by Paul Govern
In recognition of significant hands-on contributions to health information technology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, radiologist and clinical informatics fellow Julie Bauml, MD, and internal medicine specialist Aileen Wright, MD, instructor, Department of Biomedical Informatics, have received 2023 Physician Builder Awards.
The eStar Physician Builder Program supports VUMC physicians and other employees in devising and implementing new content and tools for VUMC’s health IT system, eStar. The program is directed by Jonathan Wanderer, MD, professor of Anesthesiology and Biomedical Informatics and associate director of Vanderbilt Anesthesiology and
Perioperative Informatics Research.
“As an eStar physician builder, you yourself have the technical ability to go into our system and configure it the way that you want it to work,” Wanderer said. “With this program, the big advantage is that you can get folks who already know the medicine really well involved in designing and building new systems features or changes to workflows that help with patient care.”
Training for physician builders is provided by Epic Systems Corp., headquartered in Verona, Wisconsin, which is the company that supplies VUMC’s electronic health record and other core aspects of eStar. According to Epic, VUMC with 90 participants figures as the second largest Epic physician builder program and, based on the number of physicians on its faculty, boasts the highest participation rate of any Epic physician builder program.
As a clinical informatics fellow, Bauml is interested in clinical process improvement, inter-facility data sharing, patient outreach, and leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence in clinical care. Having joined VUMC last July, she has worked with radiologists to make eStar enhancements that, according to several award nomination letters, have significantly helped to streamline clinical workflow. According to one letter, Bauml “was able to accomplish this in quite rapid fashion, which attests both to her skills in informatics but also her skills in leadership and communication.”
Wright, while credited with several eStar enhancements, is above all recognized for leading the physician builders’ group within the Department of Medicine.
“Aileen has brought our group together to make building for the Department of Medicine cohesive and productive. She also has built a mentoring program which has been wonderful to help others start their journey in working on projects. She also spearheaded an ‘idea drive’ for the department, so users could offer ideas for areas of improvement and work,” said a prior Physician Builder Award winner, gastroenterologist Sara Horst, MD, MPH.
The awards, now in their third year, are sponsored by the Vanderbilt Clinical Informatics Center (VCLIC).
“What Jonathan has accomplished with this program is really impressive. Not only has he recruited a large number of builders, but they are actually empowered to build things here, and they’re doing a great job,” said Adam Wright, PhD, professor of Biomedical Informatics and director of VCLIC. “We proposed sponsoring these awards to recognize outstanding physician builders and highlight some of what’s been accomplished. At VCLIC, we’re fans of good clinical informatics things going on.”
Current eStar Physician Builder program participants include 69 physicians, five informatics PhDs, four nurse practitioners, four RNs, two clinical therapists, two pharmacists, a nurse anesthetist, a research informatics specialist, a project manager and a customer care specialist.
The eStar Physician Builder Program is seeking more participants. Training and certification are provided by Epic, and participants are paired with an eStar analyst from VUMC Health IT. Epic is currently offering both virtual and in-person training for its builder courses. For more information, contact Wanderer at jon.wanderer@vumc.org.