Alumni

Maxwell Oluwole Akanbi

Program:  Health Services & Outcomes Research (HSOR)

Aparna Balakrishnan

Entry year: 2016

Program:  Health Services and Outcomes Research (HSOR)

Advisor: Lucy Bilaver, PhD

Bio: Aparna received a BA in English Literature from Columbia University, and pursued a career in journalism before working in public health. In 2012, she completed a dual masters degree program in Public Health and Public Administration, also at Columbia University. For the four years in between finishing her Masters degrees and starting HSIP, she worked first as a cancer outcomes researcher in the Mount Sinai Medical System in New York City, and then managed an outreach program for underserved and immigrant cancer patients at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Aparna completed her PhD in 2022.

Balakrishnan, A., Burdett, K., Kocherginsky, M., & Jordan, N. (2021). HSR21-043: Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Surgery for Kidney Cancer: A SEER Analysis, 2007-2014, Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network J Natl Compr Canc Netw, 19(3.5), HSR21-043-HSR21-043.

Balakrishnan A, Jordan N. The Undocumented Elderly: Coverage Gaps and Low Health Care Use. J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2019;30(3):891-898.

Buscemi J, Buitrago D, Iacobelli F, Penedo F, Maciel C, Guitleman J, Balakrishnan A, Corden M, Adler RF, Bouchard LC, Perez-Tamayo A, Yanez BR. Feasibility of a Smartphone-based pilot intervention for Hispanic breast cancer survivors: a brief report. Transl Behav Med. 2018 Jul 7.

Salva Balbale

Program:  Health Services & Outcomes Research (HSOR)

Bio: Dr. Balbale is a Research Assistant Professor in the Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology and the Center for Health Services & Outcomes Research at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. She also serves as a Research Health Scientist in the Center of Innovation for Complex Chronic Healthcare at the Hines Veterans Affairs (VA) Hospital. Her research interests include making healthcare safer, better coordinated, and more patient-centered for individuals with complex and chronic conditions, particularly digestive disorders. Salva earned her undergraduate and Master’s degrees in Public Health from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She then worked as a Research Analyst at the Hines VA, supporting studies designed to enhance care and outcomes for Veterans.

During her time in the Health Sciences Integrated Program (HSIP), Salva was an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) T32 pre-doctoral fellow. She also served as a teaching assistant, research assistant, and was awarded Northwestern’s Graduate Writing Fellowship. The doctoral program in Health Services and Outcomes Research enabled Salva to develop practical skills in leading health services research studies while expanding her methodological expertise. Her dissertation describes opioid use and opioid-related adverse events among Veterans with chronic digestive disorders who are dually enrolled in the VA and Medicare.

Dissertation Title: Safety of Opioid Use among Veterans with GI Symptoms and Disorders

Cynthia Barnard

Program:  Health Quality and Patient Safety (HQPS)

Bio:

Dr. Barnard completed her undergraduate studies in Psychology at Bryn Mawr College, her MBA at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and a Master's degree in Jewish Studies at Spertus Institute. She serves as Vice President of Quality for the Northwestern Medicine system of seven hospitals and four medical practice groups. Cindy has served on the faculty of the Northwestern MS program in Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety since its inception. She has held leadership roles in the National Association for Healthcare Quality, the Illinois Hospital Association, and the board of Project Patient Care, and has published in healthcare quality, patient safety, ethics and policy. 

The doctoral program in Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety, within the Health Sciences Integrated Program, enabled Cindy to construct an interdisciplinary, cross-cutting curriculum to advance her research skills and to explore emerging areas in healthcare quality. Her qualifying examinations addressed the potential for patient-reported outcomes to play a role in quality evaluation, and innovative approaches to quality improvement in a federally qualified health center. Cindy currently works as an Assistant Professor of General Internal Medicine within the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Sarah Bassett

Program:  Social Sciences & Health (SSH)

Ariel Chandler

Program:  Health and Biomedical Informatics (HBMI)

Timothy Herr

Program:  Health and Biomedical Informatics (HBMI)

Rasmussen LV, Smith ME, Almaraz F, Persell SD, Rasmussen-Torvik LJ, Pacheco JA, Chisholm RL, Christensen C, Herr TM, Wehbe FH, Starren JB. An ancillary genomics system to support the return of pharmacogenomic results. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2019 Apr 1;26(4):306-310.

