Dean Sittig, PhD

I am a Professor Emeritus in the McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, TX and President of the Informatics Review LLC. I received my PhD in Medical Informatics from the University of Utah. My research and consulting interests and expertise center on design, development, implementation, and evaluation of all aspects of clinical information and communication systems with a special emphasis on electronic health records and clinical decision support. I have spent my career working to understand both the factors that lead to success, as well as, the unintended consequences associated with use of health information technology. Most recently I have focused on developing guidelines for the safe and effective implementation and use of electronic health records (EHRs) that are based on an 8-dimension socio-technical model that I developed with Hardeep Singh. This work led to the development of the SAFER guides that were designed to help healthcare organizations conduct proactive risk assessments of their EHRs. I occasionally serve as an expert witness in legal matters that involve the analysis of EHRs.