Faculty

Interim Program Director

Dr. Reeder began his career in software engineering and was Chief Technology Officer at Minute Menu Systems, where he oversaw development and maintenance of a technology platform that manages payments for the multi-billion dollar federally-funded Child and Adult Care Food Program. After his start in technology, Dr. Reeder eventually transitioned to a career in medicine. He applied his software development skills at the University of Texas Southwestern, developing algorithms to analyze high-throughput sequencing data that illuminate unique behaviors of HIV transcription factors. Dr. Reeder completed both medical school and an Emergency Medicine residency at the University of Texas Southwestern. His informatics interests include using data-driven approaches to model and optimize emergency department process flow.

Faculty

Dr. Balani is an Associate Professor in Pathology, the Quality Officer for Department of Pathology, Co-Director of Laboratory Informatics, and Associate Medical Director of UTSW Clinical Laboratory Services. She serves on multiple departmental and institutional quality, safety and informatics committees, working collaboratively with folks across departments. She is a member of the College of American pathologists (CAP) Pathology Electronic Reporting (PERT) Committee. Dr. Balani’s clinical interests are in Gastrointestinal and Genitourinary Pathology, Standardization of Lab orders/results, Data use for Quality Improvement, Human-Computer Interaction and use of the Information Systems for Clinical Decision Support.

Dr. Basit specializes in cardiology with a focus on risk optimization. He is an Associate Chief Medical Informatics Officer for UT Southwestern Health System and the Associate Director of the Clinical Informatics Center. He focuses his research in machine learning, guideline operationalization, and development failure detection.

Joe Beauchamp currently serves as the Director of Academic Technical Services for Academic Information Systems at UT Southwestern Medical Center where he oversees the management, design, implementation, and oversight of the technical services infrastructure to support IT initiatives across the institution. He is the President and founder of Brigade Management, Inc., a consulting company that utilizes business intelligence tools and advanced data analytics with specific applications to public safety agencies. His current research focuses on using data analytics to understand the impact calls for service can have on the mental health of first responders. He has taught undergraduate and graduate-level courses at The University of Texas at Dallas and is a member of The American Medical Informatics Association and The American Health Information Management Association. Mr. Beauchamp holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Information Management from The University of Texas at Dallas and a Master of Science in Computer Information Systems from Boston University. He is a Certified Public Manager and attained the Certified Government Chief Information Officer credential through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Government.

Vikas is an experienced health tech professional with 20 years of industry experience. He spent 14 years at Epic, where he led the development of multiple products that included Stork (OB), Radiant (Radiology Information System), Analytics, and ML/AI. After Epic, he was the CIO at Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation (PCCI). At PCCI, Vikas led the development of innovative digital health and AI solutions for underserved and socially disadvantaged communities.He is currently the CEO & Founder of TraumaCare.AI, a startup building an EHR-integrated, AI-driven app to empower Trauma and ICU teams to provide better care and save lives for critically injured and ill patients.
Research Interests: Use of algorithms, machine learning and artificial intelligence to augment decision making process of clinical teams.

Dr. Chu specializes in General Internal Medicine. She is an expert in workflow design, usability evaluation, and user experience. In addition to her clinical roles, Dr. Chu serves as Associate Chief Medical Informatics Officer for the UT Southwestern Health System. She is a board-certified clinical informaticist and Epic physician builder.

Emily joined UTSW in 2014 as a Clinical Informatics Specialist, transitioned to the Manager of Nursing Informatics in 2017 and has been in her current role since 2018. She started her career in nursing at Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH) as a staff nurse and transitioned into informatics. Emily obtained her Masters of Science in Nursing with a specialty in Informatics from Duke University. In her current role she facilitates the use of technology in the delivery of safe, efficient, evidence-based, high quality care. She has led and leads many clinical transformation initiatives. She has completed Epic for the Clinical Informaticist Certification and has the ANCC Informatics Certification. In 2022, Emily joined the UT Southwestern Master of Science in Health Informatics program as a Faculty Associate. She enjoys mentoring and being a part of growing our next informaticists.

Dr. Frisse is an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at University Medical Center. Until July 2020, he held the Accenture Endowed Chair within the Department. His work remains on the intersection between health care informatics, economics, policy, and health care transformation. His interests are directed toward the potential contribution to economically sustainable health care through more effective use of informatics and information technology.

Since 2019, Andrew R. Jamieson, Ph.D. has been appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Lyda Hill Department of Bioinformatics. Recently, Prof. Jamieson served as a co-leader of the Bioinformatics Core Facility (BICF), responsible for leading campus-wide collaborative research engagements with emphasis on computational image analysis. In 2020, as the global pandemic emerged, Prof. Jamieson’s group led development of the UTSW COVID-19 forecast model. Prior to returning to academia, Andrew worked in Pharma Services, Operational Excellence, and the MultiOmyx group at Clarient, a GE Healthcare molecular diagnostics company (later sold to NeoGenomics). In 2012, Andrew dove into industry as the first employee and Data Scientist for a Plano, TX -based Big Data Analytics start-up, Oculus360. Andrew completed his Ph.D at the University of Chicago under the supervision of Maryellen L. Giger, Ph.D., a pioneer in Breast Cancer Computer-Aided Diagnosis.

Katherine Lusk, MHSM, RHIA, FAHIMA is the Vice President Strategic Partnerships for the Texas Health Services Authority with a focus on cross-industry facilitation of trusted data exchange that supports innovation and data mobility. She has long championed interoperability serving in multiple roles including leading THSA Interoperability Collaborative, Direct Trust Board, eHealth Exchange Workgroup, ONC Patient Identity Workgroup, Epic’s Care Everywhere Governing Council, ONC / AHIMA Project US@ Companion Guide, AHIMA Board and as the AHIMA 2021 President / Chair. She is a strong believer in the power of informatics to bridge healthcare delivery gaps.

Dr. Samuel McDonald is an emergency physician and Deputy CMIO for Emergency Medicine at UT Southwestern. He was previously a research mathematician for the United States Department of Defense until transitioning to a career in medicine, completing his education and training at UT Southwestern. He recently completed a master’s degree in Biomedical Informatics with interest in clinical decision support and machine learning/predictive modeling. He plans to utilize his clinical and technical expertise to develop tools to provide real-time, actionable intelligence within the EHR that aid in improving the quality of care provided at UT Southwestern.

Dr. Joseph H. Schneider is recently retired from Indiana University Health where he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Health Information Officer. Prior to that, he was co-Chief Medical Information Officer for Baylor Scott and White, where he developed deep involvement of all clinical disciplines in informatics and the management of clinical information systems. He currently consults in informatics and provides care for newborn babies at UT Southwestern/Parkland Hospital in Dallas. He serves on the Child Health Informatics Advisory Committee for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

Dr. Velasco brings years of design, implementation, and maintenance of EHRs. Dr. Velasco leads the system’s clinical decision support, medical and nursing informatics, business intelligence and data analytics functions across the continuum of care. A fellow of the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS), Dr. Velasco serves on the North America Board of HIMSS. Texas Health Resources and UT Southwestern collaborate in Southwestern Health Resources, a North Texas accountable care network.

Dr. Willett specializes in general and noninvasive cardiology. In addition to his clinical roles, Dr. Willett serves as Chief Medical Informatics Officer for the UT Southwestern Health System. As part of his work in that arena, he helped develop information systems and databases for the groundbreaking Dallas Heart Study. Currently, he works on ways to leverage electronic health records to more rapidly develop specialty patient registries and clinical decision support for physicians and patients.