AMIA 2023 Annual Symposium

The American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Annual Symposium will bring together more than 2,000 clinicians, policy makers, researchers, bioinformaticians, and industry professionals to share the latest research, approaches, and solutions in New Orleans from November 11-15. This year’s conference will showcase research across a variety of key topics, including artificial intelligence, interoperability, health equity, and data modernization in support of the theme of “Transforming Health Care and Biomedicine for a Sustainable Future.”

RTI International’s health IT experts are excited to attend the 2023 AMIA Annual Symposium to network with fellow researchers, partners, and thought leaders in the industry and present our innovative research in various presentations across the 5-day conference. Mark your calendar for our Industry Partner Session on Tue, November 14 at 3:30PM CT to learn more about our innovations in care planning and care coordination.

Care Planning and Care Coordination: A Multi-Part Panel on Implementation of an Electronic Care Plan and Technical Specifications
Tue, November 14 | 3:30–5:00PM CT
Churchill C2
Presenters: Laura Marcial, PhD; Evelyn Gallego; David Dorr, MD; Dave Carlson, PhD; Matthew Storer; Michelle Dougherty; Joshua Richardson, PhD
Moderators: Michelle Dougherty; Jamie Pina, PhD 

Diligent attention to care coordination is critical for patients with multiple chronic conditions. This industry-led session will discuss how the 21st Century Cures Act—especially information blocking—supports implementation of Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR)-based patient and provider facing applications designed to improve care coordination and patient goal tracking across providers. Current iterations of the applications enable integrating patient data across multiple external health care systems and implementing new features for patient reporting of goals and outcomes. This second version of the app extends the scope of the previous goals to further facilitate data sharing across different institutions and electronic health records (EHR) systems. To support this data collection, our team leveraged open application programming interfaces to design and implement supplemental data store, which houses patients’ medical information in a single place. It also allows for the storage of patient reported outcomes, such as questionnaires.

This session will provide a deep dive into care plans, care planning, care coordination, and the technical environment for these solutions, followed by lightning talks to walk through examples and answer technical questions. Session attendees will have the opportunity to enter a giveaway for a free registration to the AMIA 2024 Annual Symposium in San Francisco.

View the Slides

Data Modernization Initiative in Public Health: Efforts to Strengthen the Public Health Information Infrastructure and the Informatics Workforce 
Mon, November 13 | 8:30–10:00AM CT 
Grand Ballroom C 
Panelists: Sripriya Rajamani, PhD; Jamie Pina, PhD; Theresa Cullen, MD; Susan Fenton, PhD; Brian Dixon, PhD 

The Data Modernization Initiative (DMI) is a national effort by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop an integrated and real-time public health data and surveillance architecture. The DMI is a multi-year, multi-billion dollar effort with the vision to get faster and better actionable data for decision-making across various levels in public health. 

The panel includes experts who are involved in DMI efforts at diverse levels (national, state, local, health system, and academia) and will share the importance of DMI and its implications across the board ranging from public health agencies, health care delivery systems, and academic institutions. A robust information infrastructure supported by an informatics-savvy workforce are important elements which can work synchronously to address the persistent health inequities and DMI is a big step in that direction. Informatics will play an increasingly important role with DMI and is a top of interest among AMIA membership. 

Enabling Rapid Application and Management of Knowledge in Learning Health Systems: The Computable Biomedical Knowledge Metadata Model (CBK-MM) Project
Mon, November 13 | 5:00–6:30PM CT
Grand Salon
Presenter: Joshua Richardson, PhD
Authors: Davide Sottara, PhD; Christina Eldredge, MD, PhD; Rachel Richesson, PhD; Jamie McCusker, PhD

Learning health systems will require effective means for capturing and sharing metadata that enable the use of computable knowledge. Towards that, we are engaging experts and multiple viewpoints to specify a “knowledge metadata model” as part of the Mobilizing Computable Biomedical Knowledge (MCBK) movement. Our effort will enable stakeholders to assemble, assess, audit, and curate collections of CBK that are current, relevant, and trusted for specific user communities and purposes.

Health Information Technology Adoption and Utilization in Behavioral Health Settings
Mon, November 13 | 5:00–6:30PM CT
Grand Salon
Presenters: Rebecca McGavin; Michelle Dougherty
Authors: Martin Blanco; Meagan Pilar, PhD; Marc Horvath

Behavioral health providers are hesitant to adopt EHRs to support their clinical and business needs and the use of interoperable means to share health information is problematic. The recently released 2022 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Roadmap for Behavioral Health Integration seeks to advance integration by focusing on three pillars: (1) strengthen behavioral health system capacity, (2) connect Americans to care, and (3) support Americans by creating healthy environments. Health information technology plays a vital role in seamlessly and efficiently integrating health care providers and information systems across the ecosystem. Findings include barriers, facilitators, innovators, health equity, reducing health disparity, and potential policy options.

Exploring Forensic Nurse Examiner Information Needs for Documenting and Reporting Cases of Interpersonal Violence
Tue, November 14 | 5:00–6:30PM CT
Grand Salon
Presenter: Joshua Richardson, PhD
Authors: Stefany Ramos, PhD; Jaclyn Houston-Kolnik, PhD; Paige Presler-Jur; Julia Brinton; Devin Oxner; Sarah Philbrick

Forensic nurse examiners (FNEs) treat and care for survivors of interpersonal violence. Using techniques, such as forensic interviews and body diagram maps, FNEs collect critical data that span medicolegal boundaries to connect survivors with health care and legal services. Few in informatics have explored FNEs’ work and health information technology’s effects. We describe an exploratory mixed-methods study into FNEs’ reporting practices and subsequent information needs to guide future informatics-related interventions.

Why a Research Institution Should Be on Your List: An Overview of RTI International
Mon, November 13 | 12:45–1:00PM CT
Grand Salon 
Presenters: Georgia Karuntzos, PhD; Ben Tyndall, PhD; Rebecca McGavin; Jeremiah Hartsock 

RTI is an independent nonprofit research institute dedicated to improving the human condition. RTI is a global team of just under 6,000 researchers and staff serving people, communities, and the planet. During this session, RTI presenters will share an overview on what it is like to work at RTI from the perspectives of a new hire, research scientist, and management-level staff member.

Read more about our evidence-based research and solutions in data modernization, interoperability, clinical decision support, health equity, and more

• The RTI Rarity™ Project: Next-Generation Health Equity Measurement & Analysis
• Strengthening our Health Information Foundation with the U.S. Core Data for Interoperability
• Patient-Centered Clinical Decision Support Learning Network (PCCDS Learning Network)
• Data Analysis for Research: Groundbreaking Tools and Technical Innovation
• Webinar | Data Modernization and Equity: Integrated Solutions to Enhance the Research Data Lifecycle
• New Tools Leverage Patient-Centered Clinical Decision Support to Fight the Opioid Crisis
• Accountable Health Communities: Advancing Health Equity with Data