVE
    Implementation of a Cancer Clinical Trials (CCT) Communication Skills Education Program for Medical Oncology Fellows
    LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOC · Principal Investigator
  • Jul 2023 ACTIVE
    Sustainability of Tobacco Cessation Programs at NCI-Designated Cancer Centers
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Co-Investigator
  • Jun 2023 ACTIVE
    Adapting the Healthy Communication Practice Program for Parent Caregivers of Adolescents and Young Adults (AYAs) Living with a Blood Cancer
    LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOC · Principal Investigator
  • Feb 2023 ACTIVE
    Clinical Trials Education in GME: A Needs Assessment
    LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOC · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2022 ACTIVE
    ReMARk: A multi-level strategy to address disparities in rural HPV-related cancer prevention
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Co-Investigator
  • Aug 2022 ACTIVE
    S.E.N.D.: Developing a web-based, interactive guide to enhance patient-clinician electronic communication by focusing on specificity, expressing concerns, need, and directness
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Principal Investigator
  • Jun 2022 ACTIVE
    Recruitment Support For Enhancing Access To Cancer Clinical Trials Among Underrepresented Patients
    LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOC · Principal Investigator
  • May 2022 – Feb 2024
    Understanding CLL Caregivers Experiences and Support Needs
    LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOC · Co-Project Director/Principal Investigator
  • May 2022 ACTIVE
    Improving Family and Healthcare Communication for Caregivers of Spouses with Blood Cancer
    LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOC · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2021 ACTIVE
    Dignity Therapy for Older Cancer Patients: Identifying Mechanisms and Moderators
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2021 – Aug 2022
    Understanding Older Adults Cancer Experiences, Support Needs, and Communication
    LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOC · Co-Project Director/Principal Investigator
  • Apr 2021 ACTIVE
    Enhancing Communication Skills of Primary Care Providers to Improve Patient Access to Clinical Trials and Quality Cancer Care.
    LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOC · Principal Investigator
  • Jul 2020 ACTIVE
    Adequate selection of patients for thyroid biopsy: evaluation of a shared decision making conversation aid
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Other
  • May 2020 – Apr 2023
    Communication of Dementia Diagnoses: Investigating Patient, Family, and Physician Experiences and Developing Best Practices
    FL DEPT OF HLTH ED ETHEL MOORE ALZHEIMER · Co-Project Director/Principal Investigator
  • Jul 2019 ACTIVE
    Text and Talk: A multi-level intervention to increase provider HPV vaccine recommendation effectiveness
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Co-Investigator
  • Jul 2019 – Jun 2022
    Improving Family and Healthcare Communication for Caregivers of Parents with Blood Cancer
    LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOC · Principal Investigator
  • Aug 2018 – Jun 2020
    College of Journalism and Communications Faculty Seed Award
    UF FOUNDATION · Project Manager
  • Apr 2018 – Jul 2019
    Together: Transforming and Translating Discovery to Improve Health
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCATS · Project Manager
  • Apr 2017 – Jun 2021
    OoR CTSI Institutional Matching Support
    UF DIV OF SPONSORED RES MATCHING FUNDS · Project Manager
  • Apr 2015 – Jun 2021
    Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI)
    UF DIV OF SPONSORED RES MATCHING FUNDS · Project Manager
  • Feb 2015 – Oct 2023
    UF Health Cancer Center Pilot Project Grants funded through the Florida Consortium of National Cancer Institute Centers Program
    UF HEALTH SHANDS HOSPITAL · Project Manager
Gina T Eubanks

Gina T Eubanks MPH, PhD

Assistant Scientist And Director, QI & Implementation Sci
Phone: (352) 627-9145
Email: gina7@ufl.edu
Mailing Address:
PO Box 100147
GAINESVILLE FL 32610
Physical Address:
1889 Museum Rd, Suite 7000
Gainesville FL 32611
Carla L Fisher

Carla L Fisher PhD

Professor
Phone: (352) 627-9467
Mailing Address:
PO Boz 100147
GAINESVILLE FL 32610
Physical Address:
1889 Museum Rd, Suite 7000
GAINESVILLE FL 32611

Carla L. Fisher, Ph.D. is a Professor in Implementation Science and Health Interventions and affiliate of the UF Health Cancer Center and Center for Arts in Medicine. She is a behavioral scientist and expert in family-centered psychosocial oncology care, qualitative designs in implementation science, and building lifespan/developmentally targeted interventions using narrative-grounded mixed- methods research.

Dr. Fisher’s work aims to contribute to a “psychosocial map” that helps patients, caregivers, family members, and clinicians learn communication skills central to promoting healthier outcomes when coping with acute or chronic illnesses, family caregiving, and disease risk. Her primary focus has been on promoting family-centered psychosocial oncology care from pre-diagnosis through survivorship with much of this focused on improving care in breast cancer and blood cancers. Her work in family- or patient-centered healthcare has also spanned numerous healthcare contexts (e.g., diabetes, acupuncture, mental health, geriatric medicine, genomic medicine, hereditary breast and ovarian cancer risk). She also prioritizes reducing health disparities for women, racial/ethnic minorities, veterans, the aging, adolescents and young adults (AYAs), and individuals living with hereditary disease risk. Collectively, her work brings to the forefront the importance of family communication in healthcare practice and public health interventions.

Dr. Fisher is also an expert in multi-method qualitative designs in implementation science. She is regularly invited to serve as the lead qualitative expert on grant-funded research supported by funders like NIH, PCORI, DOD, and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. She’s been an invited qualitative expert for the government including the National United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Office on Women’s Health (OWH), and for five years, served as the lead qualitative methodologist on multiple funded projects for the Military Primary Care Research Network. She currently directs a team of qualitative scientists who lead the qualitative arms of multiple funded studies and teaches a summer advanced graduate course in qualitative design and thematic analysis.

Her research collaborations have resulted in more than $15 million in federal and private funding and she’s authored >100 publications. This includes the only nationally recognized, evidence-informed book (Coping together, side by side), which addresses the central role of mother-daughter communication to breast cancer coping and caregiving and offers narrative-driven guidance targeting women’s distinct developmental needs. Across her career she has had the privilege of mentoring 66 graduate students and multiple early career MDs and PhDs on their paths to independent investigators.

Publications:
Grants:
  • Aug 2023 ACTIVE
    Implicit racial bias in pediatric emergency medicine: A foundational investigation of physician behaviors
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIMHD · Other
  • Aug 2023 ACTIVE
    The potential of kava in enabling tobacco cessation – its holistic effects in managing stress and insomnia associated with abstinence
    NATL CTR FOR COMPLEM AND INTEGRATIVE HLT · Co-Investigator
  • Jun 2023 ACTIVE
    Adapting the Healthy Communication Practice Program for Parent Caregivers of Adolescents and Young Adults (AYAs) Living with a Blood Cancer
    LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOC · Co-Investigator
  • Sep 2022 ACTIVE
    ReMARk: A multi-level strategy to address disparities in rural HPV-related cancer prevention
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Project Manager
  • May 2022 – Feb 2024
    Understanding CLL Caregivers Experiences and Support Needs
    LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOC · Principal Investigator
  • May 2022 ACTIVE
    Improving Family and Healthcare Communication for Caregivers of Spouses with Blood Cancer
    LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOC · Co-Project Director/Principal Investigator
  • Mar 2022 ACTIVE
    Patient-Centered Equity Enhancements to Reduce Disproportionate Unmet Mental Health Need of African American Children
    PATIENT-CENTERED OUTCOMES RES INST · Co-Investigator
  • Sep 2021 ACTIVE
    Preemptive pharmacogenetic testing in medically underserved populations
    NATL INST OF HLTH NHGRI · Co-Investigator
  • Sep 2021 – Aug 2022
    Understanding Older Adults Cancer Experiences, Support Needs, and Communication
    LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOC · Principal Investigator
  • Apr 2021 ACTIVE
    Enhancing Communication Skills of Primary Care Providers to Improve Patient Access to Clinical Trials and Quality Cancer Care.
    LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOC · Co-Investigator
  • Aug 2020 – Jul 2021
    Identification Methods, Patient Activation, and Cascade Testing for Familial Hypercholesterolemia (IMPACT-FH)
    GEISINGER MEDICAL CENTER · Principal Investigator
  • Jul 2019 – Jun 2022
    Improving Family and Healthcare Communication for Caregivers of Parents with Blood Cancer
    LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOC · Co-Investigator
  • Apr 2019 – Aug 2023
    A Behavioral Economic Intervention to Reduce Marijuana Use in Truant Youth
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIDA · Other
  • Nov 2017 – Dec 2019
    Diabetes ROADMAP: An Intervention to Address Health Disparities Through Personalized Diagnosis Communication
    HENRY M JACKSON FOUNDATION · Principal Investigator
  • May 2017 – Oct 2019
    Using Targeted Social Media to Communicate Culturally Sensitive and Interactive Environmental Risk Information about Breast Cancer to Mothers
    GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY · Principal Investigator
  • Feb 2015 – Oct 2023
    UF Health Cancer Center Pilot Project Grants funded through the Florida Consortium of National Cancer Institute Centers Program
    UF HEALTH SHANDS HOSPITAL · Project Manager
Education:
  • 2008
    PhD
    The Pennsylvania State University
  • 2004
    MA
    Arizona State University
  • 1999
    BS
    Florida Institute of Technology
Jaclyn M Hall

Jaclyn M Hall Ph.D.

