Biography

Dr. Dixon is not a traditional epidemiologist. Originally a computer scientist, Dr. Dixon is a public health Informatician who utilizes computer and information science approaches to study, design, and improve data and information systems that support the practice of epidemiology in public health departments. He joined the IU Fairbanks School of Public Health (FSPH) in 2014 shortly after it was formed shifting his role from being a public health researcher in the IU School of Informatics and Computing to that of an informatics researcher in a school of public health. In addition to his work at FSPH, Dr. Dixon also hold appointments at the Regenstrief Institute and the Department of Veterans Affairs. In those environments, he applies informatics methods to the improvement of population health in the context of care delivery.

Dr. Dixon has published over 60 peer-reviewed publications as well as multiple book chapters. He is further the editor of two books: Clinical Informatics Study Guide: Text and Review (2016) by Springer and Health Information Exchange: Navigating and Managing a Network of Health Information Systems (2016) by Elsevier. The Health Information Exchange book received the 2016 Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Book of the Year Award. Dr. Dixon was named to the Forty Under 40 list in 2014 by the Indianapolis Business Journal and the Outstanding Investigator for 2014 by the Regenstrief Institute’s Center for Biomedical Informatics. He was named a Fellow to HIMSS in 2012.

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)

Selected Publications

  • Dixon BE, Whipple EC, Lajiness J, Murray M. Three decades of utilizing an integrated information infrastructure for outcomes research: A systematic review. Health Information and Libraries Journal. 2016 Mar;33(1):7-32. doi: 10.1111/hir.12127
  • Dixon BE, Alzeer A, Phillips EO, Marrero DG. Integration of provider, pharmacy and patient-reported data to improve medication adherence for type 2 diabetes: A controlled before-after pilot study. JMIR Medical Informatics. 2016 Feb 8;4(1):e4. doi: 10.2196/medinform.4739
  • Dixon BE, McFarlane T, Gibson PJ, Dearth S, Grannis SJ. Characterizing informatics roles and needs of public health workers: Results from the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice. 2015;21(suppl 6):S130–S140. doi: 10.1097/PHH.0000000000000304
  • Dixon BE, Pina J, Kharrazi H, Gharghabi F, Richards J. What’s past is prologue: A scoping review of recent public and global health informatics literature. Online Journal of Public Health Informatics. 2015;7(2):e216. doi: 10.5210/ojphi.v6i3.5931
  • Dixon BE, Haggstrom DA, Weiner M. Implications for informatics given expanding access to care for Veterans and other populations. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. 2015;22(4):917-20. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocv019
  • Dixon BE, Kharrazi H, Lehmann HP. Public Health and Epidemiology Informatics: Recent Research and Trends in the United States. Yearbook of Medical Informatics. 2015 Aug 13;10(1):199-206. doi: 10.15265/IY-2015-012
  • Gibson CG, Dixon BE, Abrams KA. Convergent evolution of health information management and health informatics: A scoping review and perspective on the future of information professionals in health care. Applied Clinical Informatics. 2015; 6(1):163-184.
  • Dixon BE, Simonaitis L, Perkins SM, Wright A, Middleton B. Measuring agreement between decision support reminders: the cloud vs. the local expert. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making. 2014 Apr 10;14(1):31.
  • Dixon BE, Vreeman DJ, Grannis SJ. The long road to semantic interoperability in support of public health: Experiences from two states. Journal of Biomedical Informatics. 2014 Jun;49:3-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jbi.2014.03.011
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