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Research in the Aaron Dietz Lab focuses on improving safety and performance in health care. To this end, we conduct a variety of applied research studies using sophisticated methods from human-factors science and psychometric test development. These methods include team-task analysis, survey and observational research, usability analysis, generalizability theory and the use of sensor-based technologies to measure teamwork and workload.
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Department
The Aliaksei Pustavoitau Lab conducts research on models and mechanisms of impaired consciousness in patients who have suffered acute brain injury. Examples of our work include a study on the mechanisms of neurologic failure in critical illness and another on the use of intensivist-driven ultrasound at the PICU bedside. We also have a longstanding interest in patient safety and quality of care in the ICU setting.
Principal Investigator
Department
Research in the Alicia Arbaje Lab aims to help older adults maintain dignity and quality of life as they age. We are particularly interested in creating health care systems to improve safety and outcomes for older adults.
Research in the Asad Latif Lab focuses on patient safety and quality improvement. Our key interests include preventing hospital-acquired infections and improving health systems, the evaluation and prevention of healthcare errors and the utility of telemedicine in intensive care units. One recent study focused on reducing medication errors (the single most common type of error in healthcare) related to drug formulation in the intensive care unit.
Research in the Athir Morad Lab primarily focuses on perioperative pain management for neurosurgery patients. Our team has conducted two randomized controlled trials to assess the efficacy of patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) following craniotomy. Our current research includes studies on the safety of opioid administration following craniotomy through the use of end-tidal CO2 detection, as well as research into the use of transcortical magnetic stimulation (TMS) for managing pain after spine surgery.
Work in the Ayse Gurses Lab examines several topics related to human factors, including methods for improving patient safety in the cardiac operating room, care coordination, transitions of care and compliance of providers with evidence-based guidelines. Our team also has an interest in research that explores the working conditions of nurses. We collaborate on studies related to the development of geriatrics health service delivery at all levels of the health system.
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Department
The Bradford Winters Lab conducts research on patient safety and quality of care. Our team focuses on the topics of patient care in the intensive care unit, evidence-based medicine, quality health care, and the measurement and evaluation of safety efforts. Currently our work involves evaluating pain management techniques in post-craniotomy patients, developing guidelines for policy development of patient safety initiatives and creating measures for rapid-response system outcomes.
Principal Investigator
Department
Research in the Caleb Alexander Lab examines prescription drug use. This includes studies of population-based patterns and determinants of pharmaceutical use, clinical decision-making about prescription drugs, and the effect of changes in regulatory and payment policies on pharmaceutical utilization. We have special expertise in conducting survey-based studies and analyzing secondary data sources, including administrative claims, the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.
The Carrie Herzke Lab focuses on patient safety and quality improvement. We’re also interested in infectious diseases, particularly infection control, and the education of resident and medical students.
Dr. Clare Rock is an assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Associate hospital Epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Faculty Member at Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. Her research interest focuses the prevention of pathogen transmission in the hospital environment. This includes novel strategies of improving patient room cleaning and disinfection, including human factors engineering approaches, and conducting robust clinical trials to examine effectiveness of "no touch" novel technologies such as UV-C light. She has particular interest in carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae transmission in the hospital environment, including outbreak management, and transmission and epidemiology of Clostridium difficile. Her other area of interest is diagnostic stewardship, and the behavioral, cultural and human factors aspects of implementation of initiatives to enhance appropriate use of ...diagnostic tests. She leads a national initiative, as part of the High Value Practice Academic Alliance, examining strategies for appropriate testing for Clostridium difficile. This is a wider implementation of work that Dr. Rock conducted with The Johns Hopkins Health System facilities.
Dr. Rock has multiple sources of grant funding including from the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and industry. Dr. Rock is Vice Chair of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America Research Network, and serves on the SHEA research committee. Dr. Rock earned her M.B.B.Ch. at the University College Dublin School of Medicine, National University of Ireland, and her MS masters of clinical science of research at the University of Maryland, where she received the MS scholar award for epidemiology. view more
Researchers in the David Thompson Lab examine the outcomes of patients treated in intensive care units (ICUs), patient safety efforts, quality improvement efforts, and multidisciplinary teamwork and safety curriculum development. We're taking part in a study aimed at reducing hospital-acquired infections among cardiovascular surgery patients. Our investigators also participated in a clinical research collaboration that saw an 81 percent reduction in bloodstream infections related to central lines.