Herr TM, Peterson JF, Rasmussen LV, Caraballo PJ, Peissig PL, Starren JB. Pharmacogenomic clinical decision support design and multi-site process outcomes analysis in the eMERGE Network. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2019 Feb 1;26(2):143-148.

Luo Y, Thompson WK, Herr TM, Zeng Z, Berendsen MA, Jonnalagadda SR, Starren JB. Natural language processing for EHR-based pharmacovigilance: a structured review 2017;40 (11):1075-1089

Fort DG, Herr TM, Shaw PL, Gutzman KE, Starren JB. Mapping the evolving definitions of translational research. Journal of clinical and translational science 2017;1 (1):60-66

Herr TM, Bielinski SJ, Bottinger E, Brautbar A, Brilliant M, Chute CG, Cobb BL, Denny JC, Hakonarson H, Hartzler AL, Hripcsak G, Kannry J, Kohane IS, Kullo IJ, Lin S, Manzi S, Marsolo K, Overby CL, Pathak J, Peissig P, Pulley J, Ralston J, Rasmussen L, Roden DM, Tromp G, Uphoff T, Weng C, Wolf W, Williams MS, Starren J. Practical considerations in genomic decision support: The eMERGE experience. J Pathol Inform 2015;6:50.

Herr TM, Bielinski SJ, Bottinger E, Brautbar A, Brilliant M, Chute CG, Denny J, Freimuth RR, Hartzler A, Kannry J, Kohane IS, Kullo IJ, Lin S, Pathak J, Peissig P, Pulley J, Ralston J, Rasmussen L, Roden D, Tromp G, Williams MS, Starren J. A conceptual model for translating omic data into clinical action. J Pathol Inform 2015;6:46.

BOOKS AND CHAPTERS
Rasmussen LV, Herr TM, Taylor CO, Jahhaf AM, Nelson TA, Starren JB (2020) The Genomic Medical Record and Omic Ancillary Systems. In: Adam T, Aliferis C (eds) Personalized and Precision Medicine Informatics. Health Informatics. Springer, Cham

Gayle Kricke

Program:  Health Quality and Patient Safety (HQPS)

Jonah Musa

Program:  Health Services & Outcomes Research (HSOR)

Jessica Ibrahim Puri

Entry year: 2018

Program:  Social Sciences and Health (SSH)

Advisor: Judith T Moskowitz, PhD

Adovich Rivera

Program:  Health Services & Outcomes Research (HSOR)

Iva Terwilliger

Entry year: 2017

Program:  Health Quality and Patient Safety (HQPS)

Advisor: Julie Johnson, PhD

Bio: Iva graduated cum laude with a BS in Nursing from Georgetown University. After graduating, she completed a nurse residency program and worked as a Staff Nurse on an orthopedic / oncology / medical / surgical unit at the West Palm Beach VA Medical Center. She then worked at the New York University Langone Medical Center as a Senior Staff Nurse in Breast Imaging., She is interested in studying how technology can help improve the quality of care provided to patients. Iva completed her PhD in the Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety track in 2022.

Charlotte Ward

Program:  Health Services & Outcomes Research (HSOR)

Jiancheng Ye

Entry year: 2018

Program:  Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety (HQPS)

Advisor: Donna M Woods, PhD

Bio: Jiancheng received Biomedical Engineering training from Tsinghua University in China and Health Informatics training from Johns Hopkins University. He has not only done much work in the design and implementation of medical devices, but also in the industry and data analysis. His PhD research will be focused on the intersection of informatics, health quality and patient safety. He enjoys interdisciplinary research for the opportunity to use technology to combine engineering and medicine, thereby improving people’s health and quality of life. Jiancheng completed his PhD in the Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety track in 2023.

