University Health Transplant Institute partners with Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation to implement innovative data management to improve patient outcomes

University Health Transplant Institute partners with Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation to implement innovative data management to improve patient outcomes

Dallas, Texas – University Health Transplant Institute, dedicated to restoring health and life to patients with organ failure through prevention treatments and transplantation services, is partnering with the Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation (PCCI). The goal of this partnership is to improve care and outcomes by combining artificial intelligence with clinical expertise, to enhance the Transplant Institute’s digital data environment allowing for enhanced data access and advanced analytics to enable transformative innovation and high-impact research.

Currently in the implementation phase, PCCI is expanding University Health’s capabilities based on deploying PCCI’s innovative, cloud-based, digital data environment, ISTHMUSTM, and leveraging PCCI’s Community Vulnerability Compass (CVC), a non-medical drivers of health (NMDoH) data integration and visualization tool enabling deeper understanding of the context and complexities of the social barriers to health, access and well-being of Transplant Institute patients. The CVC uses 26 clinical and socio-economic indicators clustered into four thematic domains denoting the health, resiliency and economic vibrancy of neighborhoods. The first application of these innovative digital technologies and enriched data assets was the launch of the industry-leading Transplant Quality and Research DataMart, an important collaboration between University Health Transplant Institute and PCCI.

“With the rollout of PCCI’s Transplant Quality and Research DataMart, these projects will take just hours to complete. This reduced time to make data available to our fabulous team, in turn, will speed up our research and quality processes by enabling our physicians and staff to access data exponentially faster as they work to save more lives.” – Francisco G. Cigarroa, MD, Professor of Surgery and Director, Alvarez Transplant Center

In partnership with UT Health San Antonio, the University Health Transplant Institute is one of the top five U.S. transplant centers based on survival outcomes in kidney, liver, and lung transplantation. Its innovations in clinical practice and management have driven utilization of higher-risk donor organs and expanded opportunities for more patients to receive lifesaving transplantation. The Transplant Quality and Research DataMart will be able to place equitable data insights in the hands of research and care teams, while serving as a catalyst to new breakthroughs in understanding barriers and their impact to health, and ultimately providing higher quality of care to residents of Bexar County and beyond.

“We are proud to support University Health and its mission to provide high impact and innovative care,” said PCCI CEO, Steve Miff, PhD. “Our work will support University Health’s position as a leader in the transplant field with the implementation of a digital data environment and a transplant quality and research DataMart. This will allow the University Health Transplant Institute team to enhance and extend research and outcome studies and expand cross-industry collaborations. Adding CVC, our advanced NMDoH analytics tool, University Health will be better able to understand the NMDoH for their whole transplant population and better serve and provide enhanced access and support for their patients across the state.”

“Our Transplant DataMart is the first of its kind to use data from a large transplant program in a standardized cloud-based format by incorporating clinical metrics and non-medical drivers of health that are connected to a network of databases and other researchers across the world. This unique system will help us improve outcomes for transplant patients, perform advanced analytics, reduce barriers to care and increase grant and research opportunities to expand and share our work,” said Bryan Alsip, MD, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of University Health.

This partnership will help University Health foster additional grant and research opportunities by moving the organization into the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) program. OHDSI is an international network of researchers and observational health databases with a central coordinating center housed at Columbia University. Integrating OHDSI, the OMOP Common Data Model, and the OHDSI software tools into the UH ISTHMUS™ ecosystem enables University Health teams’ access to the open community data standards, open-source software, and ways to apply scientific best practices to generate reliable clinical evidence.

Also, PCCI’s CVC will allow the University Health Transplant Institute to analyze a patient’s NMDoH to help make informed, equitable decisions. The CVC gives the team the ability to query a patient’s address to assess the NMDoH factors impacting that patient’s residential block group. This informs and enables more targeted screening questions and the collection of enhanced data to facilitate collaboration with community and health care organizations to support current and prospective patients throughout their transplant journey.

“University Health Transplant Institute has a 53-year history of cutting-edge innovation and superior survival rates. We are now one of the two largest living donor programs in the US and number one in survival. We also have the top survival and transplant rates for kidney and lung in our region including pediatrics. We have continually expanded access to our unique patient population through new medical techniques in lung, liver, and kidney transplantation and hepatocellular tumors and cancers,” said Francisco G. Cigarroa, MD, Professor of Surgery and Director, Alvarez Transplant Center, Malú & Carlos Alvarez Distinguished University Chair, and Ashbel Smith Professorship in Surgery.