Associate Research Scientist
Phone: (352) 627-9099
Mailing Address:
PO Box 100147
GAINESVILLE FL 32610
Physical Address:
1889 Museum Rd, Suite 7000
GAINESVILLE FL 32611

As a medical geographer, I contribute to a variety of health outcomes studies, and to the larger initiatives of the department and college. Due to my diverse background in spatial technologies and experience with environmental data, I contribute to a variety of community health and heath policy related research, both in geographic analyses and geographic data management. My research provides insight into the rurality and other spatial trends of patient data that is vital to several initiatives of the UF Cancer Center, Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, several large Medicaid Managed Care evaluation projects, and multiple studies using data from the OneFlorida Clinical Data Research Network. My contributions include working with researchers on study design, managing the process of geocoding (generating spatial locations from written address data) multiple large data sources, analyses of health care network adequacy, hotspot identification, cluster analyses, and creation of new spatial data sets.

Publications:
Grants:
  • Sep 2022 – Jun 2023
    Health Policy Training in Tobacco Prevention and Control
    FL DEPT OF HLTH · Co-Investigator
  • Sep 2022 ACTIVE
    ReMARk: A multi-level strategy to address disparities in rural HPV-related cancer prevention
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Co-Investigator
  • Nov 2021 – Jun 2022
    FLDOH PO – 2021-2022 – Educating Community Leaders about Tobacco Regulation
    FL DEPT OF HLTH · Co-Investigator
  • Oct 2021 ACTIVE
    Describing Tobacco-Related Health Systems by County Analysis of OneFlorida Data
    RTI INTERNATIONAL · Principal Investigator
  • Oct 2021 – May 2023
    RESEARCHING COVID TO ENHANCE RECOVERY (RECOVER) INITIATIVE
    WEILL MED COLLEGE OF CORNELL UNIV · Other
  • Feb 2021 – Jun 2021
    Health Policy Training in Tobacco Prevention and Cessation
    FL DEPT OF HLTH · Co-Investigator
  • Jul 2020 – Jun 2023
    Sunshine Portal Year 2
    FL DIV OF EARLY LEARNING · Co-Investigator
  • Jul 2020 ACTIVE
    Research Data Centers: Florida Research Data Center
    NATL SCIENCE FOU · Co-Project Director/Principal Investigator
  • Jun 2020 – May 2022
    RAPID: Adaptive Sampling Strategies for COVID-19 Mass Testing
    NATL SCIENCE FOU · Co-Project Director/Principal Investigator
  • May 2020 – Oct 2022
    Prevention of Vaping and Tobacco Product Use Among Rural Youth in Florida
    AETNA FOUNDATION · Co-Investigator
  • Jan 2020 – Aug 2020
    The provision of research and evaluation to determine the short and long-term human health impacts from harmful algal blooms (HABs)
    FL DEPT OF HLTH · Co-Investigator
  • Apr 2013 – May 2016
    Collaborative Research: Building Forest Management into Earth System Modeling: Scaling From Stand to Continent
    NATL SCIENCE FOU · Project Manager
Education:
  • 2009
    PhD Geography
    University of Florida
  • 2002
    MA Geography
    University of South Florida
  • 1996
    BA Geography
    Stetson University
Georges Khalil

Georges Khalil Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Mailing Address:
PO Box 100147
GAINESVILLE FL 32610
Physical Address:
1889 Museum Rd, Suite 7000
GAINESVILLE FL 32611

Georges Khalil is a cancer prevention scientist and health communication specialist in the Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics. Prior to his appointment at the University of Florida, Dr. Khalil served as a Postdoctoral Fellow and then Instructor faculty at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He earned a Master of Public Health from the University of Southern California (2010) and a Doctoral degree in Communication from the State University of New York at Buffalo (2015).

Dr. Khalil’s research interests are cancer prevention, digital technologies, and social interactivity. His work primarily focuses on the design and evaluation of entertainment programs and technology-based interventions that aim to improve clinical and behavioral outcomes related to cancer prevention and control among youths. He is particularly passionate about the application of games for health to bring about behavior change.

Most recently, his research has focused on tobacco prevention, exploring adolescents’ reactions to ASPIRE, a web-based smoking prevention program, and the study of young adults’ experience with a mobile health campaign for tobacco-risk communication. He has also conducted studies on Re-Mission, a video game designed to improve medication adherence among pediatric cancer patients and cancer-risk communication among young-adult college students. Funded by an R00 grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Dr. Khalil is currently developing and testing social influence strategies for tobacco prevention and cessation among adolescents.

Dr. Khalil has presented at both national and international conferences including the World Cancer Congress and has been recipient of a variety of awards including the Early Career Investigator Award from the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco and a New Investigator Workshop Award from the American Society of Preventive Oncology.

Accomplishments:
  • Outstanding Trainee Award Nomination
    2019 · Division of Cancer Prevention & Population Sciences of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
  • NIH Travel Award for Collaborative Research on Addiction
    2019 · National Institute on Drug Abuse
  • Early Career Investigator Award
    2018 · Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco – Europe
  • New Investigator Workshop Award
    2016 · American Society of Preventive Oncology
  • NCI R25T Postdoctoral Fellowship Award in Cancer Prevention Research
    2015 · University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
  • Top Student Paper Award in Health Communication
    2014 · National Communication Association, Health Communication Division
  • NCI R25T Pre-Doctoral Fellowship Award in Cancer Prevention Research
    2013 · University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
  • Competitively Selected Research at the Games for Health Europe Conference
    2013 · Foundation of Applied Games
  • Teaching Assistantship Stipend
    2012 · University at Buffalo, Department of Communication
  • Graduate Student Employee Union Doctoral Retention Enhancement Award
    2011 · University at Buffalo, Department of Communication
Publications:
Grants:
  • Jun 2020 ACTIVE
    Social Influence Strategies during a Web-based Smoking Prevention Intervention for Adolescents
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIDA · Principal Investigator
Jennifer H LeLaurin

Jennifer H LeLaurin Ph.D.

Research Assistant Professor
Phone: (352) 294-5993
Mailing Address:
PO Box 100147
GAINESVILLE FL 32610
Physical Address:
1889 Museum Rd, Suite 7000
GAINESVILLE FL 32611

Dr. LeLaurin is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Outcomes & Biomedical Informatics at the University of Florida College of Medicine. She also serves as the Assistant Director of the Learning Health System Program at the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute and co-leads the Tobacco Control Working Group at the University of Florida Cancer Center. Dr. LeLaurin has a background in implementation science and public health along with over ten years of experience working in tobacco control. She specializes in using qualitative and mixed-methods approaches to support the implementation of technology-based interventions in clinical settings. Her research focuses on leveraging the EHR to improve adherence to clinical practice guidelines for tobacco dependence treatment. She is also interested in developing and testing EHR-based strategies for social risk screening and interventions.