Ye J. The impact of electronic health record-integrated patient-generated health data on clinician burnout. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2021 Apr 23;28(5):1051-1056. PMID: 33822095; PMCID: PMC8068436.

Walunas TL, Ye J, Bannon J, Wang A, Kho AN, Smith JD, Soulakis N. Does coaching matter? Examining the impact of specific practice facilitation strategies on implementation of quality improvement interventions in the Healthy Hearts in the Heartland study. Implement Sci. 2021 Mar 31;16(1):33. PMID: 33789696; PMCID: PMC8011080.

Ye J. Health Information System's Responses to COVID-19 Pandemic in China: A National Cross-sectional Study. Appl Clin Inform. 2021 Mar;12(2):399-406. PMID: 34010976; PMCID: PMC8133837.

Feinglass J, Wang JA, Ye J, Tessier R, Kim H. Hospital care for opioid use in Illinois, 2016-2019. J Behav Health Serv Res. 2021 Jan 27:1–13. PMID: 33502670; PMCID: PMC7839292.

Ye J, Sanchez-Pinto LN. Three Data-Driven Phenotypes of Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome Preserved from Early Childhood to Middle Adulthood. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2021 Jan 25;2020:1345-1353. PMID: 33936511; PMCID: PMC8075454.

Ye J. The role of health technology and informatics in a global public health emergency: practices and implications from the Covid-19 pandemic. JMIR Med Inform. 2020;8(7):e19866. PMID: 32568725; PMCID: PMC7388036.

Ye J, Zhang R, Bannon JE, Wang AA, Walunas TL, Kho AN, Soulakis ND. Identifying practice facilitation delays and barriers in primary care quality improvement. J Am Board Fam Med. 2020; 33(5): 655-664. PMID: 32989060.

Ye J. Pediatric mental and behavioral health in the period of quarantine and social distancing with COVID-19. JMIR Pediatr Parent. 2020 Jul 28;3(2):e19867. PMID: 32634105; PMCID: PMC7389340.

Ye, J., Yao, L., Shen, J., Janarthanam, R., & Luo, Y. (2020). Predicting mortality in critically ill patients with diabetes using machine learning and clinical notes. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 20(11), 1-7. PMID: 33380338 PMCID: PMC7772896

Juliet Yonek

Program:  Health Services & Outcomes Research (HSOR)

Bio: Dr. Yonek holds a Bachelor of Science in Animal Physiology from the University of California at San Diego and a Master's of Public Health in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from San Diego State University. Prior to starting her doctoral training, Julie worked as a Research Associate for the Center for Healthcare Studies at Northwestern University, where she served as the project director and leader author on a report describing the health status and availability of resources that promote health within Chicago's 77 communities. The doctoral program in Health Services and Outcomes Research within the Health Sciences Integrated Program enabled Julie to advance these research skills and develop content expertise in adolescent mental health services, a topic of great interest to her. For her qualifying examinations, she conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis on the effectiveness of care delivery models focused on integrating mental and physical health services in pediatric primary care settings. She also wrote a mock R01 grant proposal to evaluate the psychometrics of a recently developed measure of integrated care, and to assess the extent of integrated care implementation in pediatric primary care settings.

Julie is currently completing an NIMH-funded clinical services research fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry at UCSF. Her research focuses on using mobile health technologies to facilitate integration of mental health services in pediatric primary care, and models to accelerate the implementation of evidence-based prevention and treatment interventions in this setting. After the fellowship she plans to stay in academic research and continue her trajectory to becoming an independent investigator in adolescent mental health services research.