“However, data projects to analyze and share our successes, can take us weeks or even months to complete. With the rollout of PCCI’s Transplant Quality and Research DataMart, these projects will take just hours to complete. This reduced time to make data available to our fabulous team, in turn, will speed up our research and quality processes by enabling our physicians and staff to access data exponentially faster as they work to save more lives. This in turn will lead to better outcomes and enhanced access to life-saving transplantation. This also allows us to share our successes with the transplant community around the world to make lives better,” Cigarroa added. 

ABOUT UNIVERSITY HEALTH

University Health is the only locally-owned health system in San Antonio. For more than 100 years, University Health has been here to heal, improve health, train the next generation of medical professionals and ensure the people of San Antonio, Bexar County and South Texas have access to primary and advanced specialty care close to home. Specialized services include the region’s only Level I trauma center for both adults and children, and maternal and neonatal intensive care centers designated at the highest levels by the State of Texas. As the region’s only academic health system, University Health is a hub of innovation and discovery, committed to delivering patient-centered, culturally competent, high-quality and compassionate care, based on a strong foundation of outcomes‐based research and innovative teaching. Learn more at UniversityHealth.com.

About PCCI

The Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation (PCCI) is a not-for-profit, mission-driven organization with industry-leading expertise in the practical applications of artificial intelligence, machine learning and SDOH data modeling to address the needs of vulnerable populations. PCCI started as a department within

Parkland Health and was spun out as an independent organization in 2012. PCCI strives to leapfrog the status quo by harnessing the transformative potential of data. Our unique capabilities allow us to provide innovative, actionable solutions that more effectively identify needs, prioritize services, empower providers, and engage patients.

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North Texas Giving Day: Join us in our journey to bring health innovation to the most vulnerable communities

North Texas Giving Day: Join us in our journey to bring health innovation to the most vulnerable communities

North Texas Giving Day, set for Sept. 19 but open to donations now, is a powerful opportunity to unite our community in supporting the causes we care about most. At PCCI, our team of clinicians and expert data scientists strive to support the health of vulnerable communities in North Texas through the responsible applications of AI and non-medical drivers of health (NMDoH) analytics. NMDoH are the conditions in the places where people live, learn, work and play (e.g., food insecurity, housing, transportation) that affect a wide range of health risks and outcomes. These external social, economic and environmental factors have been shown to be responsible for upwards of 80% of what keeps us healthy or, conversely, leads to illness and an impaired quality of life.  As a non-profit, your support is critical to this mission.

Why support PCCI? You may have felt the impact of PCCI’s innovative AI and NMDoH programs during the COVID-19 pandemic when you learned about the spread of the infection through our neighborhoods. Or if you’ve checked the Dallas County Health & Human Services Department’s Pediatric Asthma Surveillance System dashboard―developed by PCCI― that offers insights into the asthma risks on your neighborhood. And you may know a pregnant woman who was able to bring their child to full term thanks to the Parkland Health’s Preterm Birth Prevention program powered by PCCI’s AI. We aim to ensure that each of our innovations are targeted to the unique needs of our community and equitably applied and support the most vulnerable in our neighborhoods.

Your Support is Critical in Creating Opportunities for Women in Technology

Benefiting the most from your support will be PCCI’s women in data science intern program, the Sachs Summer Scholars. PCCI developed this STEM-focused program to help open doors to women seeking careers in data science.This is an industry challenge as, according to Girls Who Code, from 1984 to today, the number of female computer science graduates dropped from 37% to 18% and computing degrees are less likely to be awarded to women in all racial and ethnic groups. These trends are taking place in spite of the fact that women outnumber men overall at universities. At PCCI we are committed to reversing this trend and improving diversity in the data science and technology industry all while focusing their contributions, efforts and learnings towards innovative, practical solutions supporting our local community.

Your support will enable PCCI to continue to provide unrivaled opportunities for undergraduate, graduate and doctoral female students from diverse backgrounds to work side-by-side with PCCI data scientists and clinicians and directly contribute to projects benefiting the community such as improving maternal health and pediatric asthma outcomes, lowering suicide risk, and developing a community surveillance system for diabetes and hypertension. In 2024, PCCI reported that 71.43% of participating interns were from diverse ethnicities. PCCI’s internship program helps these students to improve their self-confidence, hone their programming and analytics skills in order to open up greater career opportunities, fuel their passion for learning and helping their community, and build lifelong memories of meaningful accomplishments. 

Don’t Wait Until Giving Day – Start Donating Now!

Our programs have proven to be cost effective, scalable, and successful. With your support, we will continue to explore new ways to apply AI solutions in collaboration with some of the top healthcare providers and public health organizations in the nation.