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Department
The Elizabeth Daugherty Lab conducts research on patient safety, critical care infection control and critical care disaster response. We investigate methods of improving patient safety through improved infection control, with a focus on clinical outcomes, nosocomial infection rates and the individual and organizational obstacles to personal protective equipment adherence.
Research in the Grant (Xuguang) Tao Lab explores environmental and occupational epidemiology topics, including workers' compensation and injuries, and nosocomial infections. We conduct research through clinical trials and systematic literature reviews, and also use cancer registry data and GIS applications in environmental epidemiological research. Our recent studies have explored topics such as the effectiveness of lumbar epidural steroid injections following lumbar surgery, the effect of physician-dispensed medication on workers' compensation claim outcomes and how the use of opioid and psychotropic medications for workers' compensation claims impacts lost work time.
Research in the Hanan Aboumatar Lab focuses on advancing patient-centered outcomes through improved patient and family involvement. We also focus on multilevel methods to increase the patient-centered focus of care delivery. Recent research examined the impact of a quality-improvement intervention on patient involvement in primary care and treatment with respect and dignity in intensive care.
Researchers in the Henry Michtalik Lab are interested in patient safety—particularly as it relates to patient census statistics and acute to primary care transitions—and quality improvement and systems management.
Dr. Stephen Berry’s research focuses on healthcare quality, safety and costs among persons living with HIV, both in the outpatient and inpatient settings. He conducts observational and interventional studies of sexually transmitted infection screening in HIV clinics, with a focus on improving performance to meet national guidelines. He leads observational studies of rates and reasons for hospitalizations and of 30-day readmission rates among HIV patients. He is conducting a randomized study of a nurse- and pharmacist-based team to reduce inpatient HIV medication errors and increase engagement in outpatient care among persons living with HIV who are hospitalized at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Research in the John Matthew Austin Lab explores health care performance measures, with a goal of improving patient care by enabling healthcare providers to view data about their performance, track patient outcomes and comply with best care practices. Our lab is currently working to develop performance measures for the ICU part, and we are part of The Leapfrog Group, an annual survey of U.S. hospitals that compares hospital performance on national measures of safety, quality and efficiency. Our research also explores the use of scientifically sound decision-support tools for guiding improvements in healthcare delivery systems.
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Department
Research in the John McCloskey Lab focuses on quality improvements in the operating room and pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Our work aims to improve the throughput of adolescents undergoing spinal fusions in order to better define interventions to ameliorate anesthesia emergence delirium and to improve protocols for sedation. One of our projects established an early oral feeding program for critically ill patients. Our goal is to enhance the delivery and quality of children’s health care while making it safer and more affordable.
Research in the John Ulatowski Lab explores the regulatory mechanisms of oxygen delivery to the brain and cerebral blood flow. Our work includes developing and applying new techniques and therapies for stroke as well as non-invasive techniques for monitoring brain function, fluid management and sedation in brain injury patients. We also examine the use of novel oxygen carriers in blood. We’ve recently begun exploring new methods for perioperative and periprocedural care that would help to optimize patient safety in the future.
The Jon Russell lab focuses on thyroid and parathyroid pathology as well as improving patient safety and education using healthcare technology. Additional focuses include utilizing new technology to advance on the techniques of minimally invasive neck surgery. Current and previous efforts include the development of mobile and web-based applications to educate physicians and patients, utilizing ultrasound for vocal cord imaging, understanding the nuances of advanced thyroid cancer, and exploring the role of scarless thyroid surgery in a North American population.
Researchers in the Kathleen Sutcliffe Lab study organizational adaptability, reliability and resilience. Our work examines how factors such as management teams, group dynamics, information search processes, communication and learning processes affect organizational performance. Our team also studies how an organization’s design and culture affect members’ abilities to sense, manage and respond to dynamic demands. Additionally, our work seeks to better understand the factors that promote individual and organizational resilience.
Research in the Kawsar Rasmy Talaat Lab focuses on international health and parasitology, with an emphasis on vaccines, avian influenza and pandemic influenza. Our team conducts clinical trials of vaccines for a range of diverse pathogens, including flu strains that have the potential to reach pandemic status. Our studies seek to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of vaccine candidates. We also have a longstanding interest in tropical medicine.
