Mr. Adams is a Data Scientist for VERITAS within the University of Utah Division of Epidemiology. He received his Bacheor and Master of Science in Computer Science. He spent a number of years in VINCI development, building software tools to support medical research, including chart review, annotation, project flow, and innovations in integrated medication management. He has worked in a variety of other research communities and commercial companies as a developer in the areas of GIS, banking, manufacturing scheduling, and data mining. He enjoys a hiking club, road trips, trying new restaurants, attending concerts, and other cultural events.
Ms. Bell is a Senior Programmer/Analyst for VERITAS within the Division of Epidemiology and Salt Lake City VA Informatics Decision-Enhancement and Analytic Sciences (IDEAS) COIN Center. She has over 15 years in the health care research environment implementing the various aspects of data warehousing and BI development. She has a strong background in working with business users to gather requirements, translate into design goals, and produce appropriate, effective and timely solution. She has contributed to projects centered on rheumatoid arthritis, proton-pump inhibitors, opioid use disorder, and the VA Geriatric Scholars Program.
Dr. Beckner is a postdoctoral Medical Informatics Fellow at the Salt Lake City Veteran’s Affairs (VA) Health Care System and member of VERITAS within the Informatics, Decision-Enhancement and Analytic Sciences (IDEAS) COIN Center. After finishing a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of the Cumberlands, he then completed a Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences, a Master of Science in Health Informatics and Analytics, and a Doctor of Pharmacy from Samford University’s McWhorter School of Pharmacy. His professional interests include utilizing and visualizing big data to improve delivery of care services and overall quality of healthcare with a focus on beneficially impacting population health. In his free time, he enjoys drumming, staying active, and spending quality time with his computer.
Dr. Brown is a postdoctoral Medical Informatics Fellow at the Salt Lake City Veteran’s Affairs (VA) Health Care System and member of VERITAS within the Informatics, Decision-Enhancement and Analytic Sciences (IDEAS) COIN Center. After finishing a Bachelor of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Science from University of Pittsburgh, she completed a dual-degree (DPT/PhD) graduate program at The Ohio State University. Her PhD in Health and Rehabilitation Science included advanced study and training in 3-dimensional motion capture; prospective outcome tracking; and clinical trial design, recruitment, and analysis. During her postdoctoral fellowship, Dr. Brown has aimed to analyze healthcare utilization data related to physical therapy around elective orthopedic surgery. Her long-term research interests include patient engagement in access to care, decision-making processes, and participation in care. Outside of work, she enjoys hitting the slopes and tossing snowballs with her two pups.
Dr. Chen is a Biostatistician for the Veteran Affairs (VA) Salt Lake City Health Care System, and member of VERITAS within the Salt Lake City VA Informatics Decision-Enhancement and Analytic Sciences (IDEAS) COIN Center. She received her PhD in Neuroscience and MStat in Biostatistics from the University of Utah. She previously worked at the Study Design and Biostatistic Center at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Her training includes data management, statistical analysis, qualitative modeling development, and causal inference, with SAS, Stata and R programming. Dr. Chen provides statistical support for VA research partners. During her free time, she enjoys cooking, reading, and traveling.
Dr. Chien is a Postdoctoral Associate for VERITAS within the University of Utah Division of Epidemiology. She received her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy and PhD in Pharmacoepidemiology. Her training includes study design, data management, and statistical analysis with SAS and R programming. Before joining VERITAS, Dr. Chien worked for the University Arizona Arthritis Center and was involved in projects centered on opioid utilization patterns in patients with chronic pain and rheumatological side effects associated with female breast cancer treatments. Her current work focuses on comparative effectiveness studies and risk benefit assessments for oncological medications using real world data. During her free time, Dr. Chien enjoys cooking, hiking, traveling, exploring, and learning new things with her husband and 10-year-old son.
Dr. Hamilton is an Informatics Pharmacist and Program Manager for the Whole Health Service located at the Salt Lake City Veteran Affairs (VA) Health Care System. He earned his Doctor of Pharmacy at the University of Montana and completed a PGY1 residency with the VA in Helena, MT. Afterwards, he completed a PGY2 residency specializing in pharmacy outcomes and healthcare analytics at the VA’s VISN 21 Pharmacy Benefits Management office located in Reno, NV. Dr. Hamilton is passionate about providing world-class patient care through skills in data analytics, evidence-based pharmaceutical care, and population health management. In his spare time, he enjoys rock climbing, running, hiking in national parks, and exploring topics such as computer programming with Python and machine learning.
Mr. Hansen is a Health Science Research Specialist for the Veteran Affairs (VA) Salt Lake City Health Care System, and a member of VERITAS within the Salt Lake City VA Informatics Decision-Enhancement and Analytic Sciences (IDEAS) COIN Center. He received his MStat in Biostatistics from the University of Utah. Mr. Hansen provides data management and statistical support for select VA research partners, including the University of Utah Division of Nephrology. He is proficient with transact-SQL, SAS, R, and, Stata. He enjoys long walks on the internet, powerlifting, and attending the movies.