Early giving is open now, and every dollar counts. Your donation today will help us build momentum and maximize our impact on North Texas Giving Day. Together, we can create a brighter future for our community. Support PCCI in shaping the future of healthcare technology in North Texas.

Click here to donate now and be a part of the change!

PCCI introduces its 2024 class of Sachs Summer Scholars Interns

PCCI introduces its 2024 class of Sachs Summer Scholars Interns

STEM focused program sets female students side-by-side with AI experts, data scientists and clinicians

PCCI’s summer intern program, Sachs Summer Scholars, Advancing Women in STEM and Technology Summer Internship, has begun, demonstrating PCCI’s ongoing commitment to improving gender diversity in the data science and technology industry. This program has become the one of the premier internship in North Texas that immerses students in meaningful, real word projects with actual impact. This includes providing each intern direct experience with innovative healthcare, groundbreaking artificial intelligence programs and social determinants of health projects. The aim is to support and promote practical applications of analytics, computing, and data science all while advancing the spirit of mentorship and advancement of female students.

The 2024 class of Sachs Summer Scholars includes seven women from diverse backgrounds, hailing from six different universities. Working side-by-side with PCCI clinical and data science experts to hone their programming and analytics skills while building life-long memories of meaningful accomplishments, the interns will work on core projects at PCCI including: disease surveillance systems, brain care predictive modeling, suicide risk screening, jail health and pediatric asthma risk prediction, to name a few.

This class will present findings based on their work with PCCI at a presentation on August 9th, at Pegasus Park.

The interns are, from left to right: Ozgur Aksoy, University of Texas – Dallas; Serap Ogut, Southern Methodist University; Autumn Carey Noon, Ohio State University; Bengisu Yarimbas, University of North Texas; Emily Thompson, Southern Methodist University; Ferona Bustani, University of Texas – Austin; Saniah Safat, University of Texas – Austin.

Cracking the Nutritional Puzzle: A Path Out Of Dallas’ Food Desert

Cracking the Nutritional Puzzle: A Path Out Of Dallas’ Food Desert

By Olayide “Olay” Adejumobi, Project Manager, PCCI

Recently, I was shocked to hear that North Texas is one of the hardest hit areas of the country for food insecurity. Shocked, but not surprised. As a registered dietitian and a participant in PCCI’s management of the Dallas Accountable Health Community (DAHC)[1] program, I have seen the Dallas County’s food depravations firsthand, and while this food desert may seem trackless, I believe that by using data, we have ways to create oases.

It turns out that Dallas County has the highest rate of food insecurity among counties in North Texas, with a rate of 15.6%, which is approximately nearly 407,000 residents, per a new report from Feeding America released by the North Texas Food Bank.

I couldn’t agree more with the statement made by Trisha Cunningham, President and CEO of the North Texas Food Bank, “In North Texas, where hunger affects more people than the populations of cities like Seattle or San Francisco, the most alarming statistic is that nearly 40% of those in need are children—a situation that is simply unacceptable.”

As an expert in nutrition, public health, I can tell you that the effects of food insecurity are pernicious and corrosive to families, communities and entire populations. These effects include:

  • Overall poor health and increased likelihood of chronic illnesses such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and stroke
  • Mental and social stresses of food insecurity, can lead to social isolation and stigma, while leading to depression due to heightened stress and anxiety
  • Declining academic success: Children who have food insecurities may see an adverse effect on their mental and physical health, reducing their educational opportunities

Ending in 2022, PCCI managed the DAHC[1], a five-year initiative that tested whether identifying and addressing health related social needs of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries such as housing instability and quality, food insecurity, utility needs, interpersonal safety, and transportation, would reduce both in health costs and emergency department utilization – we found it did. As a part of the team, I was witness to the myriad of social, economic and health issues the most underserved residents of Dallas faced.

What I can tell you is that food insecurity isn’t just a statistic― it’s a lived reality for many in the southeastern areas of Dallas County.

What I can tell you is that food insecurity isn’t just a statistic― it’s a lived reality for many in the southeastern areas of Dallas County. I’ve seen how non-medical drivers of health can amplify health disparities and lead to adverse health outcomes when quality, nutritious, and affordable food isn’t within reach. The people in these areas grapple with food insecurity due to a complex interplay of non-medical factors. Which makes solving this issue more that just having grocery stores available in those areas, though that would definitely be a good start. The challenges these areas face include:

  • Economic Challenges: The neighborhoods in southeast Dallas have high poverty rates, making it a daily struggle for residents to afford nourishing food. Families often find themselves compelled to prioritize cheaper, less nutritious options due to limited financial resources.
  • Transportation Barriers: Full-service grocery stores, where fresh produce and essential items are readily available, are scarce in these areas, and the lack of reliable transportation compounds the problem, preventing residents from reaching distant grocery stores and compelling them to settle for less healthy options closer to home.
  • Educational Disparities: Low educational attainment in these areas leads to limited knowledge about nutrition and healthy eating, making it a daunting task for residents to make informed food choices.