Research in the Lilly Engineer Lab examines the quality and safety of medical care, with a focus on rural and underserved communities. Our current research evaluates methods for improving immunization rates among inner-city populations of school-aged children. We are also exploring the effect of federal policy changes and health care market forces on rural hospitals in the United States.
The Lynette Mark Lab primarily studies topics within the field of anesthesiology. Our team also researches various aspects of patient safety, including best practices for patient safety reporting systems.
The Maura McGuire Lab focuses on the improvement of quality and safety in ambulatory medicine through care management, point-of-care laboratory testing, and electronic health records and care delivery optimization. We also study the use of assessment and technology to augment learning in health care professionals and primary care physicians.
Research in the Michael A. Rosen Lab primarily focuses on patient safety and simulation-based health care training and technology. Recent work provided examples of how human factors experts can collaborate with health care professionals and simulationists (experts in the design and implementation of simulation) to use contemporary simulation to improve health care delivery. Another recent study examined the anesthesia practice at two tertiary care hospitals in Sierra Leone, West Africa, where anesthesia is associated with high mortality rates. We identified gaps in the application of internationally recommended anesthesia practices at both hospitals, likely caused by lack of available resources.
Principal Investigator
Department
Work in the Myles Leslie Lab examines the factors that influence front-line health care delivery by exploring the policy, institutional, professional and technological contexts of health care systems. Our team works to identify the cultural factors that affect the transfer of quality and safety interventions from one facility to another. We also examine how culture impacts the front-line implementation of policymakers’ intentions. We're currently part of a multisite project that studies patients and family involvement in intensive care delivery.
Principal Investigator
Department
The Nestoras Mathioudakis Lab focuses on improving patient safety and quality for hospitalized diabetes patients. Our interests include inpatient glucose management, type 2 diabetes mellitus and diabetic foot ulcers.
Work in the Nicole Shilkofski Lab aims to improve patient safety in critical care settings, with a focus on resuscitation scenarios. Our research is conducted as part of the research group of the Johns Hopkins Medical Simulation Center. We investigate the communication and functionality of teams during medical crisis situations. As part of those efforts, we are designing a web-based curriculum to teach pediatric resuscitation through mannequin simulation and computer-based simulation techniques.
Research in the Pali Shah Lab focuses on lung transplants. Specifically, we’re interested in chronic rejection and quality and safety as they relate to lung transplants.
Researchers in the Pankaj Jay Pasricha Lab are interested in the molecular mechanisms of visceral pain and restoration of enteric neural function with novel strategies, including neural stem cell transplants. Recent research has focused on the enteric nervous system and gut-brain axis, and the complexity of pain in chronic pancreatitis. Another recent study indicates that patients with underlying small intestinal bacterial overgrowth have significant delays in small bowel transit time as compared to those without, while another explored the safety and efficacy of carbon dioxide cryotherapy for treatment of neoplastic Barrett's esophagus.
Research in the Rahul Koka Lab focuses on pediatric airways, patient safety and health disparities. Recent studies have focused on the relationship between socioeconomic status and perioperative outcomes and patient safety factors related to interoperative cardiac arrests. We also performed effects analyses of the maintenance and repair of anesthetic equipment in various medical environments.
Research in the Rebecca Riggs Lab focuses on developing safer, less-invasive ways to detect traumatic brain injury and abusive head trauma. We are exploring the use of bedside ophthalmic ultrasonography to find retinal lesions associated with abusive head trauma, as well as investigating the use of other types of sonography to monitor intracranial hypertension. Such tools would be safer than current methods, which are often invasive or emit high levels of radiation. Additionally, portable monitors could be used outside of the hospital, in settings such as football games, to better and more quickly diagnose concussions.
Work in the Sallie Weaver Lab investigates the range of organizational factors that affect a health care team’s performance. In particular, our research focuses on leadership, organizational culture and teamwork within and between teams. Our team also explores interventions that are designed to improve quality of care and patient safety. Some of our recent research topics include team-training in health care, the relationship between CLABSI rates and patient safety, and rapid-response systems as a patient-safety strategy.