Zexian Zeng

Program:  Health and Biomedical Informatics (HBMI)

First/Co-first Peer-Reviewed Publications (* # indicate equal contributions)
1. Fan T, Liao Q, Zhao Y, Dai H, Song S, He T, Wang Z, Huang J, Zeng Z#, Guo H#, Zhang H#,
Qiu X#. Sialylated-IgG in epithelial cancers inhibits anti-tumor function of T cells via Siglec-
7. Cancer Science (2022) 10.1111.

2. Zeng Z*, Gu S*, Yang L, Wong C, Ouardaoui N, Zhang W, Li D, Weirather J, Zhang Y,
Meyer C, Rodig S, Hodi SF#, Brown M#, Liu XS#: Hippo signaling pathway regulates MHCII
expression in melanoma. Cancer Immunology Research (2022) 10.68.2

3. Zeng Z*, Gu S*, Wong C, Li D, Lin Y, Wong C, Ouardaoui N, Zhang W, Brown M, Liu XS: A
joint dimension reduction framework to model immunotherapy response for syngeneic
mouse models. Science Advances (2022) 8 (41) eabm8564

4. Zeng Z*, Li Y*, Li Yi*, Luo Y: Computational methods for spatially resolved transcriptomics
data analysis. Genome Biology (2022) 10.02653

5. Zhou L*, Zeng Z*, Egloff A, Zhang F, Guo F, Cambell K, Du P, … & Liu XS#, Uppaluri R#:
Checkpoint blockade induced CD8+ T cell differentiation in responders in head and neck
cancers. Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (2021) 10(1), e004034.

6. Zeng Z*,#, Wong C*, Lin Y*, Li D, Zhang Y, Gu S, Zhang W, Kim S, Yates K, Freeman G,
Brown M, Manguso R, Liu XS#: TISMO: syngeneic mouse tumor database to model tumor
immunity and immunotherapy response. Nucleic Acids Research (2021) 10.1093

7. Zeng Z*, Fu J*, Cibulskis C, Jhaveri A, Gumbs C, Das B, … & Liu XS#, Wu C#: Cross-site
concordance evaluation of tumor DNA and RNA sequencing platforms for the CIMAC-CIDC
network. Clinical Cancer Research. (2021).20.3251

8. Kumar S*, Zeng Z*, Bagati A*, Tay Re*, Sanz L, Hartono SR, … & Liu XS#, Wucherpfennig
K#: Carm1 inhibition enables immunotherapy of resistant tumors by dual action on tumor and
T-cells. Cancer Discovery (2021). 20-1144

9. Zeng Z, Vo A, Li X, Shidfar Ali, Saldana P, Xuei X, Luo Y, Khan AS, Clare SE: Somatic
genetic aberrations in benign breast disease and the risk of subsequent breast cancer. npj
Breast Cancer. (2020). 6(1),1-11

10. Zeng Z, Amin A, Roy A, Pulliam N, Karavites L, Espino S, Li X, Luo Y, Khan AS:
Preoperative magnetic resonance imaging and oncologic outcomes in premenopausal breast
cancer patients. npj Breast Cancer. (2020). 6(1),1-8.

11. Zeng Z, Fan Z, Xie X, Swartz C, DePriest P, Li J: A two-level iteration approach for modeling
and analysis of rapid response process with multiple deteriorating patients. Flexible Service
and Manufacturing. (2020). 1-37

12. Zeng Z, Mao C, Vo A, Li X, Nugene J, Khan AS, Clare SE, Luo Y: Deep learning for cancer
type classification and driver gene identification. BMC Bioinformatics. (2020) (18)1

13. Zeng Z, Vo A, Mao C, Clare S, Khan S, Luo Y: Cancer classification and pathway
discovering using non-negative matrix factorization. Journal of Biomedical Informatics.
(2019): 103247

14. Zeng Z, Yao L, Roy A, Li X, Espino S, Clare S, Khan S, Luo Y: Identifying breast cancer
distant recurrence from electronic health records using machine learning. Journal of
Healthcare Informatics Research. (2019). 1-17

15. Zeng Z, Zhao Y, Sun M, Vo AH, Starren J, Luo Y. Rich text formatted EHR narratives: a
hidden and ignored trove. Studies in health technology and informatics. (2019), 264:472-
6.