My journey inside the community data PCCI collected has been an eye-opener. But it’s not just about the numbers we see; it’s about understanding the lives and stories behind those data points. Armed with this information, we have the potential to embark on a path to address food insecurity in these communities through:

  • Community Health Workers: These unsung heroes bridge the gap by providing education, resources, and emotional support to individuals and families in need. They connect people to local resources like food banks and assistance programs and help them develop coping strategies.
  • Community-Led Initiatives: Data-driven strategies can empower grassroots organizations and community leaders to tackle food insecurity head-on. With the PCCI’s data, we can pinpoint, at the block-level, areas of the greatest need and tailor interventions accordingly.
  • Local Government Support: Guided by data-driven insights, local government officials can allocate resources more effectively. Advocacy for policies promoting the establishment of grocery stores and farmers’ markets can be rooted in this specific data.
  • Transportation Solutions: PCCI’s data also identifies transportation deserts within the most underserved areas of Dallas, paving the way for improved public transportation options. This strategic approach can ensure residents can access grocery stores with greater ease.
  • Education and Outreach: Customized nutrition education programs and workshops, based on PCCI’s data, can empower residents to overcome educational disparities and make healthier food choices.

Since the conclusion of the DAHC program, PCCI has developed the Community Vulnerability Compass (CVC), which provides actionable data regarding social barriers to health, access, and well-being of a community’s most vulnerable populations at the block group level. This includes insights into the number of individuals who are eligible for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, which is a leading indicator of food insecurity.

With the CVC, PCCI has been able to learn more about the pressing issues at the block group level in the hardest hit areas of southeast Dallas. PCCI’s data has reinforced the importance of understanding the unique challenges faced by these communities. Through leveraging this data, we can develop new community-led initiatives to engage residents and foster healthier, more resilient communities. The ultimate goal is to ensure equitable access to resources that enable all Dallas residents―regardless of their neighborhood, to lead healthy and fulfilling lives.

About Olayide “Olay” Adejumobi

Olay is a seasoned healthcare professional with ten years of clinical experience and five years of medical nutrition therapy and disease management experience. As a clinical project manager, she collaborated with cross-functional key stakeholders primarily focused on patient outcomes. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Nutritional Science and Public Health plus a Master’s degree in Healthcare Administration and Information Analytics from Texas Tech University.

[1] This project was supported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $4.5M with 100 percent funded by CMS/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, CMS/HHS or the U.S. Government. Although PCCI’s participation in the AHC Model is now over and CMS is no longer affiliated, we are continuing aspects of the program established during our participation in the Model. 

Pegasus Park Non-profit Innovators Collaborating with PCCI’s Community Vulnerability Compass, Offering Custom Data Insights to Accelerate Each Organization’s Efforts

Pegasus Park Non-profit Innovators Collaborating with PCCI’s Community Vulnerability Compass, Offering Custom Data Insights to Accelerate Each Organization’s Efforts

Sponsored by the Water Cooler at Pegasus Park, The Dallas Foundation, and Lyda Hill Philanthropies, seven tenants at the Pegasus Park innovation hub are participating in a community of practice utilizing PCCI’s Community Vulnerability Compass (CVC) to help further their community-driven missions.

PCCI’s CVC is a technology toolkit that provides customized, foundational insights on community needs and complements insights generated by individual organizations. Through an easy‐to‐use web‐based dashboard, the CVC offers summarized information and root-cause details of neighborhood vulnerabilities that drive inequity. PCCI’s CVC is leveraged by organizations around the state, such as the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, to improve their understanding of the community they serve. Through a fuller understanding of these root causes, these innovative organizations can better align efforts to create connected communities and develop better programs, resources, and interventions to eliminate disparities, achieve health equity, and improve the lives, health and well‐being of underserved residents and communities.

The participating Water Cooler-based organizations include innovative non-profits with missions to build a better community for all. They are:

The City Year AmeriCorps members serve in schools all day, every day, preparing students with the social, emotional, and academic skills and mindsets to succeed in school and in life.

The Grant Halliburton Foundation works to strengthen the network of mental health resources for children, teens, and young adults; promote better mental health; and prevent suicide.