Research in the Samantha Pitts Lab focuses on care safety and quality in ambulatory patients. Specifically, our activities have included applying the Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) in office-based practices and improving the delivery of evidence-based care through clinical care teams.
Research in the Sanjay Desai Lab focuses primarily on clinical outcomes in survivors of critical illnesses, such as acute lung injury. We also investigate techniques to improve graduate medical education and are conducting a clinical trial on the comparative effectiveness of models that optimize patient safety and resident education. Our research examines factors such as residency work-hour reform, hand hygiene practices and the use of etiquette-based communication.
Work in the Sean Berenholtz Lab focuses on patient safety, ICU care, quality health care and evidence-based medicine. Two notable and successful projects include the National On The Cusp: Stop BSI project, which was implemented in 47 states with the goal of eliminating bloodstream infections, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)-funded Keystone ICU project, which improved communication and teamwork and reduced hospital-acquired infections in more than 100 ICUs in Michigan. One recent study focused on ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), one of the most common type of health care-associated infections in the ICU. Existing VAP prevention intervention bundles vary widely on the interventions, but our research team described a structured approach for developing a new VAP prevention bundle.
Research in the Sharon Turban Lab focuses on the effects of sodium and potassium on blood pressure and on kidney function. We lead the Chronic Kidney Disease-Potassium (CKD-K) clinical trial, funded by American Heart Association, which examines the benefits and safety of two levels of potassium intake in patients with kidney disease. Other research includes the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort (CRIC) study, which aims to improve the understanding of chronic kidney disease and related cardiovascular illness.
The Suchi Saria Lab, part of the Institute for Computational Medicine, explores topics within the fields of machine learning and computational statistics, with a focus on computational solutions for problems in health informatics. Our team investigates the applications of machine learning and computational statistics to domains where one has to draw inferences from observing a complex, real-world system evolve over time. We use Bayesian and probabilistic graphical modeling approaches to address the challenges that emerge with modeling and prediction in real-world temporal systems.
The Sydney Dy Lab has conducted extensive research on quality of care, patient safety and decision-making, with a focus on patients with cancer and other serious and terminal diseases. Our team seeks to improve health systems and services to optimize the use of technology and medication, particularly in end-of-life health care policy. Our research approach includes primary and quantitative data collection, quality measurement improvement, systematic literature reviews and analysis of secondary database.
Our research is centered on the safety, efficacy and outcomes of PCI performed at hospitals without on-site cardiac surgery.
Active projects:
C-PORT Randomized Studies and Registries; New Jersey Angioplasty Demonstration Project; InCar-decision support tools for performance of PCI at hospitals without on-site cardiac surgery.
For more information please visit Cport.org.
The Boss Lab's research focus is on patient experience, health disparities, and surgical outcomes and utilization. Studies include shared decision-making, communication, and patient/parent-reported outcomes for elective surgery in children; patient satisfaction metrics, outcomes, and health correlates in surgery and pediatrics; patient and family-centered care and communication in surgery and pediatrics; racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in pediatric surgical care utilization and outcomes; and quality and safety in pediatric surgical care
The Theresa Shapiro Laboratory studies antiparasitic chemotherapy. On a molecular basis, we are interested in understanding the mechanism of action for existing antiparasitic agents, and in identifying vulnerable metabolic targets for much-needed, new, antiparasitic chemotherapy. Clinically, our studies are directed toward an evaluation, in humans, of the efficacy, pharmacokinetics, metabolism and safety of experimental antiparasitic drugs.
The Timothy Niessen Lab studies patient outcomes in the ICU. We are particularly interested in the effects of sleep quality, delirium transitions and sedation on the improvement of intensive care patients. Our investigators also focus on the practices of internal medicine interns, studying the variability of hand washing hygiene, etiquette-based communication and time spent in direct and indirect patient care. We have also studied the onset of myelopathy as a result of B12 deficiency from long-term colchicine treatment and recreational nitrous oxide use.
Research conducted in the Todd Dorman Lab examines the use of informatics in intensive care settings as it relates to remote patient monitoring, safety and management strategies. Specific areas of interest include the surgical stress response; aminoglycoside antibiotics; fungal infections; renal failure; pharmacokinetic models of drug administration; and ICU triage and its impact on disaster preparedness.
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