Hants Williams

 

Hants Williams, PhD, RN     

Hants Williams, PhD, RN, Clinical Assistant Professor

Applied Health Informatics
School of Health Professions
Health Sciences Center, Level 2, Room 400
Stony Brook, NY 11794-8200

INTERESTS

Applied Health Informatics, Health Data Engineering, Digital Health and Telehealth, Patient-Reported Outcomes, Behavioral Health and Chronic Disease Management.
 
BIOGRAPHY
 
Dr. Hants Williams describes himself as a “full-stack” healthcare professional given his range of skills as a seasoned public health nurse, published researcher, data engineer, health tech founder and mentor. He holds a BA in Behavioral Science and Psychology from San Jose State University, a BSN in Nursing from San Francisco State University, and a PhD in Nursing – Behavioral Science from Duke University. He completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
 
RESEARCH
 
Dr. Williams thrives on working on some of the most challenging data problems facing hospital systems, payers, and digital health companies. His primary goal is to always make it about the patient by improving the delivery of patient care and patient outcomes. His clinical passions include behavioral health and chronic disease management, and his research has focused on behavioral change strategies for chronically ill populations. He pioneered one of the first remote mindfulness-based stress reduction programs tailored for populations in North Carolina living with sickle cell disease, and he has led the development and validation of digital patient-reported outcome measures for chronic disease care delivered by telehealth. He is a recipient of NIH grant funding, as well as venture capital for the commercialization of digital therapeutic technologies. Dr. Williams is active in the health tech startup space and helps growth-stage companies determine acceptability, feasibility, and efficacy of novel care pathways, digital therapeutics, software solutions, and other business innovations that can enhance care delivery and improve patient outcomes.
 
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Full list: Google Scholar | ORCID   

Health Informatics Education and Data Infrastructure

  1. Hants Williams. Bridging the Gap: A Synthetic X12 837i Claims Generator and Parser for Health Information and Informatics Education. Advances in Health Information Science and Practice, 2(1), 2026. doi:10.63116/ahisp-25-003
  2. Lynn Timko-Swaim, Carina Loscalzo, Gina Pontrelli, Shannan Ricoy, Hants Williams, Kindred Shulgin. The Virtual Interview and Physician Assistant/Associate Program Diversity. The Journal of Physician Assistant Education, 37(1):33-39, 2025. doi:10.1097/JPA.0000000000000711
  3. Hants Williams. A Descriptive Analysis of DCAT-Compliant Data Catalogs: Characteristics and Themes Across Federal, State, County, City, and Territorial Entities in the United States. Data Intelligence, 7(3):647-666, 2025. doi:10.3724/2096-7004.di.2024.0006

Digital Patient-Reported Outcomes and Telehealth

  1. Hants Williams, Sarah Steinberg, Kendall Leon, Ryan Vingum, Mengyao Hu, Robin Berzin, Heather Hagg, Patrick Hanaway. Predictive Criterion Validity of the Parsley Symptom Index Against the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System-10 in a Chronic Disease Cohort: Retrospective Cohort Study. JMIR Formative Research, 8:e53316, 2024. doi:10.2196/53316
  2. Hants Williams, Sarah Steinberg, Ryan Vingum, Kendall Leon, Elena Céspedes, Robin Berzin, Heather Hagg. Parsley Health: Feasibility and acceptability of a large-scale holistic telehealth program for chronic disease care. Frontiers in Digital Health, 5, 2023. doi:10.3389/fdgth.2023.1008574
  3. Hants Williams, Sarah Steinberg, Kendall Leon, Catherine O’Shea, Robin Berzin, Heather Hagg. Validity of the Parsley Symptom Index-an Electronic Patient-Reported Outcomes Measure Designed for Telehealth: Prospective Cohort Study. JMIR Formative Research, 6(11):e40063, 2022. doi:10.2196/40063
  4. Hants Williams, Sarah Steinberg, Robin Berzin. The Development of a Digital Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement for Adults With Chronic Disease (The Parsley Symptom Index): Prospective Cohort Study. JMIR Formative Research, 5(6):e29122, 2021. doi:10.2196/29122