Publications:
Grants:
  • Apr 2023 ACTIVE
    Expanding The Role Of The Safety Manager To Implement A Workplace Smoking Cessation Program In The Construction Sector
    UNIV OF MIAMI · Co-Investigator
  • Sep 2022 – Jun 2023
    Health Policy Training in Tobacco Prevention and Control
    FL DEPT OF HLTH · Co-Investigator
  • Jul 2021 ACTIVE
    Project SMART: Social Media Anti-vaping Messages to Reduce ENDS Use Among Sexual and Gender Minority Teens
    UNIV OF PENNSYLVANIA · Co-Investigator
Rahma S Mkuu

Rahma S Mkuu

Assistant Professor
Phone: (352) 627-9467
Email: rmkuu@ufl.edu
Mailing Address:
PO Box 100147
GAINESVILLE FL 32610
Physical Address:
1889 Museum Rd, Suite 7000
GAINESVILLE FL 32611

Dr. Mkuu is a health outcomes and chronic disease researcher in the Department of Health Outcomes & Biomedical Informatics at the University of Florida. Dr. Mkuu’s work focuses on disentangling determinants of health outcomes and identifying evidenced-interventions and policies that improve the health of under-served populations.

Accomplishments:
  • Honor Graduate
    2018 · Department of Health & Kinesiology, Texas A&M University
  • Distinguished Honor Graduate
    2018 · College of Education and Human Development, Texas A&M University
  • Highest Scoring Student Abstract
    2017 · American Public Health Association, Women’s Caucus
  • Diversity Fellow
    2015-2018 · Texas A&M University
  • Health Promotion Policy Fellow
    2014-2015 · Arkansas Department of Health
  • Student of the Year Nominee
    2012 · Department of Health Education and Behavior, University of Florida
Research Interests:
  • Cancer
  • Global Health
  • HIV Prevention
  • Hypertension
  • Obesity prevention and treatment
  • Program evaluation
  • quality improvement
Publications:
Grants:
  • Jul 2021 ACTIVE
    Together: Transforming and Translating Discovery to Improve Health
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCATS · Project Manager
Education:
  • 2018
    PhD, Health Education
    Texas A&M University
  • 2014
    MPH, Master of Public Health
    Columbia University
  • 2012
    BS, Health Education and Behavior
    University of Florida
Ramzi G Salloum

Ramzi G Salloum Ph.D.

Associate Professor And Division Director
Phone: (352) 294-4997
Mailing Address:
PO Box 100147
GAINESVILLE FL 32610
Physical Address:
1889 MUSEUM RD STE 7000 FL 7
GAINESVILLE FL 32610

Dr. Salloum is Associate Professor and the Director of the Division of Implementation Science and Health Interventions in the Department of Health Outcomes & Biomedical Informatics at the University of Florida College of Medicine. Salloum also serves as the Associate Director of Community Outreach and Engagement at the UF Health Cancer Center and the Director of the Learning Health System Program at the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

Dr. Salloum’s research focuses on the implementation and dissemination of evidence-based practices, especially in cancer prevention and control. He has a demonstrated research record in the area of health services research across diverse health system and policy settings, with a particular focus on the implementation of evidence-based programs. This work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, the Florida Department of Health, the International Development Research Centre, and Cancer Research UK. Dr. Salloum is well-versed in implementation science methods and frameworks and has served as faculty for the National Cancer Institute (NCI)’s Training Institute for Dissemination and Implementation Research in Cancer (TIDIRC).

Dr. Salloum teaches Fundamentals of Dissemination and Implementation Research (GMS 6851).

Accomplishments:
  • Co-Chair
    2022-Current · Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco – Global Research Network
  • Outstanding Specialist Award
    2022 · Florida Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences
  • UF Health Cancer Center Representative
    2020-Current · Florida Cancer Control & Research Advisory Council (CCRAB)
  • Chair
    2019-2021 · American Society of Preventive Oncology (ASPO) Global Cancer Research Special Interest Group
  • High-Enroller Award
    2019 · UF Health Cancer Center
  • Member
    2017-Current · American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Tobacco Consortium
  • Vice Chair
    2017-2018 · American Society of Preventive Oncology (ASPO) Global Cancer Research Special Interest Group
  • Exemplary Teacher Award
    2017 · UF College of Medicine
  • Advisory Committee Member
    2016-2019 · Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) Global Health Network
  • Fellow
    2016-2018 · NCI Mentored Training in Dissemination and Implementation Research (MT-DIRC)
  • Member
    2016-2017 · OneFlorida Cancer Control Alliance – Scientific Advisory Committee
  • Scholar
    2015-2017 · NCI Cancer Research Network (CRN) Scholars Program
Publications:
Grants:
  • Sep 2023 ACTIVE
    Assessing performance of a Hepatitis C Emergency Department (HepC-END) Screening Tool
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIDA · Co-Investigator
  • Sep 2023 ACTIVE
    Patient goals and decision-making in chronic limb-threatening ischemia
    UNIV OF MASSACHUSETTS MEDICAL SCHOOL · Co-Investigator
  • Aug 2023 ACTIVE
    Ethnographic investigation of factors affecting conceptualization and provision of social prescribing in outpatient primary care clinics in the United States
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIMHD · Other
  • Aug 2023 ACTIVE
    The potential of kava in enabling tobacco cessation – its holistic effects in managing stress and insomnia associated with abstinence
    NATL CTR FOR COMPLEM AND INTEGRATIVE HLT · Principal Investigator
  • Jul 2023 ACTIVE
    Advancing Precision Lung Cancer Surveillance and Outcomes in Diverse Populations (PLuS2)
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Co-Investigator
  • Jul 2023 ACTIVE
    Sustainability of Tobacco Cessation Programs at NCI-Designated Cancer Centers
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Principal Investigator
  • Jul 2023 ACTIVE
    Capacity Building Projects to Support UF Health's Participation in the Health Systems Implementation Initiative
    PATIENT-CENTERED OUTCOMES RES INST · Co-Investigator
  • Jun 2023 ACTIVE
    UF Health Cancer Center Support Grant
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Other
  • May 2023 – Aug 2023
    Patient goals and decision-making in chronic limb-threatening ischemia
    UNIV OF MASSACHUSETTS MEDICAL SCHOOL · Co-Investigator
  • Apr 2023 ACTIVE
    Expanding The Role Of The Safety Manager To Implement A Workplace Smoking Cessation Program In The Construction Sector
    UNIV OF MIAMI · Principal Investigator
  • Apr 2023 ACTIVE
    Creation of an Infrastructure to Support Delivery of mHealth Interventions for Cancer Patients Throughout Florida
    H LEE MOFFITT CANCER CTR & RES INST · Co-Investigator
  • Sep 2022 – Jun 2023
    Health Policy Training in Tobacco Prevention and Control
    FL DEPT OF HLTH · Co-Investigator
  • Sep 2022 ACTIVE
    ReMARk: A multi-level strategy to address disparities in rural HPV-related cancer prevention
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Co-Investigator
  • Sep 2022 ACTIVE
    Phone Enabled Implementation of Cessation Support (PHOENICS)
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Principal Investigator
  • May 2022 ACTIVE
    Comparative Effectiveness of Mobile Health Smoking Cessation Approaches among Underserved Patients in Primary Care
    PATIENT-CENTERED OUTCOMES RES INST · Principal Investigator
  • Apr 2022 ACTIVE
    Florida NCI Funds – Pediatric Allocation
    UF HEALTH SHANDS HOSPITAL · Co-Investigator
  • Apr 2022 ACTIVE
    Point-of-care intervention to address financial toxicity in families facing pediatric cancer
    FL DEPT OF HLTH LIVE LIKE BELLA · Principal Investigator
  • Nov 2021 – Jun 2022
    FLDOH PO – 2021-2022 – Educating Community Leaders about Tobacco Regulation
    FL DEPT OF HLTH · Co-Investigator
  • Sep 2021 ACTIVE
    Scaling Interoperable Clinical Decision Support for Patient-Centered Chronic Pain Care
    AGENCY FOR HEALTHCARE RES AND QUALITY · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2021 ACTIVE
    Preemptive pharmacogenetic testing in medically underserved populations
    NATL INST OF HLTH NHGRI · Co-Investigator
  • Jul 2021 ACTIVE
    Project SMART: Social Media Anti-vaping Messages to Reduce ENDS Use Among Sexual and Gender Minority Teens
    UNIV OF PENNSYLVANIA · Principal Investigator
  • Jun 2021 ACTIVE
    Reducing tobacco-associated lung cancer risk: A randomized clinical trial of AB-free kava
    FL DEPT OF HLTH BIOMED RES PGM/J&E KING · Principal Investigator
  • Feb 2021 – Jun 2021
    Health Policy Training in Tobacco Prevention and Cessation
    FL DEPT OF HLTH · Co-Investigator
  • Jul 2020 ACTIVE
    Adequate selection of patients for thyroid biopsy: evaluation of a shared decision making conversation aid
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Other
  • May 2020 – Oct 2022
    Prevention of Vaping and Tobacco Product Use Among Rural Youth in Florida
    AETNA FOUNDATION · Principal Investigator
  • Jan 2020 ACTIVE
    The benefits and harms of lung cancer screening in Florida
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Co-Investigator
  • Oct 2019 – Mar 2023
    Clinically-Efficient Strategies to Address Tobacco Smoke Exposure in Pediatric Practice
    FL DEPT OF HLTH BIOMED RES PGM/J&E KING · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2018 – May 2022
    Eastern Mediterranean Consortium on the Economics of Waterpipe Tobacco Smoking: Capacity Building and Knowledge Translation
    AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT · Principal Investigator
  • Nov 2015 – Oct 2016
    Exploring methods to elicit individual patient preferences at diagnosis to inform patient-centered care
    UNIV OF SOUTH CAROLINA · Principal Investigator
  • Jun 2015 – Dec 2016
    Waterpipe tobacco smoking among University students
    ZAYED UNIVERSITY · Principal Investigator
  • May 2015 – Apr 2017
    CRN Scholars Award – CRN4: Cancer Research Resources & Collaboration in Integrated Health Care Systems
    KAISER FOU RESEARCH INSTITUTE-Duplicate · Principal Investigator
  • May 2015 – Oct 2016
    Building evidence for effective and sustainable cigarette warning label policy
    UNIV OF SOUTH CAROLINA · Principal Investigator
  • Apr 2015 – Jun 2021
    Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI)
    UF DIV OF SPONSORED RES MATCHING FUNDS · Project Manager
  • Mar 2015 – Jan 2017
    Waterpipe tobacco smoking amoung university students: Testing policy and prevention tools using a discrete choice.
    AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT · Principal Investigator
  • Feb 2015 – Oct 2023
    UF Health Cancer Center Pilot Project Grants funded through the Florida Consortium of National Cancer Institute Centers Program
    UF HEALTH SHANDS HOSPITAL · Project Manager
  • Jun 2014 – Dec 2017
    OneFlorida Cancer Control Network
    FL DEPT OF HLTH BIOMED RES PGM/J&E KING · Co-Investigator
Education:
  • 2011-2013
    Postdoctoral Fellowship, Cancer Care Quality
    University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • 2011
    PhD, Economics
    Wayne State University
  • 2007
    MA, Economics
    University of South Florida
  • 2002
    MBA, Business Administration
    University of South Florida
  • 2001
    BS, Management Information Systems
    University of South Florida
Elizabeth A Shenkman

