My interest in clinical informatics stemmed from my early research experience, and extended as I appreciate the power of data and collaboration in advancing patient care.
When I was a medical student, I was introduced to my first clinical research project, which sought to enhance the understanding of the biomarker procalcitonin in differentiating lupus flare from systemic infection in pediatric patients. As the national referral center in China, our hospital reportedly had the most cases of its kind. Inspired by its potential of changing clinical practice, our team of four students worked diligently to build a robust database, by searching through mountains of pages of paper charts and manually entering vital signs, lab results and diagnosis into a spreadsheet. After three months of hard work, we collected data on 70 patients. Shortly after, I was astonished to learn that a single Harvard Medical School student completed similar research involving 5,000 patients, using data extracted from the electronic health record (EHR), within less than a month. I immediately recognized how progress in data science could fundamentally transform the way to discover practice-changing knowledge. As I furthered my research during residency, I was able to perform EHR-based research, and built a database comprised of thousands of cases. Using this data, my colleagues and I were able to complete several important projects. Despite this significant upgrade from riffling through mounds of paper charts, I still notice areas for improvement. For example, a lack of standard terminology makes it difficult to compare studies or to apply the findings to a wider population. Overly restrictive data access between institutions limit the size and applicability of the studies. Also, inefficient communication between clinicians, researchers, and statisticians delay the production of medical evidence. Because of these and other difficulties, medical research is sometimes obsolete by the time it gets published. Meanwhile, clinicians continue to use outdated information because of these time lags. By becoming a clinical informatician I want to combine my medical knowledge, computer skills and translational science to lessen the lag between research and practice.
My experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, has proven how important informatics is to not only research but the entire healthcare system. Indeed, much of what we know about this virus and it’s spread is derived from the ability to quickly extract and share data across a variety of disparate worldwide networks. Despite my busy clinical schedule as a first-year critical care fellow, I took the time to learn new skills such as Python data science, SNOMED CT, and database management. I also found the opportunity to apply these skills to practice, such as helping the hospital build database during the COVID-19 pandemic, and joining the national COVID-19 cohort collaborative. Being a frontline provider, as well as with a contributor to hospital management, I learned how informatics facilitated our understanding of the current situation and supported us through crucial decisions. Being part of a nation-wide COVID-19 collaborative, provided me the opportunity to appreciate the central role informaticians play in integrating data silos by collaborating with other institutions and specialties.
Another way I became attracted to clinical informatics is by using tele-ICU, which enables critical care providers to care for ICU patients remotely. As the demand for tele-ICU surged during the pandemic, tele-ICU became a critical way for intensivists to care for more patients while becoming a powerful platform for informaticians to improve data safety, system efficacy and clinical enhancement. For example, I look forward to deploying an active-monitoring system based on machine learning algorithms to facilitate tele-ICU.
By pursuing training in clinical informatics as an intensivist, I wish to expand my knowledge and skills in EHR improvement, medical terminology standardization, data science, and computer programming to advance clinical research and patient care through an interdisciplinary approach. I will bring my experience in patient care and passion for informatics to the program, and continue to thrive to achieve my long-term goal as an academic clinician who keeps seeking improvements.