The Junior Achievement of Dallas (JA Dallas), a nonprofit organization impacts the lives of students by teaching life skills in budgeting, careers, and business start-ups. JA Dallas’s mission is to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy through volunteer-delivered curriculum.

Social Venture Partners Dallas is committed to helping individuals realize greater impact with their giving, strengthening nonprofits, and investing in collaborative solutions.

Texas Trees serves as a catalyst in creating a new green legacy for North Texas through transformational, research-based plans that educate and mobilize the public to activate the social, economic, environmental, and health benefits that trees and urban forestry provide for a better quality of life.

The Commit Partnership is a collective impact organization composed of hundreds of partners across Dallas County and the state of Texas supported by a dedicated ‘backbone’ staff of 60+ professionals.

Established as the first community foundation in Texas in 1929, the Dallas Foundation brings together people, ideas, and investments in Greater Dallas so individuals and families can reach their full potential. Over the course of the Foundation’s history, it has granted over $1B to the full spectrum of community-centered causes.

“We are honored to partner with and support our colleagues at the Water Cooler at Pegasus Park with the capabilities that the CVC offers,” said Steve Miff, CEO of PCCI. “The program’s sponsors, Water Cooler at Pegasus Park, The Dallas Foundation, and Lyda Hill Philanthropies, are strong supporters of the missions of each of the participating organizations and we are exceedingly grateful to them for helping support these collaborations to build a better community.”

Water Cooler’s mission is to support organizations in their quest to attract and retain talent, engender collaboration among members, reduce administrative costs, and ultimately, increase collective impact on key social issues. Water Cooler’s nonprofit and philanthropic tenants are co-located among five floors and roughly 175,000 square feet within Pegasus Park’s main 18-story tower in Dallas. The Water Cooler at Pegasus Park is sponsored by Lyda Hill Philanthropies, in partnership with J. Small Investments and Montgomery Street Partners and managing partner The Dallas Foundation.

PCCI, founded in 2012, is a not-for-profit, healthcare innovation and research organization affiliated with Parkland Health. PCCI leverages clinical expertise, data science, and social determinants of health to address the needs of vulnerable populations. 

PCCI’s CEO named a top AI leader by Dallas Innovates, and the Dallas Regional Chamber

PCCI’s CEO named a top AI leader by Dallas Innovates, and the Dallas Regional Chamber

Dallas Innovates, the Dallas Regional Chamber, and Dallas AI have teamed up to launch the inaugural AI 75 list. The 2024 program honors the most significant people in AI in DFW in seven categories—the visionaries, creators, and influencers you need to know. Included in this list, under the “AI Impact Innovators” category is Steve Miff, PhD, CEO of PCCI.

Listed as a “Healthcare Hero” the AI 75 sites many of PCCI’s successful implementations of AI modeling:

“Miff serves on multiple committees guiding AI policy and implementation at Dallas’s Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation, where he’s president and chief executive. Under his leadership, the nonprofit center has developed cutting-edge solutions using artificial intelligence to advance the health and well-being of underserved individuals and populations. Examples include a unique, in-patient model that can identify and intervene in high-risk sepsis cases; a system designed to prevent pediatric asthma; and an innovative, preterm birth prevention program to better serve pregnant women. Miff also has been active nationally, helping to draft codes of conduct and “best practices” guides as AI continues to progress at a rapid pace.”

To read the full story, go to: https://dallasinnovates.com/presenting-the-first-ever-ai-75-meet-the-most-innovative-leaders-in-artificial-intelligence-in-dallas-fort-worth/

WATCH: PCCI leader shares insight on emerging technology and behavioral health

WATCH: PCCI leader shares insight on emerging technology and behavioral health

In this video interview from HIMSS24 with Jacqueline Naeem, MD, PCCI’s Senior Medical Director, shares with FinThrive her views on what new technology innovations are supporting mental health as well as what passions drive her as a physician.

To watch the video click here: https://studio.marketscale.com/StudioMail/dmJzaZ7KNPYV1el4RAwqG2NZqwV2ng905W6jopLyb3rDxX8O

Video: Exploring Predictive Analytics in Healthcare: An Interview with PCCI Experts

Video: Exploring Predictive Analytics in Healthcare: An Interview with PCCI Experts

Digital Health featured PCCI’s Yusuf Tamer, PhD, and Parkland’s Nainesh Shah, MD, at HIMSS24. In this interview, the two discussed the use of predictive analytics models that improve patient outcomes with respect to sepsis.

To watch the video, click here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBbaDO96mD4