Elizabeth A Shenkman Ph.D.

Department Chair And Professor
Phone: (352) 265-7220
Mailing Address:
PO Box: 100147
Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics
GAINESVILLE FL 32610
Physical Address:
1889 MUSEUM RD STE 7000 FL 7
GAINESVILLE FL 32611

Elizabeth Shenkman, PhD is the Chair of the Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics and also is the Co-Director of the University of Florida Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and the Associate Director for Community Outreach and Engagement for the UF Health Cancer Center. Dr. Shenkman is a health outcomes researcher with a research focus on: 1) determining which combinations of health care delivery, community, and patient factors influence quality and outcomes of care; and 2) developing and testing corresponding evidence-based strategies to reduce disparities in health outcomes among underserved populations.

In her role as CTSI Co-Director and Co-Principle Investigator, Dr. Shenkman leads the Learning Health System initiative, including interfacing with clinicians, health system leaders, researchers, and patients to align research and clinical operations to systematically improve health outcomes and advance health equity using real world data combined with implementation and improvement science methodologies. In addition, Dr. Shenkman leads the OneFlorida Clinical Research Consortium, which was developed through the CTSI.

The Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute-funded OneFlorida Clinical Research Network is comprised of 10 different health system partners caring for over 15 M Floridians or approximately 60% of the population in the 3rd largest state in the US. The Floridians in this network include vulnerable populations who are rarely or minimally included in traditional clinical trials (e.g., those of lower socioeconomic status, racial and ethnic minorities, children, and older adults). A hallmark of OneFlorida is its centralized Data Trust, which contains linked health care claims, electronic health record, tumor registry, vital statistics, and census data from its health system partners for cohort discovery, study feasibility determination, and to augment primary data collection activities. Dr. Shenkman facilitates investigators’ access to OneFlorida clinical settings and the Data Trust for a wide range of studies including cancer-focused interventional trials.

Dr. Shenkman is an MPI for the NIH Office of the Director-funded All of Us Precision Medicine cohort initiative in collaboration with the University of Miami, Emory University and Morehouse School of Medicine. In that capacity, she is responsible for overseeing community engagement and recruitment and retention efforts focused on rural and underserved populations in North Florida. Dr. Shenkman also is the PI of an R01 funded by the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality examining the effects of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals with chronic conditions. The project uses electronic health record data to better measure health care use and clinical outcomes for adults with T2 diabetes and/or hypertension and who have intersecting identities (e.g., women who are black and residing in rural areas).

Dr. Shenkman’s research is funded by PCORI, the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, NIH, and the National Cancer Institute. Her work is published in such journals as Pediatrics, Health Services Research, Clinical Epidemiology, Pediatric Blood and Cancer, and the American Journal of Public Health. Dr. Shenkman is an elected member of the Society for Pediatric Research and the American Pediatric Society.

