Senior Clinical Informatics Fellow Jacob Wooldridge, M.D., won Best Fellow Presentation at the UAMS Department of Pediatrics Fellows Research Day, hosted May 19 at Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
“Identification of Lymphoma in Pathology Whole-Slide Images” is his senior project with the Clinical Informatics Fellowship Program. Dr. Wooldridge is attempting to use machine learning to sort through whole-slide pathology images and flag those that potentially show evidence of lymphoma. These images would then be routing to a hematopathologist to confirm the diagnosis. If successful, the algorithm could improve pathology lab workflows and improve diagnosis times.
Dr. Wooldridge was one of about 50 fellows who presented, including all fellows from the Clinical Informatics Fellowship.
- Daniel Liu, M.D., senior – “Using Machine Learning to Advance Telemedicine Adoption” – Dr. Liu has developed a machine learning algorithm in an attempt to predict and flag pediatric patients at Arkansas Children’s who would be best suited for telemedicine visits, alerting schedulers of this option.
- Lori Wong, M.D., MPH, senior – “Delayed Elective Surgeries Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic; Effect on Emergency Department Visits and Urgent Inpatient Admissions” – Dr. Wong used electronic health record data from the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic to explore any effect that the delay of elective surgeries at UAMS Medical Center may have had on Emergency Department visits or urgent inpatient admissions. She found no significant negative impact caused by these delays.
- Obeid Shafi, M.D., junior – “Predicting Urinary Tract Infection with Extended Spectrum B-Lactamase-Producing Bacteria in Febrile Infants Using Machine Learning” – Dr. Shafi is beginning a project to use machine learning to predict UTIs and the related potential for antibiotic-resistant bacteria in infants.
- Salem AlGhamdi, M.B.B.S., junior – “Rescus.N (Novel Technique to Approach Team Resuscitation)” – Dr. AlGhamdi is beginning a project to look at emergency department workflows around resuscitation with a goal of reducing cognitive overload and burnout for the clinical care team, while also improving patient care.
The audience also heard from Andrew Tran, M.D., a current hematology/oncology fellow who will be joining the Clinical Informatics Fellowship in July as part of a individualized training experience in both programs that will last a total of four years. His research is on “Using Machine Learning to Predict Maximum Tolerated Hydroxyurea Dose for Sickle Cell Patients.” Clinical Informatics Program Director Pele Yu, Jr., M.D., is one of the project mentors.
Fellows Research Day is the annual research showcase for all of the fellows in Department of Pediatrics Programs. The Clinical Informatics Fellowship Program is part of Pediatrics thanks to Dr. Yu who is a pediatrician in addition to Chief Medical Information Officer at Arkansas Children’s. Although the UAMS CI Fellowship is listed under Pediatrics, it accepts fellows from pediatrics and adult specialties. The fellowship is a partnership between the Department of Biomedical Informatics, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Arkansas Children’s.
