Richard M. Fairbanks
School of Public Health

Phone:

(317) 278-3072

Email:

bedixon@regenstrief.org

Departments:

Epidemiology

Global Health

Additional Appointments:

Research Scientist, Center for Biomedical Informatics, Regenstrief Institute

Research Scientist, IU Center for Health Services and Outcomes Research

Health Research Scientist, Center for Health Information and Communication, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Health Services Research and Development (HSR&D) Service, Roudebush VA Medical Center

Adjunct Associate Professor in Health Informatics, Department of BioHealth Informatics, Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing

Faculty Fellow, Center for Health Policy, FSPH

Degrees:

MPA, Public Management, Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs

PhD, Health Informatics, Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing

Resume/CV

Biography

Dr. Dixon currently serves as the Director of Public Health Informatics and an Associate Professor at the Indiana University (IU) Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health as well as the Regenstrief Institute’s Center for Biomedical Informatics. In addition, Dr. Dixon serves as an Investigator in Residence at the Center on Health Information and Communication, which is part of the Health Services Research & Development Service at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Dr. Dixon’s research focuses on applying informatics methods and tools to improve population health in clinical as well as public health organizations. His work leverages clinical and administrative data in electronic health records to measure population health, better understand the determinants of health, examine information flow in the health system, and improve outcomes in individuals and populations. Dr. Dixon teaches informatics courses to future clinical as well as public health leaders, and he regularly mentors junior informatics professionals.

Dr. Dixon has published over 95 peer-reviewed publications in highly respected journals, including Pediatrics, Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, American Journal of Preventative Medicine, BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, Vaccine, Public Health Reports, Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, and Artificial Intelligence in Medicine. He has further published 25 chapters in books, including Population Health Informatics: Driving Evidence-Based Solutions into Practice (2017) as well as Clinical Decision Support: The Road to Broad Adoption (2014).

He is further the editor of three highly acclaimed books: Clinical Informatics Study Guide: Text and Review (2016), Health Information Exchange: Navigating and Managing a Network of Health Information Systems (2016), and Public Health Informatics and Information Systems, 3^rd Edition (2020). The HIE book received the Book of the Year award from the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) in 2017. In 2018, Dr. Dixon was named a Research Frontiers Trailblazer by IUPUI, and he was elected to Fellowship within the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI). Previously, Dr. Dixon was recognized as a Forty Under 40 recipient by the Indianapolis Business Journal and Outstanding Investigator by the Regenstrief Institute’s Center for Biomedical Informatics. He is also a Fellow of the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS).

Before joining the faculty at Indiana University, Dr. Dixon managed research and development projects for Regenstrief and the Indiana Health Information Exchange.  Dr. Dixon also developed health information applications and systems, including tools supporting the standard clinical vocabulary LOINC®, technology supporting the automated reporting of notifiable conditions to public health agencies, and tools for querying large clinical data repositories.  Dr. Dixon earned his Bachelor of Arts in computer science from DePauw University; his Master of Public Affairs from Indiana University; and his Doctor of Philosophy in Health Informatics from Indiana University.

Research Interests

Dr. Dixon’s research focuses on applying informatics methods and tools to improve population health in clinical as well as public health organizations. His work leverages clinical and administrative data in electronic health records to improve population outcomes, better understand threats to public health as well as care delivery processes, examine public health business processes, and make population surveillance more efficient. Dr. Dixon’s research also involves the design, implementation, and evaluation of information infrastructures as well as data quality in support of continuous use of electronic data.

Courses Taught

As a faculty member in IU’s Fairbanks School of Public Health, Dr. Dixon teaches courses on informatics as well as health information exchange to future leaders in clinical and public health.

Dr. Dixon teaches the following courses:

• Foundations of Public Health Informatics (PBHL-E635)
• Health Information Exchange for Population Health (PBHL-E645)
• Leadership Challenges in Global Health Informatics (PBHL-H763)

Selected Publications

• Dixon BE, Zhang Z, Arno JN, Revere D, Joseph Gibson P, Grannis SJ. Improving Notifiable Disease Case Reporting Through Electronic Information Exchange–Facilitated Decision Support: A Controlled Before-and-After Trial. Public Health Reports. 2020;135(3):401-10. doi: 10.1177/0033354920914318
  
  
• Dixon BE, Wen C, French T, Williams JL, Duke JD, Grannis SJ. Extending an open-source tool to measure data quality: case report on Observational Health Data Science and Informatics (OHDSI). BMJ Health & Care Informatics. 2020;27(1):e100054. doi: 10.1136/bmjhci-2019-100054
  
  
• Dixon BE, Schwartzkopf AL, Guerrero VM, May J, Koufacos NS, Bean AM et al. Regional data exchange to improve care for veterans after non-VA hospitalization: a randomized controlled trial. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making. 2019;19(1):125. doi:10.1186/s12911-019-0849-1
  
  
• McFarlane T, Dixon BE, Grannis SJ, Gibson PJ. Characterizing informatics workers and workforce needs: An update from the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice. 2019;25 Suppl 2, Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey 2017:S67-s77. doi: 10.1097/phh.0000000000000918
  
  
• Dixon BE, Zimet G, Xiao S, Tu W, Lindsay B, Church AK, Downs SM. An educational intervention to improve HPV vaccination: A cluster randomized trial. Pediatrics. 2019 Jan;143(1). pii: e20181457 doi: 10.1542/peds.2018-1457
  
  
• Dixon BE, Embi PJ, Haggstrom DA. Information technologies that facilitate care coordination: provider and patient perspectives. Translational Behavioral Medicine. 2018;8(3):522-5. doi: 10.1093/tbm/ibx086
  
  
• Dixon BE, Zhang Z, Lai PTS, Kirbiyik U, Williams J, Hills R, et al. Completeness and timeliness of notifiable disease reporting: a comparison of laboratory and provider reports submitted to a large county health department. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making. 2017;17(1):87. doi: 10.1186/s12911-017-0491-8 
  
  
• Dixon BE, Tao G, Wang J, Tu W, Hoover S, Zhang Z, Batteiger TA, Arno JN. An Integrated Surveillance System to Examine Testing, Services, and Outcomes for Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics. 2017;245:361-365. doi: 10.3233/978-1-61499-830-3-361