My research centers on using health information technology (IT) to improve decisions and healthcare quality, especially through optimal design and behavioral science. I am committed to using this work to make the healthcare system more patient-centered, to reduce healthcare disparities, and to improve the fit between information technology and the work done by both providers and patients.

My earliest area of focus in health informatics was the relationship between IT design and cognition/decision-making. I draw from research traditions in health literacy, human factors, and psychological decision science (behavioral economics) to examine how information design can improve comprehension and decisions. More recently, I have applied my crosstraining in health services research to conduct large-scale retrospective cohort studies leveraging EHR data to study healthcare quality.

I am delighted to serve as the director of Weill Cornell's master's program in health informatics. 

CURRENT PROJECTS

Making Numbers Meaningful: Promoting evidence-based communication of numbers in health: Patients have difficulty understanding medical information, especially numbers. Although a wealth of research has been done about how to make numbers understandable and meaningful to patients, this evidence is not being put into practice. In this project, we are: Conducting a systematic review of health numeracy interventions; Making this evidence available in an interactive tutorial website for medical writers and tech developers; Working with writers and developers locally and around the world to put this website into use when they prepare materials for patients. Funding: National Library of Medicine/NIH  R01LM012964 (PI: Ancker)

Addressing origins of the opioid epidemic by improving prescribing for opioid-naive patients: Our team is leveraging behavioral science insights to help improve opioid prescribing. We are applying good design to make it easier for physicians to prescribe the right dose and harder to prescribe the wrong one. Our subtle "nudges" in the electronic prescribing system prompt primary care providers to reduce doses and durations of opioid prescriptions. Our approach deliberately does not include an active clinical decision support (CDS) intervention so that we can be confident we are easing physician burden rather than creating alert fatigue. Funding: NYS Health Foundation 17-05047 (PI: Ancker).