Elizabeth Shenkman, PhD is the Chair of the Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics and the Co-Director of the University of Florida Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). She also is a health outcomes researcher whose research focuses on: 1) determining which combinations of health care delivery, community, and patient factors influence quality and outcomes of care; and 2) developing and testing corresponding evidence-based strategies to reduce disparities in health outcomes among underserved populations.

Dr. Shenkman has led diverse research initiatives ranging from pragmatic clinical trials to observational studies. She is the PI for the OneFlorida Clinical Data Research Network which is comprised of 10 different health system partners caring for over 15 M Floridians or approximately 60% of the population in the 3rd largest state in the US. The Floridians in this network include vulnerable populations who are rarely or minimally included in traditional clinical trials (e.g., those of lower socioeconomic status, racial and ethnic minorities, children, and older adults). A hallmark of OneFlorida is its centralized Data Trust, which contains linked health care claims, electronic health record, tumor registry, vital statistics, and census data from its health system partners for cohort discovery, study feasibility determination, and to augment primary data collection activities.

Dr. Shenkman is an MPI for the NIH Office of the Director-funded All of Us Precision Medicine cohort initiative in collaboration with the University of Miami, Emory University and Morehouse School of Medicine. In that capacity, she is responsible for overseeing community engagement and recruitment and retention efforts focused on rural and underserved populations in North Florida. Dr. Shenkman also is the PI of a U18 funded by the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality. The project is designed to leverage electronic health record data to better measure quality and outcomes of care for children in Medicaid, particularly those who are receiving antipsychotic medication and hence are at risk for metabolic syndrome.

In her role as CTSI Co-Director, Dr. Shenkman leads the Learning Health System initiative, including interfacing with clinicians, health system leaders, researchers, and patients to align research and clinical operations to systematically improve health outcomes and advance health equity in real world clinical settings using data science and dissemination, implementation, and improvement science (DII) methodologies.

Dr. Shenkman’s research has been funded by PCORI, the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, NIH, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, among others. Her work is published in such journals as Pediatrics, Health Services Research, Clinical Epidemiology, Pediatric Blood and Cancer, and the American Journal of Public Health. Dr. Shenkman is an elected member of the Society for Pediatric Research and the American Pediatric Society.