Dr. Healy is a hematology/oncology Clinical Pharmacy Specialist with the Veteran Affairs (VA) Salt Lake City Health Care System and the VERITAS oncology team. He serves as the Clinical Pharmacy Specialist for the Veterans on Anticancer Medications in Community and Rural Environment Support (VA CARES) program. Dr. Healy received his Doctorate of Pharmacy from Roseman University of Health Sciences in 2009 and completed his pharmacy practice and hematology/oncology residencies within the Intermountain Healthcare system. Upon completion of residency, he became an Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice for Roseman University where he was the hematology/oncology Block Coordinator. During his time with Roseman University, his clinical practice site was with the outpatient oncology center at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, UT. In 2013, Dr. Healy joined the Intermountain BMT/Acute Leukemia Program at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, UT. During his time, he also served as the Team Lead Pharmacist and Residency Site Coordinator. Additionally, he has been a Board-Certified Oncology Pharmacist (BCOP) since 2011. His clinical, professional, and research interests include hematology, oncology, and infectious diseases. His personal interests include spending time with his wife and two sons, coaching baseball, snowboarding, and mountain biking.
Mr. Leng is a Computer and Information Research Scientist for VERITAS, within the Decision-Enhancement and Analytic Sciences (IDEAS) COIN Center at the Salt Lake City Veteran Affairs (VA) Health Care System, where he is responsible for analysis, design, implementation of Natural Language Processing (NLP) solutions, and designing of reproducible data extraction tools to support research, operational, and industry projects. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and a Master's Degree in Biostatistics (MSTAT). His training includes MCSE, MCSD, and SCJP. He is experienced in the following computer languages: Java, C++, Python, SQL, R, and Matlab. His stated domain of expertise is text mining using VA data (including extraction on TIU notes, independent index services for TIU, techniques to process the completed TIU notes), text annotation support (eHOST, Inter-Annotation-Analysis(IAA)), simple rule-based NLP (regular expression, simple rules), SVM classification for 2-3 categories, Caffe for imaging classification, SQL and VA Data on TIU, in/out patient diagnosis, in/out fee, outpatient fill, inpatient BCMA, etc. He is a photographer, gunsmith and a big fan of deep-learning. He is also a devotee of outdoor activities, including hiking, biking, fishing, hunting and off-roading.
Dr. Li is a Research Associate within the Division of Epidemiology at the University of Utah School of Medicine and Salt Lake City Veterans Affairs (VA) Informatics, Decision-Enhancement and Analytic Sciences (IDEAS) COIN Center. She received her PhD in statistics from Utah State University with a focus on eye tracking, data visualization, and statistical software development. Prior to that, she obtained a Master of Science in Statistics from Utah State University with a focus in statistical learning specialized in random forest. Dr. Li currently focuses on observational study, survival analysis, data mining, and machine learning in the hematology and oncology field. She enjoys reading, learning new skills, hiking, traveling, and social activities.
Dr. Lu is a Research Specialist for VERITAS within the Decision-Enhancement and Analytic Sciences (IDEAS) COIN Center. She has established her role as an annotation scientist and a data manager. Her expertise includes developing annotation schema, guidelines, and training annotators for Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks. She also assists with conducting statistical evaluation of annotators and validation of NLP products against the annotated reference standard and using SQL for data management. In addition, she helps with reports and manuscript preparations to publish NLP work and findings. She enjoys reading, water sports and watching movies, especially those related to human nature and social issues.
Ms. Morreall is a Clinical Data Manager for VERITAS within the Division of Epidemiology at the University of Utah School of Medicine. She provides data management support for oncology research projects. Ms. Morreall has a Bachelor of Science in Health Promotion and Education and is currently a Master of Business Administration and Master of Science in Information Systems candidate at the University of Utah. She has experience as a health educator, business owner, research assistant in pediatric hematology/oncology, and clinical research coordinator (oncology) in the clinical trials industry. Her educational goals and research interests include biomedical informatics and integrating data science into cancer research as a means to advance therapies and improve health disparities. She enjoys spending time with her children, food, cycling, and skiing.
Dr. Patel is a Clinical Pharmacist in Informatics at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System and a member of VERITAS within the Salt Lake City VA Informatics Decision-Enhancement and Analytic Sciences (IDEAS) COIN Center. He received a PharmD from Ohio Northern University and completed a PGY-1 Pharmacy Practice Residency at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix. He recently completed a PGY-2 Pharmacy Outcomes and Healthcare Analytics residency at VA Sierra Pacific Network (VISN 21) in Reno. His interests focuses in using big data to effectively deliver quality healthcare services. Outside of work, he spends time reading, hiking, listening to a wide range of music and playing the acoustic guitar.