Publications:
Grants:
  • Dec 2023 ACTIVE
    A Roadmap for Accelerating Research to Improve Mental and Behavioral Health in PCORnet? Funding Opportunity (OneFlorida+)
    PATIENT-CENTERED OUTCOMES RES INST · Principal Investigator
  • Nov 2023 ACTIVE
    Enhancing PCORnet? Infrastructure Capacity for Patient-Centered CER
    PATIENT-CENTERED OUTCOMES RES INST · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2023 ACTIVE
    Sunshine State Early Childhood Information Portal Expansion and Pilot Implementation of Practice-Based Coaching withing Florida's Early Care and Education System
    FL DIV OF EARLY LEARNING · Co-Project Director/Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2023 ACTIVE
    PRagmatic EValuation of evENTs And Benefits of Lipid-lowering in oldEr Adults (PREVENTABLE) – Data Coordinating Center
    DUKE UNIVERSITY · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2023 ACTIVE
    PRagmatic EValuation of evENTs And Benefits of Lipid-lowering in oldEr Adults (PREVENTABLE) – Clinical Sites Core (Hub)
    DUKE UNIVERSITY · Principal Investigator
  • Jul 2023 ACTIVE
    Expanding Demographic Coverage of PCORnet – OneFlorida+ addition of Jackson Health System and University of California at Irvine
    PATIENT-CENTERED OUTCOMES RES INST · Principal Investigator
  • Jul 2023 ACTIVE
    Capacity Building Projects to Support UF Health's Participation in the Health Systems Implementation Initiative
    PATIENT-CENTERED OUTCOMES RES INST · Co-Investigator
  • Jul 2023 ACTIVE
    Together: Transforming and Translating Discovery to Improve Health
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCATS · Co-Project Director/Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2022 ACTIVE
    Southeastern Coastal Center for Agricultural Health & Safety (SCCAHS)
    CTRS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION · Project Manager
  • Sep 2022 ACTIVE
    ReMARk: A multi-level strategy to address disparities in rural HPV-related cancer prevention
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Co-Investigator
  • Sep 2022 – Sep 2023
    PCORnet? Infrastructure Capacity Building for PCOR Priority Areas: Maternal morbidity and mortality (MMM) and individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD)
    PATIENT-CENTERED OUTCOMES RES INST · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2022 – Aug 2023
    PRagmatic EValuation of evENTs And Benefits of Lipid-lowering in oldEr Adults (PREVENTABLE) – Clinical Sites Core
    DUKE UNIVERSITY · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2022 – Aug 2023
    PRagmatic EValuation of evENTs And Benefits of Lipid-lowering in oldEr Adults (PREVENTABLE) – Data Coordinating Center
    DUKE UNIVERSITY · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2022 ACTIVE
    Patient-Focused Collaborative Hospital Repository Uniting Standards (CHoRUS) for Equitable AI
    MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · Co-Investigator
  • Sep 2022 ACTIVE
    UF HEALTH CANCER CENTER PILOT PROJECTS GRANTS FUNDED THROUGHTHE FLORIDA CONSORTIUM OF NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE CENTER
    UF HEALTH SHANDS HOSPITAL · Project Manager
  • Aug 2022 ACTIVE
    PANDA-MSD: Predictive Analytics via Networked Distributed Algorithms for Multi-System Diseases
    UNIV OF PENNSYLVANIA · Co-Investigator
  • Jul 2022 ACTIVE
    Together: Transforming and Translating Discovery to Improve Health
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCATS · Co-Project Director/Principal Investigator
  • Feb 2022 – Aug 2022
    PREVENTABLE PRagmatic EValuation of evENTs And Benefits of Lipid-lowering in oldEr adults
    DUKE UNIVERSITY · Principal Investigator
  • Jan 2022 ACTIVE
    OneFlorida+ Phase 3 Clinical Research Network
    PATIENT-CENTERED OUTCOMES RES INST · Principal Investigator
  • Dec 2021 – Jul 2023
    The External Exposome and COVID-19 Severity and Mortality
    BRIGHAM AND WOMENS HOSPITAL · Co-Investigator
  • Nov 2021 – Jul 2023
    Florida Community-Engagement Research Alliance Against COVID-19 in Disproportionately Affected Communities
    UNIV OF MIAMI · Principal Investigator
  • Oct 2021 – May 2023
    RESEARCHING COVID TO ENHANCE RECOVERY (RECOVER) INITIATIVE
    WEILL MED COLLEGE OF CORNELL UNIV · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2021 ACTIVE
    Computable social factor phenotyping using EHR and HIE data
    INDIANA UNIV · Co-Investigator
  • Jul 2021 ACTIVE
    Together: Transforming and Translating Discovery to Improve Health
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCATS · Co-Project Director/Principal Investigator
  • Jun 2021 – Sep 2021
    Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy and Early Risk of Maternal DCVD: Influence of the External Exposome
    NATL INST OF HLTH NHLBI · Other
  • Apr 2021 – Jun 2023
    ACTIV-6: COVID-19 Outpatient Randomized Trial to Evaluate Efficacy of Repurposed Medications
    DUKE UNIVERSITY · Principal Investigator
  • Apr 2021 ACTIVE
    ACTIV-6: COVID-19 Outpatient Randomized Trial to Evaluate Efficacy of Repurposed Medications (Villages)
    DUKE UNIVERSITY · Co-Investigator
  • Apr 2021 ACTIVE
    Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) 6 – Evaluate Efficacy of Repurposed Medications
    DUKE UNIVERSITY · Principal Investigator
  • Apr 2021 – Mar 2022
    HERO-Together: Healthcare Worker Exposure Response and Outcomes
    DUKE UNIVERSITY · Principal Investigator
  • Apr 2021 – Mar 2022
    Child and Caregiver Outcomes Using Linked Data (CCOULD)
    RTI INTERNATIONAL · Principal Investigator
  • Jan 2021 – May 2021
    HERO Registry & Trial: Healthcare Worker Exposure
    DUKE UNIVERSITY CLINICAL RES INST · Principal Investigator
  • Dec 2020 – Nov 2022
    Novel, High-Impact Studies Evaluating Health System and Healthcare Professional Responsiveness to COVID-19
    AGENCY FOR HEALTHCARE RES AND QUALITY · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2020 ACTIVE
    Using Real-world Data to Assess the Burden of Diabetes in Children and Adolescents in Florida
    CTRS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2020 – Oct 2021
    Florida Community-Engaged Research Alliance Against COVID-19 in Disproportionately Affected Communities (CEAL)
    UNIV OF MIAMI · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2020 ACTIVE
    Linking VA and non-VA data to study the risk of suicide in chronic pain patients
    WEILL MED COLLEGE OF CORNELL UNIV · Co-Investigator
  • Sep 2020 – Aug 2023
    PRagmatic EValuation of evENTs And Benefits of Lipid-lowering in oldEr Adults (PREVENTABLE) – Data Coordinating Center
    DUKE UNIVERSITY · Principal Investigator
  • Aug 2020 – Sep 2021
    The External Exposome and COVID-19 Severity
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIEHS · Co-Investigator
  • Jul 2020 – Jun 2023
    Sunshine Portal Year 2
    FL DIV OF EARLY LEARNING · Co-Project Director/Principal Investigator
  • Jul 2020 – Aug 2021
    ACTIV-4 Infected Outpatient Study
    UNIV OF PITTSBURGH · Project Manager
  • Jul 2020 – Mar 2022
    Together Transforming and Translating Discovery to Improve Health
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCATS · Co-Project Director/Principal Investigator
  • May 2020 – Oct 2022
    Prevention of Vaping and Tobacco Product Use Among Rural Youth in Florida
    AETNA FOUNDATION · Co-Investigator
  • May 2020 ACTIVE
    Development and Validation of Computational Algorithms to Assess Kidney Health in Electronic Health Records
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIDDK · Other
  • Apr 2020 – Sep 2020
    IBM Task Order – Development of New and Innovative Methods for Automated Reporting for CBER-Regulated Biological Products – FDA Task Order 2, Order # 75F40119F19002
    IBM CORP · Principal Investigator
  • Apr 2020 – Oct 2023
    HERO-HCQ CRN Network Engagement
    DUKE UNIVERSITY · Principal Investigator
  • Apr 2020 – Aug 2023
    Healthcare Worker Exposure Response and Outcomes of Hydroxychloroquine Trial (HERO-HCQ Trial)
    DUKE UNIVERSITY · Principal Investigator
  • Apr 2020 – Dec 2021
    PCORI_Transfer from PCRF OneFlorida Clinical Research Consortium
    PATIENT-CENTERED OUTCOMES RES INST · Principal Investigator
  • Apr 2020 – Sep 2021
    Healthcare Worker Exposure Response and Outcomes of Hydroxychloroquine Trial (HERO-HCQ Trial) (Leesburg)
    DUKE UNIVERSITY · Principal Investigator
  • Apr 2020 – Sep 2021
    Healthcare Worker Exposure Response and Outcomes of Hydroxychloroquine Trial (HERO-HCQ Trial) JAX
    DUKE UNIVERSITY · Principal Investigator
  • Mar 2020 ACTIVE
    Family Planning Waiver (FPW – MED 206)
    FL STATE UNIV · Principal Investigator
  • Feb 2020 – Mar 2021
    Comparative Effectiveness of Alternative Approaches for Wound Closure
    CHILDRENS HOSP PHILADELPHIA · Co-Investigator
  • Dec 2019 – Dec 2022
    AGR00016927 for Descriptive Cohort Only and AGR00016980 for Descriptive Cohort Sites Plus – and one OCR number OCR31023.
    DUKE UNIVERSITY · Principal Investigator
  • Dec 2019 – Dec 2022
    COORDINATE OneFlorida DUA – Option B
    DUKE UNIVERSITY · Principal Investigator
  • Oct 2019 – Mar 2023
    Clinically-Efficient Strategies to Address Tobacco Smoke Exposure in Pediatric Practice
    FL DEPT OF HLTH BIOMED RES PGM/J&E KING · Co-Investigator
  • Oct 2019 – Jun 2020
    Annual Sunshine State Early Childhood Information Portal Project Plan
    FL DIV OF EARLY LEARNING · Co-Project Director/Principal Investigator
  • Oct 2019 – May 2020
    Miami Center for AIDS Research
    UNIV OF MIAMI · Co-Investigator
  • Sep 2019 – Aug 2020
    PRagmatic EValuation of evENTs And Benefits of Lipid-lowering in oldEr Adults (PREVENTABLE)
    DUKE UNIVERSITY · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2019 ACTIVE
    Texas External Quality Review Organization
    STATE OF TEXAS HLTH HUMAN SERV COM · Principal Investigator
  • Jul 2019 – Jun 2021
    Together: Transforming and Translating Discovery to Improve Health
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCATS · Project Manager
  • Jul 2019 ACTIVE
    Text and Talk: A multi-level intervention to increase provider HPV vaccine recommendation effectiveness
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Co-Investigator
  • Jul 2019 – May 2020
    GORE ? EXCLUDER? Iliac Branch Endoprosthesis: NESTcc Test-Cases: Determining Feasibility
    WEILL MED COLLEGE OF CORNELL UNIV · Principal Investigator
  • Jan 2019 – Sep 2020
    PCRF: OneFlorida Clinical Research Consortium
    PEOPLE CENTERED RES FOU · Principal Investigator
  • Nov 2018 – Oct 2019
    DEVELOPMENT AND PROGRESSION OF COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH GROUP (CRG) PROJECT
    UNIV OF IOWA · Principal Investigator
  • Oct 2018 – Sep 2019
    External Quality Review for Children's Medical Services Plan
    FL DEPT OF HLTH CHILDRENS MED SERVS · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2018 – Jun 2023
    A 3D Tissue Map of the Human Lymphatic System
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIAID · Project Manager
  • Sep 2018 – Dec 2019
    Identifying and Predicting Patients with Preventable High Utilization
    WEILL MED COLLEGE OF CORNELL UNIV · Principal Investigator
  • Jul 2018 ACTIVE
    Southeast Enrollment Center (SEEC)
    UNIV OF MIAMI · Principal Investigator
  • Jul 2018 ACTIVE
    KidCare Evaluation
    AGCY FOR HLTH CARE ADMN · Principal Investigator
  • Jul 2018 – Jun 2023
    Florida Medicaid Maternal and Child Health Status Indicators Project
    AGCY FOR HLTH CARE ADMN · Principal Investigator
  • Jun 2018 – Nov 2019
    Health Systems PCORnet Health Demonstration Project Phase II
    CINCINNATI CHILDRENS HOSPITAL MED CTR · Principal Investigator
  • Apr 2018 – Jul 2019
    Together: Transforming and Translating Discovery to Improve Health
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCATS · Co-Investigator
  • Apr 2018 – Oct 2018
    Stakeholder Engagement and Multi-Risk Assessment in Dental Care Settings
    UNIV OF ALABAMA BIRMINGHAM · Principal Investigator
  • Nov 2017 – Oct 2018
    Safety of Direct Acting Antiviral Medications for Hepatitis C
    KAISER FOU RESEARCH INSTITUTE-Duplicate · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2017 – Jun 2018
    Molecular Diagnosis and Targeted Therapy in Cancer
    UNIV OF KANSAS CNTR FOR RESEARCH · Principal Investigator
  • Aug 2017 – Jul 2018
    Precision Medicine Initiative-South-East Enrollment Center (SEEC)
    UNIV OF MIAMI · Principal Investigator
  • Apr 2017 – Mar 2018
    The National Dental PBRN FY18
    UNIV OF ALABAMA BIRMINGHAM · Principal Investigator
  • Nov 2016 – Oct 2017
    Planning for congenital Zika syndrome surveillance in PCORnet and Sentinel
    PATIENT-CENTERED OUTCOMES RES INST · Co-Investigator
  • Oct 2016 – Mar 2020
    FL's Next Gen of Prescription Drug Related Surveillance: Data into Insights that Enhance PDMP Best Practices
    US DEPT OF JUSTICE · Co-Investigator
  • Sep 2016 – Sep 2020
    The Child Health Quality (CHeQ) Partnership Program
    AGENCY FOR HEALTHCARE RES AND QUALITY · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2016 – Dec 2016
    Florida Healthy Kids: External Quality Review Medical Quality Auditing Services
    FL HEALTHY KIDS CORP · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2016 – Feb 2018
    PCORI Health Systems Demonstration Project NYC Capricorn
    WEILL MED COLLEGE OF CORNELL UNIV · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2016 – Sep 2017
    PCORI Health Systems Demonstration Project OCHIN
    OCHIN · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2016 – Aug 2017
    PCORI Health Systems Demonstration Project PedsNet
    CINCINNATI CHILDRENS HOSPITAL MED CTR · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2016 – Nov 2016
    PCORnet Health Systems Collaborative Research Group
    CORNELL UNIV · Principal Investigator
  • Mar 2016 – Oct 2018
    A national pediatric learning health system: phase II
    CHILDRENS HOSP PHILADELPHIA · Principal Investigator
  • Jan 2016 – Apr 2017
    The National Dental PBRN
    UNIV OF ALABAMA BIRMINGHAM · Principal Investigator
  • Oct 2015 – Mar 2019
    OneFlorida Clinical Research Consortium Phase II
    PATIENT-CENTERED OUTCOMES RES INST · Principal Investigator
  • Jul 2015 ACTIVE
    Florida Academic Cancer Center Alliance Seed Grants
    UF HEALTH SHANDS HOSPITAL · Project Manager
  • Mar 2015 – Apr 2020
    DSR Match – Texas External Quality Review Organization Vendor and Quality Vendor
    UF DIV OF SPONSORED RES MATCHING FUNDS · Principal Investigator
  • Mar 2015 – Apr 2020
    Texas External Quality Review Organization Vendor and Quality Vendor
    STATE OF TEXAS HLTH HUMAN SERV COM · Principal Investigator
  • Feb 2015 – Oct 2023
    UF Health Cancer Center Pilot Project Grants funded through the Florida Consortium of National Cancer Institute Centers Program
    UF HEALTH SHANDS HOSPITAL · Project Manager
  • Aug 2014 – Jun 2016
    VA IPA – Bruce Vogel
    US DEPT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS · Principal Investigator
  • Jul 2014 – Jun 2020
    Florida Poison Information Center, COQVA
    FL DEPT OF HLTH · Project Manager
  • Jun 2014 – Dec 2017
    OneFlorida Cancer Control Network
    FL DEPT OF HLTH BIOMED RES PGM/J&E KING · Principal Investigator
  • Jun 2014 – Jun 2016
    Treo/3M Data Project
    3M COMPANY · Principal Investigator
  • Jun 2014 – May 2016
    VA IPA – Jonathan Shuster
    US DEPT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS · Principal Investigator
  • May 2014 – Aug 2022
    Quality of Care Review and Assessment Services
    STATE OF TEXAS DEPT AGING & DISABLED SER · Principal Investigator
  • Jan 2014 – Dec 2017
    External Quality Review Medical Quality Auditing Services
    FL HEALTHY KIDS CORP · Principal Investigator
  • Jan 2013 – Sep 2018
    Evaluation of Quality of Care in CMS Network
    FL DEPT OF HLTH CHILDRENS MED SERVS · Principal Investigator
  • Nov 2012 – Jun 2018
    Florida KidCare Evaluation
    AGCY FOR HLTH CARE ADMN · Principal Investigator
  • Jul 2007 – Aug 2016
    Clinical and Translational Science Institute
    UF RESEARCH FOU · Project Manager
Stephanie Staras