16. Zeng Z, Xie X, Menaker H, Sanford-Ring SG, Li J: Performance evaluation of operating
room schedules in orthopedic surgery. Flexible Services and Manufacturing. (2018), 30(1-
2):198-223.

17. Zeng Z, Deng Y, Li X, Naumann T, Luo Y: Natural language processing for EHR-based
computational phenotyping. IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and
Bioinformatics. (2018):1-1

18. Zeng Z, Espino S, Roy A, Li X, Khan S, Clare S, Jiang X, Neapolitan R, Luo Y: Using natural
language processing and machine learning to identify breast cancer local recurrence. BMC
Bioinformatics. (2018), 19(Suppl 17):498

19. Zeng Z, Roy A, Li X, Espino S, Clare S, Khan S, Luo Y: Using clinical narratives and
structured data to identify distant recurrences in breast cancer. In: 2018 IEEE International
Conference on Healthcare Informatics: (2018). 44-52.

20. Zeng Z, Jiang X, Li X, Wells A, Luo Y, Neapolitan R: Conjugated equine estrogen and
medroxyprogesterone acetate are associated with decreased risk of breast cancer relative to
bioidentical hormone therapy and controls. PLOS One. (2018), 13(5):e0197064

21. Zeng Z, Li X, Espino S, Roy A, Kitsch K, Clare S, Khan S, Luo Y: Contralateral breast cancer
event detection using Nature Language Processing. In: AMIA Annual Symposium
Proceedings: (2017). American Medical Informatics Association: 1885-1892.

22. Zeng Z, Jiang X, Neapolitan R: Discovering causal interactions using Bayesian network
scoring and information gain. BMC bioinformatics, (2016), 17(1):1.

23. Zeng Z, Xie X, Li J, Menaker H, Sanford-Ring SG: An analytical model for performance
evaluation of operating room schedules in orthopedic surgery. In: IEEE Automation
Science and Engineering, (2014). 570-575.

24. Zeng Z, Xie X, Zhong X, Li J, Liegel BA, Sanford-Ring S: Simulation modeling of hospital
discharge process. Proceedings of Industrial and Systems Engineering Research.
(2013). World Scientific: 1383-1390.

Other Peer-Reviewed Publications (* # indicate equal contributions)

1. Yadav S, Virk R, Chung CH, Eduardo MB, VanDerway D, Chen D, Burdett K., Gao H, Zeng,
Z, Ranjan, M, Cottone, G, Khan S, Clare S: Lipid exposure activates gene expression
changes associated with estrogen receptor negative breast cancer. npj Breast Cancer
(2022) pp.1-17

2. Li Y, Liu Q, Zeng Z, Luo Y: Using an Unsupervised Clustering Model to Detect the Early
Spread of SARS-CoV-2 Worldwide. Genes. (2022) 13(4), p.648.

3. Wang X, Tokheim C, Wang B, Gu S, Tang Q, li Y, Traugh N, Zeng Z, Zhang Y, Li Z, Zhang
B, Fu J, …, Brown M#, Liu XS#: In vivo CRISPR screens identify E3 ligase Cop1 as a
modulator of macrophage infiltration and cancer immunotherapy target. Cell (2021) 09.006

4. Gu S*, Zhang W*, Wang X*, Jiang P, Traugh N, Li Z, Meyer C, … & Tewari AK, Zeng Z, … &
Brown M#, Liu XS#: Therapeutically increasing MHC-I expression potentiates immune
checkpoint blockade. Cancer Discovery. (2021) 20.0812

