Pfaff Announced as Director of the Program on Health and Clinical Informatics

Emily Pfaff, PhD, MS, has been named director of the Program on Health and Clinical Informatics (PHCI) as of Wednesday, July 1. She succeeds the inaugural PHCI Director, Dr. Sam Cykert.

Pfaff received her MS in Information Science and PhD in Clinical Informatics from UNC Chapel Hill and is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine. She has served as the Administrative Director and then co-Director of Informatics and Data Science for the NC TraCS Institute since 2014 and as PHCI Associate Director since 2021. "Through her sustained involvement in the CTSA informatics community, she has developed deep insight into best practices surrounding the use and sharing of EHR data within and across institutions. Emily is an invaluable member of our community and her expertise and leadership helped to make UNC a key leader nationally in the area of clinical informatics", said Nick Shaheen, Director of NC TraCS and SOM Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Research.

Her primary expertise and research interests focus on electronic health record (EHR) data, computable phenotyping, and clinical data analytics in support of translational research. She has served as MPI on three large, data-centric initiatives, including the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C), the NIH RECOVER Initiative, and the NIH All of Us Center for Linkage and Acquisition of Data. In the past year, she has also led the effort, as part of the SOM and UNC Health Strategic Plans, to develop the SHIRE (Secure Health Informatics Research Environment), a secure cloud-based platform for clinical data analysis. "Emily has been a transformative leader for our research community, bringing vision, collaboration, and a deep commitment to improving health through data-driven science. Her new role will further accelerate our efforts to harness data to improve patient care and scientific discovery," said Blossom Damania, PhD, Vice Dean for Research, UNC School of Medicine.

As PHCI director, Pfaff will continue to lead the Program's efforts to create informatics infrastructure and tools that enhance clinical informatics research, support best practices, and use informatics to support clinical care and improve health outcomes. She will partner closely with informatics faculty, scholars, and researchers across the SOM, in the School of Data and Information Sciences, Gillings School of Global Public Health, School of Nursing, School of Dentistry, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, Department of Computer Science, and Health Sciences Library.

Please join us in congratulating Pfaff on her new leadership role.