Stephanie Staras Ph.D.

Associate Chair Of Faculty Development And Associate Professor
Phone: (352) 294-8299
Mailing Address:
PO Box 100147
GAINESVILLE FL 32610
Physical Address:
1889 MUSEUM RD STE 7000 FL 7
GAINESVILLE FL 32611

Stephanie A. S. Staras, M.S.P.H., Ph.D., is an associate professor and Associate Chair for Faculty Development in the Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics . She is also the Director of Precision Public Health for the UF CTSI, Associate Director of the Institute for Child Health Policy, and co-lead for the UFHealth Cancer Center’s Cancer Control and Population Science Program.

Dr. Staras is an expert in rigorous and impactful research in prevention of human papillomavirus (HPV)-related cancers and using implementation science methods to increase health equity. She focuses on improving the clinical recommendations for, parent receptiveness to, and access to HPV vaccines among adolescents within Florida. She has served as Principal Investigator on a series of investigator-initiated National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Cancer Institute (NCI) funded grants (R21, R37, R37 extension, and R01) with total federal funding of $8.5 million. These large, high-enrolling projects contributed critically to the UF Cancer Center NCI designation by demonstrating the necessary impact in the catchment area as the 2nd highest enrolling investigator in 2022 comprising 27% of UF’s investigator-initialed clinical trial accruals.

