May 31, 2023

HILS Student Kudos

The Department of Learning Health Sciences (DLHS) is celebrating several students in its Health Infrastructures and Learning Systems (HILS) graduate programs. It’s been a busy 2022-2023 year with several HILS students receiving numerous honors and awards and presenting abstracts and/or posters at various conferences nationally and internationally.

DLHS Vice Chair and Director of the HILS program, Gretchen Piatt, PhD, MPH expressed pride in the students’ achievements. “I want to congratulate…our students who were recipients of honors and funding awards, and our students who were invited to present their own, innovative research at several meetings and conferences this past academic year. We are so proud of all your accomplishments and look forward to what the future holds for each of you,” Piatt said.

HILS Student Affairs Program Manager, Beth Hill, MA, is equally proud of all the hard work the students are putting in. “HILS students are doing amazing things. They are an incredible group to work with and it's a privilege to celebrate their successes and achievements,” Hill said.

DLHS faculty and staff joins Dr. Piatt and Ms. Hill in extending kudos to the HILS students.

Winter 2023

Honors and Awards
  • Rackham Travel Grants: Philip Barrison, John O'Malley, Jennylee Swallow
  • 2022 NCHS Academy Health Data Visualization Challenge Winners: Marisa Conte, John O'Malley, and Jennylee Swallow
  • Rackham Anna Olcott Smith Award: Melissa Zochowski
  • Planning Committee, 2023 SCOR Annual Social Justice Symposium: Azia Harris-Martin
  • 2023 Anti-Racism Graduate Research Grant (National Center for Institutional Diversity/ Rackham / Ford School Center for Racial Justice): Cassandra Turner
Conference Presentations/Posters
  • Philip Barrison, PhD student participated on the panels "Enablers, Challenges, and Rationale for Supporting Knowledge Agility at Scale" and "Building for Knowledge Agility: Knowledge Capture, Packaging, Distribution, and Use at Scale" at the Accelerate Learning Health Systems with BPM+ Health in March 2023.
  • John O'Malley, PhD student co-presented the workshop "Building Research Infrastructure-Supporting Research to Advance Evidence-based Clinical and Policy Innovation" at the Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors (ASTDD) and American Association of Public Health Dentistry (AAPHD) National Oral Health Conference in April 2023.

Fall 2022

Honors and Awards
  • Rackham Travel Grants: Azia Harris-Martin, Victor Rentes, Yidan Coe, Anjana Renji, Kayla Marcotte
  • HILS Travel Grants: Yidan Coe, Philip Barrison, Victor Rentes
Conference Presentations/Posters
  • Victor Rentes, PhD Candidate presented the poster "A Framework for Value Enhancement through Knowledge Generation and Implementation: Development of a Learning Health System (LHS) Maturity Model – University of Michigan Medical School" at the ICHOM Conference 2022 in November 2022.
  • Victor Rentes, PhD Candidate presented the poster "Fostering dissemination and implementation (d&i) using the learning health system (lhs) framework: development of a learning cycle capability grid" at the 15th Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation in December 2022.
  • Azia Harris-Martin, PhD student gave a presentation entitled "Reimagining American Health Care: Learning Health Systems & Health Equity" at the NAHSE 37th Annual Educational Conference in October 2022.
  • Yidan Cao, PhD Candidate presented the poster "Precision feedback in anesthesia care: understanding provider information needs for intervention content and delivery" at the 15th Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation in December 2022.
  • Anjana Deep Renji, PhD Candidate presented the poster "A method for the human-centered design of precision feedback messages" at the 15th Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation in December 2022.
  • Marisa Conte, PhD Candidate gave two presentations at the 1st International Conference of FAIR Digital Objects in October 2022 entitled "Computable phenotypes for cohort identification: core content for a new class of FAIR digital objects" and "Linked metadata for FAIR digital objects containing computable knowledge"
  • Philip Barrison, PhD student gave the presentation "The Knowledge Grid: Using FAIR principles to package BPM+ and Computable Biomedical Knowledge" at the BPM+ Health Workshop in December 2022.

May-August 2022

August 2022 Graduates
  • Emily Kobernik, PhD
  • Rama Mwenesi, PhD
  • Louis Haddad, MS
  • Ambrielle Stoltz-Bango, MS
  • Angelina Adam, MS HILS Online
  • Megan Adam, MS HILS Online
  • Enger Fernandez-Nunez, MS HILS Online
  • Grace Hohn, MS HILS Online
  • Note: Elliott Brannon also finished the PhD program but will receive his PhD with his MD in 2025
The following PhD Students achieved Candidacy effective August 29, 2022.
  • Yidan (Eden) Cao
  • Marisa Conte
  • Jennylee Swallow
  • Melissa Zochowski
Honors and Awards
  • Cassie Turner, PhD Student, was a semi-finalist for the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Health Policy Research Scholars.
  • Melissa Zochowski, PhD Student, was named a Margaret E. Gnegy Scholar by CEW+
Conference Presentations/Posters
  • Roshan Paudel, PhD Candidate, presented two posters - "Patient Reported Sexual and Urinary Functional Outcomes in Men with Intermediate Risk Prostate Cancer Undergoing Radical Prostatectomy: Analysis of the MUSIC Registry" and "The Use and Outcomes of Men with NCCN Favorable Intermediate Risk Prostate Cancer Managed with Active Surveillance" at the 2022 American Urological Association Annual Meeting in May 2022.
  • Elliott Brannon, PhD Candidate, gave the talk "Health Data Workers: A Hidden and Emerging Workforce" at the National Conference for Physician-Scholars in the Social Sciences and Humanities in May 2022.
  • Kayla Marcotte, PhD Student, participated in the ASE Podium Session "Examining the Quality of Operative Feedback at Scale" and the AFDS Paper Session "Opportunities to increase workplace feedback: A multi-institutional examination" at the Association for Surgical Education Annual Meeting 2022 in May 2022.
  • Anthony Provenzano, PhD Candidate presented the poster "Healthcare System Capacity for Cross-Sector Care: A Mixed Method Study of Federally Qualified Health Centers’ Clinical-Community Linkages and Service Partnerships in Michigan" at the Academy Health 2022 Annual Research Meeting in June 2022.
Special mention
  • Azia Harris-Martin, PhD Student, was the emcee for the Rackham Graduate School Fall Welcome on August 26, 2022.