Professor, Departments of Psychiatry, Pharmacological Sciences and Biomedical Informatics
Medical Editor, Clinical Practice Guidelines, American Psychiatric Association
Diplomate, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (Psychiatry) and American Board of Preventive Medicine (Clinical Informatics)
laura.fochtmann@stonybrookmedicine.edu
I have been involved in research that relates to psychotic disorders and their treatments. This work has developed clinical practice guidelines and used clinical informatics to take information from research literature and then translate it into information useful in clinical practice. In the hospital, I am involved in putting together a computer-based medical record (designing screens useful for tracking data.) The result is helpful for physicians who are caring for patients with psychotic disorders.
I’m also interested in the ways that clinical decision support provides information that may be relevant to the personalized care we give to patients. We define clinical decision support as: ways to provide clinicians with information on the patients they’re caring for, at the time it’s relevant. It’s customized to the situation the patient is presenting with. We look at how you design the system so the clinician will pay attention to the information in the way, and at the time, it’s presented.
I will teach practical applications in clinical practice guidelines, decision support and customization of medical records. I’d like students to walk away with a good understanding of how we design and develop electronic records – so they will be useful for health professionals, and useful for improving quality and safety of care for patients.