Dr. Staras is a recognized expert in implementation science research methods. Having graduated from the NCI-sponsored training program entitled “Mentored Training in Dissemination and Implementation Research in Cancer,” she applies her expertise to a broad range of research aimed to improve health equity. She has led and co-led implementation in a variety of areas: uptake of Meningitis B vaccination among high school and college students, developing an acceptable decision support tool to aid primary care physicians in preventing opioid overdose, increased enrollment of underrepresented populations in cancer clinical trials, understanding the role of dental practitioners in health risk assessments, and improving hypertension treatment with precision-based solutions.

Accomplishments:
  • University of Florida Term Professorship
    2018-2019 · University of Florida
  • University of Florida Exemplary Teaching Award
    2018 · University of Florida
  • Fellow in the National Cancer Institute’s Mentored Training for Dissemination and Implementation Research in Cancer
    2016-2018 · Washington University in St. Louis
  • Health Disparities Research Loan Repayment Program Recipient. Research project entitled: “Development of an Alcohol-Related HIV preventive intervention among African American and Hispanic adolescent women.”
    2012-2014 · National Institutes of Health
  • 18th Annual Summer Course: Principles of STD / HIV Research Scholarship
    2010 · University of Washington Center for AIDS and STD’s
  • Travel Grant Recipient
    2007 · promising new investigators to the 17th International Society of Sexually Transmitted Diseases Research Meeting
  • Co-recipient of the Award for Excellence in International Health
    2001 · Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
  • Best Epidemiologist in the Workforce of Tomorrow Award
    2000 · Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologist
  • 1999 Charles C. Shepard Award for Excellence in Research-– presented to the graduating student who is deemed by the faculty to have prepared the most scholarly research thesis.
    1999 · Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University
Publications:
Grants:
  • Aug 2023 ACTIVE
    Implementation of a Cancer Clinical Trials (CCT) Communication Skills Education Program for Medical Oncology Fellows
    LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOC · Co-Investigator
  • Aug 2023 ACTIVE
    Incentive funds for Graduate Medical Education Trainees
    LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOC · Co-Investigator
  • Jul 2023 ACTIVE
    Together: Transforming and Translating Discovery to Improve Health
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCATS · Faculty
  • Jun 2023 ACTIVE
    UF Health Cancer Center Support Grant
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Other
  • Feb 2023 ACTIVE
    Clinical Trials Education in GME: A Needs Assessment
    LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOC · Co-Investigator
  • Sep 2022 ACTIVE
    ReMARk: A multi-level strategy to address disparities in rural HPV-related cancer prevention
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2021 ACTIVE
    Multi-Stakeholder Engagement for Interdisciplinary Telehealth in Lewy Body Dementia
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Other
  • Jul 2021 ACTIVE
    Developing and Evaluating a Machine-Learning Opioid Prediction & Risk-Stratification E-Platform (DEMONSTRATE)
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIDA · Co-Investigator
  • Jul 2021 ACTIVE
    Together: Transforming and Translating Discovery to Improve Health
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCATS · Other
  • Jul 2019 ACTIVE
    Text and Talk: A multi-level intervention to increase provider HPV vaccine recommendation effectiveness
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Principal Investigator
  • Apr 2018 – Oct 2018
    Stakeholder Engagement and Multi-Risk Assessment in Dental Care Settings
    UNIV OF ALABAMA BIRMINGHAM · Co-Investigator
  • Apr 2017 – Mar 2018
    The National Dental PBRN FY18
    UNIV OF ALABAMA BIRMINGHAM · Co-Investigator
  • Dec 2016 – Jul 2019
    Establishing and Evaluating a School and University Campus-Based Approach to Implementing Serogroup B Meningococcal (MenB) Disease Recommendations in Older Adolescents and Young Adults.
    PFIZER INC · Co-Investigator
  • Feb 2016 – Jan 2020
    Maximizing HPV vaccination: Real-time Reminders, Guidance, and Recommendations
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Principal Investigator
  • Dec 2015 – Oct 2016
    Staras HPV R01 Pilot – Miscellaneous Donors
    MISCELLANEOUS DONORS · Principal Investigator
  • Jul 2015 ACTIVE
    Florida Academic Cancer Center Alliance Seed Grants
    UF HEALTH SHANDS HOSPITAL · Project Manager
  • Feb 2015 – Oct 2023
    UF Health Cancer Center Pilot Project Grants funded through the Florida Consortium of National Cancer Institute Centers Program
    UF HEALTH SHANDS HOSPITAL · Project Manager
  • Jun 2014 – Dec 2017
    OneFlorida Cancer Control Network
    FL DEPT OF HLTH BIOMED RES PGM/J&E KING · Project Manager
  • Jul 2006 – Dec 2020
    21st Century Research & Economic Development Investment Program (REDIP)
    STATE UNIV SYS OF FL BOARD OF GOVERNORS · Project Manager
Education:
  • 2016-2018
    Mentored Training for Dissemination and Implementation Research in Cancer Fellowship
    Washington University, St. Louis
  • 2006
    Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Epidemiology
    Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Emory University
  • 2000
    Master of Science of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology
    Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University
  • 1998
    Bachelor of Science, Department of Biology
    Bucknell University
  • 1998
    Bachelor of Science , Department of Mathematics
    Bucknell University
Ryan P Theis

Ryan P Theis Ph.D.

Research Assistant Professor
Phone: (352) 294-5973
Mailing Address:
PO Box 100147
GAINESVILLE FL 32610
Physical Address:
1889 Museum Rd, Suite 7000
GAINESVILLE FL 32611

Dr. Theis is an assistant professor in the Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics (HOBI) and the Institute for Child Health Policy (ICHP) at the University of Florida College of Medicine. He is a medical anthropologist specializing in the use of qualitative methods in implementation and improvement science, health care quality measurement, and program evaluation. His research focuses on health disparities and health care quality in publicly insured populations, with an emphasis on children and adults in Medicaid who require long-term services and supports.

Dr. Theis presently oversees evaluation studies as a key investigator of the External Quality Review Organization for Texas Medicaid and CHIP. As HOBI Director of Qualitative Analytics, he also provides qualitative and mixed-methods expertise in collaboration with other UF faculty to inform the development and adoption of evidence-based practices in local clinical settings, including studies funded by the National Institutes of Health, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Dr. Theis is a member of the operations committee for the UF CTSI Learning Health System Program, and serves as a subject matter expert on the Texas Health and Human Services Non-Medical Drivers of Health Workgroup.

Dr. Theis received his PhD in anthropology from the University of Florida. His dissertation work, funded by the U.S. Fulbright Program, used ethnographic methods to understand experiences and perceptions of discrimination among low-income social service users in Geneva, Switzerland.

Publications:
Grants:
  • Sep 2022 ACTIVE
    Phone Enabled Implementation of Cessation Support (PHOENICS)
    NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Co-Investigator
  • May 2022 ACTIVE
    Comparative Effectiveness of Mobile Health Smoking Cessation Approaches among Underserved Patients in Primary Care
    PATIENT-CENTERED OUTCOMES RES INST · Co-Investigator
  • Jul 2021 ACTIVE
    Project SMART: Social Media Anti-vaping Messages to Reduce ENDS Use Among Sexual and Gender Minority Teens
    UNIV OF PENNSYLVANIA · Co-Investigator
  • May 2020 – Oct 2022
    Prevention of Vaping and Tobacco Product Use Among Rural Youth in Florida
    AETNA FOUNDATION · Co-Investigator
  • Oct 2019 – Mar 2023
    Clinically-Efficient Strategies to Address Tobacco Smoke Exposure in Pediatric Practice
    FL DEPT OF HLTH BIOMED RES PGM/J&E KING · Co-Investigator
  • May 2018 – Oct 2019
    A Mixed Method Evaluation of the ABP PIMs: Understanding the ABP Diplomat's Perspectives and Experiences for Programmatic Enhancement
    THE AMER BOARD OF PEDIATRICS · Co-Investigator
Education:
  • 2010
    PhD – Anthropology
    University of Florida
  • 2004
    MPH – Epidemiology
    University of Florida
  • 2003
    MA – Anthropology
    University of Florida
  • 1999
    BS – Journalism
    University of Florida
Carla Vandeweerd