Mr. Patil completed his Bachelor’s degree in Engineering Management in 2010 and worked in the industry for four years. His industry experience focused on supply chain analytics where he developed models in R to catalog supplier distribution clusters. He received his Master’s in Analytics from the University of Colorado Boulder. During his graduate schooling, he interned with HGST, a Western Digital Company, where he developed machine learning models to predict the reliability of disk drives. Soon after graduation, he started working for University of Utah Health Sciences (UUHC) as a Planning Analyst. At UUHC, he worked with CMS and health plans data. Currently, he holds a Sr. Research Analyst position for VERITAS within the University of Utah Division of Epidemiology and Decision-Enhancement and Analytic Sciences (IDEAS) COIN Center at the VA. His current research focuses on mining data, turning data into valuable insights, creating a visualization, and sensing opportunities within the hematology and oncology domains. His skill set and areas of interest include R, Python, MSSQL, NLP, machine learning, and predictive analytics. He is a foodie, photographer, and a traveler. He also enjoys skiing and biking.
Dr. Pei is a Research Analyst for VERITAS, within the University of Utah Division of Epidemiology and Decision-Enhancement and Analytic Sciences (IDEAS) COIN Center. She is responsible for data extraction and analysis. She received her Master’s degree in Computational Engineering and Science. Her training includes data management, data mining, and data visualization with R, SQL, Python, JavaScript, Java, and MATLAB programming. Dr. Pei is involved in rheumatology studies focused on Axial Spondyloarthritis (AxSpA). During her free time, she enjoys playing table tennis, hiking, and traveling.
Dr. Pinnell is a postdoctoral Medical Informatics Fellow at the Salt Lake City Veteran’s Affairs (VA) Health Care System and member of VERITAS within the informatics, Decision-Enhancement and Analytics Sciences (IDEAS) COIN Center. After studying Exercise Science and Biology at Utah Valley University, he completed his PharmD from Roseman University. His professional interests include using big data and informatics technologies to improve continuum of care resulting in better patient outcomes. In his free time, he enjoys weightlifting, snowboarding, and spending time with his family.
Ms. Rasmussen is a Senior Research Analyst within the Division of Epidemiology at the University of Utah School of Medicine and Salt Lake City Veterans Affairs (VA) Informatics, Decision-Enhancement and Analytic Sciences (IDEAS) COIN Center. She recently received her Masters of Science degree in Sociology with an emphasis in Population Health Sciences from the University of Utah. She is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in the Population Health Sciences program at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Ms. Rasmussen also assists in writing research proposals, preparing grant applications, and drafting manuscripts that result in high quality research to address growing priority areas for the VA and other funding agencies. In her free time, she is a dedicated wife and mother to her two kids, ages 7 and 9. When she’s not attending soccer matches or ballet recitals, she is a fervent reader, compulsive learner, and animal lover.
Ms. Rathod is a Sr. Data Warehouse Analyst for VERITAS within the Division of Epidemiology at the University of Utah and Salt Lake City VA Informatics Decision-Enhancement and Analytic Sciences (IDEAS) COIN Center. She received her Master’s degree in Computer Science from Bradley University in Illinois. Before joining VERITAS, she worked for Valley Behavioral Health where she was part of the analytics group and performed predictive analytics with the administrative and clinical data. She was also part of the key staff that developed Tableau dashboards to streamline and monitor Valley’s complex billing processes. While at Valley Behavioral Health, she developed expertise in MS SQL scripting by translating the billing logics to SQL codes. Ms. Rathod is also knowledgeable in Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) and received her certification in Tableau data analytics and data visualization application. She is well experienced with working with users, gathering report requirements, developing database models, and developing actionable reports and visualizations to improve and support data quality, clinical decision making, and health services research. During her free time, she enjoys listening to music, traveling and spending time with friends.
Mr. Rojas is a Senior Programmer/Analyst for VERITAS within the Division of Epidemiology and Salt Lake City VA Informatics Decision-Enhancement and Analytic Sciences (IDEAS) COIN Center. He has over 15 years of designing, developing, and testing various systems for maintaining large data sets in the fields of healthcare and clinical research.While previously working as a Database/Project Analyst for the National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS) at the University of Utah School of Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics, He was responsible for maintaining the data standard for the largest publicly available healthcare registry in the US - NEMSIS, 30.2 million ambulance activations in 2015. These include working with HL7 healthcare data standards such as ICD10 CM codes, SNOMED, and RxNorm. In his spare time, Mr. Rojas enjoys mountain biking, road cycling, camping, soccer, and meditation. He also regularly attends multi-week silent meditation retreats.