Sickle Cell Disease, Pain, and Symptom Management

  1. Leigh Ann Simmons, Hants Williams, Susan Silva, Francis Keefe, Paula Tanabe. Acceptability and Feasibility of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention for Pain Catastrophizing among Persons with Sickle Cell Disease. Pain Management Nursing, 20(3):261-269, 2019. doi:10.1016/j.pmn.2018.10.002
  2. Ameet Patel, Hants Williams, Maria R. Baer, Ann B. Zimrin, Jennie Y. Law. Decreased Bleeding Incidence with Direct Oral Anticoagulants Compared to Vitamin K Antagonist and Low-Molecular-Weight Heparin in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease and Venous Thromboembolism. Acta Haematologica, 142(4):233-238, 2019. doi:10.1159/000500223
  3. Hants Williams, Susan Silva, David Cline, Caroline Freiermuth, Paula Tanabe. Social and Behavioral Factors in Sickle Cell Disease: Employment Predicts Decreased Health Care Utilization. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 29(2):814-829, 2018. doi:10.1353/hpu.2018.0060
  4. Ameet Patel, Hants Williams, Maria R. Baer, Ann Butler Zimrin, Jennie Y Law. Use of Direct Oral Anticoagulants in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease and Venous Thromboembolism Is Associated with a Significant Decrease in Incidence of Bleeding Compared to Vitamin K Antagonists and Low-Molecular-Weight Heparins. Blood, 130(Suppl_1):978-978, 2017. (American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting abstract) doi:10.1182/blood.v130.suppl_1.978.978
  5. Hants Williams, Susan Silva, Leigh Ann Simmons, Paula Tanabe. A telephonic mindfulness-based intervention for persons with sickle cell disease: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials, 18(1), 2017. doi:10.1186/s13063-017-1948-x
  6. Hants Williams. Non-Pharmacological Approaches for Pain Management in Sickle Cell Disease: Development of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention. Doctoral dissertation, Duke University School of Nursing, 2016. (hdl.handle.net/10161/12852)
  7. Hants Williams, Paula Tanabe. Sickle Cell Disease: A Review of Nonpharmacological Approaches for Pain. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 51(2):163-177, 2015. doi:10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2015.10.017

Nursing Practice and Health Policy

  1. Donald E. Bailey, Andrew J. Muir, Judith A. Adams, N. Marcus Thygeson, Hants Williams, Michael P. Cary, Ruth A. Anderson. Clinical Encounters and Treatment Initiation for Chronic Hepatitis C Patients: Applications of Adaptive Leadership Framework for Chronic Illness. SAGE Open, 9(1), 2019. doi:10.1177/2158244018824461
  2. Hants Williams. The Unspoken Importance of the Nurse in the 2016 National Pain Strategy. Pain Management Nursing, 18(3):123-128, 2017. doi:10.1016/j.pmn.2017.04.007
  3. Hants Williams, Leigh Ann Simmons, Paula Tanabe. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in Advanced Nursing Practice. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 33(3):247-259, 2015. doi:10.1177/0898010115569349

Emotion Regulation and Behavioral Science

  1. Jens Blechert, Frank H. Wilhelm, Hants Williams, Barbara R. Braams, Joan Jou, James J. Gross. Reappraisal facilitates extinction in healthy and socially anxious individuals. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 46:141-150, 2014. doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2014.10.001
  2. Jens Blechert, Gal Sheppes, Carolina Di Tella, Hants Williams, James J. Gross. See What You Think. Psychological Science, 23(4):346-353, 2012. doi:10.1177/0956797612438559
 
TEACHING
 

HHA 504: Cloud Computing for Healthcare

HHA 506: Research Design and Methodology for Health Informatics Professionals

HHA 507: Data Science for Healthcare: Python and R