5. Cui Y, Cheng X, Chen Q, Song B, Chiu A, Gao Y, Dawson T, Chao L, Zhang W, Li D, Zeng
Z, Yu J, Li Z, Fei T, Peng S, Li W: CRISP-view: a database of functional genetic screens
spanning multiple phenotypes. Nucleic Acids Research. (2021).56(2)

6. Ranjan M, Lee O, Cottone G, Mirzaei Spike, Zeng Z., ... & Khan, S. A: Progesterone
receptor antagonists reverse stem cell expansion and the paracrine effectors of
progesterone action in the mouse mammary gland. Breast Cancer Research, (2021). 23(1),
1-17.

7. Gu S*, Wang X*, Hu X, Jiang P, Li Z, Traugh N, Bu X, Tang Q, Wang C, Zeng Z, Fu J,
Meyer C, … & Brown M#, Liu XS#: Clonal Tracing reveals diverse patterns of response to
immune checkpoint blockade. Genome Biology. (2020). 10-118

8. Li T, Fu J, Zeng Z, Cohen D, Li J, Chen Q, Li B, Liu XS: TIMER2.0 for Analysis of Tumor-
Infiltrating Immune Cells. Nucleic Acids Research. (2020). 48(1)

9. Lee, O, Sullivan M, Xu Y, Rogers C, Muzzio M, Helenowski I, Shidfar A, Zeng Z, Hansen, N,
etc., Khan S: Selective progesterone receptor modulators in early-stage breast cancer: a
randomized, placebo-controlled phase II window-of-opportunity trial using telapristone
acetate. Clinical Cancer Research. (2020). 26(1), 25-34

10. Chen N, Xie X, Zeng Z, Zhong X, Brenny-Fitzpatrick M, Liegel B, Zheng L, Li J: Improving
discharge process at the University of Wisconsin Hospital: a system-theoretic method. IEEE
Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering. (2019) 7(45)

11. Zimmerman L, Reyfman P, Smith A, Zeng Z, Kho A, Sanchez-pinto L Luo Y: Early prediction
of acute kidney injury following ICU admission. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision
Making. (2019). 19(1),16

12. Mao C, Pan Y, Zeng Z, Yao L, Luo Y: Deep generative classifiers for thoracic disease
diagnosis with chest x-ray images. IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and
Biomedicine. (1209-1214) (2018)

13. Luo Y, Thompson WK, Herr TM, Zeng Z, Berendsen MA, Jonnalagadda SR, Carson MB,
Starren J: Natural language processing for EHR-based pharmacovigilance: a structured
review. Drug Safety. (2017):1-15

Manrui Zhang

Program:  Social Sciences & Health (SSH)

Yinan Zheng

Program:  Health and Biomedical Informatics (HBMI)

Bio:

Dr. Zheng received his Bachelor of Science in Biostatistics from Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China. He started his graduate training in the United States in 2011 at Northwestern University, earning his MS in Epidemiology and Biostatistics in 2012 and his PhD in Biomedical Informatics in 2017. Yinan's research centers around identifying epigenomic biomarkers linking environmental exposures and lifestyle behaviors (air pollution, diet, physical activity, etc.) with various aging-related disease developments (cancer, cardiovascular diseases, dementia, etc.) in large population cohorts and clinical trials. During his doctoral training, Yinan had 28 peer-reviewed publications with over 400 citations and he also invented several advanced and widely used biostatistical and bioinformatic tools for longitudinal and high-dimensional epigenomic data analysis. 

Yinan is continued this research as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Population Epigenetics at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center within the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine's Department of Preventive Medicine. He also serves as a member of the Student Editorial Board for the Journal of American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA). And he is a New Investigators Committee member at the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study (CARDIA). Yinan is currently an Assistant Professor of Cancer Epigenetics within the Department of Preventative Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Lindsay Zimmerman

Program:  Health and Biomedical Informatics (HBMI)