Carla Vandeweerd PhD

Associate Professor; Director, UF Health – Precision Health Research Center
Phone: (352) 247-2493
Mailing Address:
PO Box 100147
Gainesville FL 32610
Physical Address:
1889 Museum Rd, Suite 7000
Gainesville FL 32611
Accomplishments:
  • Erickson Award for Excellence in Research in Aging and Public Health
    2018 · American Public Health Association
  • Community Service Award, Aging and Technology in the 21st Century
    2018 · USF Town and Gown
  • Invited Expert, Roundtable on Science and Value Driven Health Care
    2015 · National Academies of Science, Institute of Medicine, Clinical Effectiveness Research Innovation Collaborative
  • Nomination, Outstanding Professor College of Medicine
    2012 · University of South Florida
  • Erickson Award for Excellence in Research in Aging and Public Health
    2012 · American Public Health Association
  • Nomination, Atena Award for Excellence in Research on Older Women
    2011 · American Public Health Association
  • Book of the Year in Gerontology
    2007 · American Journal of Nursing
Publications:
Grants:
  • Oct 2022 – Sep 2023
    Assessing Safety and Mobility Benefits of Autonomous Ride Sharing Services Among Veterans in Florida.
    US DEPT OF VET AFF GAINESVILLE MED CTR · Principal Investigator
  • Apr 2022 – Aug 2023
    Assessing Safety and Mobility Benefits of Autonomous Ride Sharing Services Among Older Adults in Florida
    FL DEPT OF TRANSPORTATION · Co-Investigator
  • Jan 2022 ACTIVE
    Alzheimer's Disease Staging from EEG and Neurovascular Clinical Data
    APPLIED COGNITION · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2021 ACTIVE
    Tailoring Recruitment Communication using Virtual Human Technology to Increase Participation of Older Minority Adults in Clinical Trials
    NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Co-Investigator
  • Apr 2021 ACTIVE
    ACTIV-6: COVID-19 Outpatient Randomized Trial to Evaluate Efficacy of Repurposed Medications (Villages)
    DUKE UNIVERSITY · Principal Investigator
  • Apr 2021 ACTIVE
    A Community Based Participatory Research Approach to Improving Health and Wellness for Older Adults in The Villages Comparing Remote Monitoring Device Adherence
    CASANA CARE · Principal Investigator
  • Dec 2020 ACTIVE
    A Community Based Participatory Research Approach to Improving Health and Wellness for Older Adults in The Villages
    ABUNDANT LIFE MINISTRIES · Principal Investigator
  • Feb 2015 – Oct 2023
    UF Health Cancer Center Pilot Project Grants funded through the Florida Consortium of National Cancer Institute Centers Program
    UF HEALTH SHANDS HOSPITAL · Project Manager
Education:
  • 2003-2004
    Post Doctoral Fellowship, Aging
    University of South Florida
  • 2003
    PhD, Aging Studies
    University of South Florida
  • 1996
    Honors BA, Psychology
    McMaster University
  • 1996
    Honors BA, Gerontology
    McMaster University
  • 1996
    BSW, Social Work
    McMaster University
W B Vogel

W B Vogel Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Phone: (352) 294-5970
Mailing Address:
PO Box 100147
GAINESVILLE FL 32610
Physical Address:
1889 Museum Rd, Suite 7000
GAINESVILLE FL 32611

W. Bruce Vogel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics at the University of Florida. An economist by training, Dr. Vogel has extensive experience in a broad array of health services research and health economics projects. His interests focus on applied mathematical and statistical modeling in the areas of outcomes, access, and costs across a variety of chronically-ill populations, including Medicaid enrollees, children, and veterans. Dr. Vogel is currently the lead principal investigator on a three-year, $3M evaluation of the Managed Medical Assistance (MMA) Program, Florida’s statewide transition of Medicaid from fee-for-service to managed care. He is also involved in conducting analyses as a part of the Texas Medicaid External Quality Review Organization. Dr. Vogel was previously Co-Director of the original Florida Health Insurance Study and also served as the Director of the Methodology Core at the VA Rehabilitation Outcomes Research Center and the VA Center for Innovation in Disability and Rehabilitation Research. He has served on the VA’s Scientific Merit Review Board and the VA’s National Advisory Panel on Statistics and Analytics, and is currently an Associate Editor of BMC Health Services Research. His research has appeared in Medical Care, Health Services Research, Inquiry, Health Care Management Science, and Advances in Health Economics and Health Services Research, among others. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the George Washington University.

Publications:
Grants:
  • Jun 2019 – May 2022
    OR-DRPD-ROF2019: Early Administration of Steroids in the Ambulance Setting: An Observational Design Trial
    UF RESEARCH · Other
  • Dec 2016 – Jun 2022
    MED180 – MMA (Managed Medical Assistance)
    AGCY FOR HLTH CARE ADMN · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2016 – Sep 2020
    The Child Health Quality (CHeQ) Partnership Program
    AGENCY FOR HEALTHCARE RES AND QUALITY · Co-Investigator
  • Sep 2016 – Dec 2017
    Vogel IPA – RVCP
    US DEPT OF VET AFF GAINESVILLE MED CTR · Principal Investigator
  • Sep 2016 – Jul 2018
    Vogel IPA – CREST RESCUE
    US DEPT OF VET AFF GAINESVILLE MED CTR · Principal Investigator
Easton N Wollney

Easton N Wollney

Research Assistant Professor
Phone: (352) 627-9467
Mailing Address:
1889 Museum Rd
GAINESVILLE FL 32611
Physical Address:
University of Florida
1889 Museum Rd, 7th Floor, Suite 7000
Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics
GAINESVILLE FL 32611
Research Interests:
  • Communication Skills
  • Health Behavior
  • Health Communication
  • Health Education and Promotion
  • Implementation Science
  • Patient-Provider Communication
  • Program evaluation
  • Social Determinants of Health
Publications:
Education:
  • 2021
    PhD
    University of Florida
  • 2017
    MA
    Texas Tech University
  • 2015
    BA
    Texas Tech University

Adjunct Faculty

Michelle Cardel, PhD, MS, RD

Adjunct Professor
Associate Director, Center for Integrative Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease
Phone: 352-273-8811 
Email: mcardel@ufl.edu

Michelle Cardel

Emeritus Faculty

Jonathan J Shuster

Jonathan J Shuster

Professor Emeritus
Phone: (352) 682-0893

Jonathan Shuster is a professor emeritus in the College of Medicine, Department of Health Outcomes & Biomedical Informatics, and Director of Research Design and Analysis Program, University of Florida Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

He has been on the University of Florida faculty since 1969. Between 1980 and 2000, he served as the founding Group Statistician for the Pediatric Oncology Group, one of the cooperative clinical trials groups funded by the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health (NIH). He has been PI or Co-PI on over $30 million in federal grants. He is a member of the Cardiovascular and Sleep Epidemiology Study Section for the NIH, his fifth term on an NIH study section. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Sequential Analysis. In past years, he has served as Associate Editor, Journal of the American Statistical Association and on the Editorial Board of Blood.

Education:
  • 1969
    Ph.D., Math-Statistics
    McGill University
  • 1967
    M.S., Math-Statistics
    McGill University
  • 1964
    B.S., Chemistry
    McGill University
Alexander C Wagenaar

Alexander C Wagenaar

Professor Emeritus
Phone: (352) 327-8716

Dr. Wagenaar is Professor Emeritus of Health Outcomes & Biomedical Informatics at the University of Florida College of Medicine. His second book, Public Health Law Research: Theory and Methods (with Scott Burris of Temple University School of Law), was published by Wiley in 2013. In addition, he has published 200 scientific articles on social and behavioral epidemiology, public health policy, legal evaluations, community intervention trials, alcohol and tobacco studies, traffic safety, injury control, and, most recently, effects of family economic security policies on infant and child health outcomes.

In 1987, Professor Wagenaar received the Exceptional Leadership Award from the American Public Health Association. In 1999, he received the Jellinek Award for lifetime achievement in research on alcohol. In 2001 he received the Innovator’s Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and in 2004 was named by the Institute for Scientific Information as a Highly Cited Researcher, an honor limited to less than one-half of one percent of published scientists worldwide. Other scientists have cited his journal articles more than 10,000 times. In 2009 he received the Prevention Science Award and in 2016 the Nan Tobler Award, both from the Society for Prevention Research, in recognition of his three decades of investigating and advancing the methods and outcomes of prevention research.

Education:
  • 1980
    Ph.D., Health Behavior and Health Education
    University of Michigan
  • 1978
    M.S.W., Program Evaluation and Research
    University of Michigan
  • 1977
    B.A., Sociology
    Calvin College