SCOT M. SILVERSTEIN, M.D.
Lansdale, PA 19446
Scot.Silverstein@ischool.drexel.edu
SUMMARY:
MEDICAL INFORMATICS PROFESSIONAL with expertise in healthcare information technology
for clinical care delivery and biomedical R&D. I possess extensive applied experience in
hospitals and the pharmaceutical industry, as well as academic teaching experience.
I completed a formal, NIH-sponsored postdoctoral fellowship in Medical Informatics. I am a
pioneer in recognizing EMR safety issues and expert in identification and remediation of
biomedical IT design and implementation difficulty.
I’ve managed staffs of 50 and budgets of $13 million. I founded and developed the Graduate
Certificate Program in healthcare informatics at Drexel University.
EXPERIENCE:
DREXEL UNIVERSITY, Philadelphia, PA
2004 - present
Faculty, Institute for Healthcare Informatics (IHI), College of Information Science and
Technology, Philadelphia, PA (Adjunct Professor 2004; Assistant Professor and IHI Director,
2005-2007; Adjunct Professor Sept. 2007-).
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Established new Healthcare Informatics Graduate Certificate Program via development of
online and classroom-based courses in healthcare informatics for healthcare
professionals as well as Doctoral and Masters' candidates in Information Systems
(MSIS), Software Engineering (MSSE) and Library Information Science (MSLIS). See
http://www.drexel.com/online-degrees/information-sciences-degrees/cert-hci/index.aspx .
Graduate courses developed and taught:
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Introduction to Healthcare Informatics
Organizational Issues in Healthcare Informatics
Special Topics in Healthcare Informatics: Clinical Information Technology
Special Topics in Healthcare Informatics: Social Informatics
Advanced Issues: Planning and Evaluation Methods in Healthcare Informatics
Member, Faculty Senate Committee on Academic Affairs 2005-7
Maintain internationally-known website on healthcare IT difficulties and causative factors
since 1998, now at http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/medinfo.htm .
Elected Member at Large, Clinical Information Systems Working Group, American
Medical Informatics Association (AMIA, 2006-7 and again, 2007-8).
Invited reviewer for the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA)
and the journal of Applied Clinical Informatics (ACI).
National Institutes of Health (NIH) invited participant in ZRG1 HOP-B Special Emphasis
Panel on Health of the Population, Center for Scientific Review (review and score NIH
research funding applications related to public health).
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SCOT M. SILVERSTEIN, M.D.
MERCK & CO., INC., West Point, PA and Rahway, NJ
2000 – 2003
Director of Scientific Information Resources & The Merck Index, Research Information
Systems Division, Merck Research Labs
Led R&D information support group at West Point, PA and Rahway. NJ sites supporting 6,000
drug discovery scientists worldwide. Managed annual budget of $13 million and staff of 50+
information science specialists, information retrieval experts, IT support, and scientific authors.
$100K grant of authority.
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Identified and substantially remedied a $4 million annual gap in Merck’s portfolio of
informatics tools and resources critical to new drug discovery and development. These
tools included CAS SciFinder, Beilstein CrossFire, STN, Dialog, Current Contents,
Embase, Biosis, International Pharma Abstracts, and several thousand eJournals.
Realized $500,000 savings through negotiation of global contracts for costly, previously
rationed cheminformatics and biomedical informatics applications essential for drug
discovery. Tripled user base of these tools, critical to productivity of modern research
scientists.
Managed design and implementation of state-of-the-art electronic literature portal and
global alerting system under Merck Systems Development Lifecycle (SDLC)
methodologies. Increased scientific literature dissemination tenfold over decade-long
norms, to over one million articles per year by mid 2000’s, filling longstanding and unmet
needs for timely alerting to the latest pharmaceutical scientific developments.
Managed on-time, successful authoring and release of The Merck Index of Chemicals,
Drugs, and Biologicals, 13th edition. Authoritative, world-renowned encyclopedia of
Medicinal Chemistry, dating to 1889, sold 150,000 copies worldwide.
Conceived and directed development and implementation of web-based training in
selective biomedical information retrieval. Successfully trained over 2,000 scientists
worldwide.
COMDISCO, INC., Rosemont, IL
Director of Clinical Information Technology, Eastern U.S.
1999 – 2000
Led Healthcare IT (HIT) business development activities in Fortune 500 IT Services company.
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Informatics leader of new business development team for hospital electronic medical
records (EMR) infrastructure including enterprise storage devices and disaster recovery
strategy.
Supported ongoing sales activities by traveling to customer sites and providing education
on process changes essential for successful adoption of HIT in clinical settings.
CHRISTIANA CARE HEALTH SYSTEM, Wilmington, DE
Chief Medical Informatics Officer
1996 – 1998
Provided clinical leadership of electronic medical records (EMR) and specialized clinical systems
implementations in 1,000+ bed multi-hospital health system. Contributed substantially to highest
rating from the national hospital accreditation agency JCAHO and to Christiana Care’s reputation
for clinical IT excellence.
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Clinical manager of highly successful $5M Electronic Medical Record and clinical data
repository implementations. Managed staff of twenty and implementation and training
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SCOT M. SILVERSTEIN, M.D.
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budgets in matrixed environment. Utilized products from Medicalogic/GE, Cerner, and
HBOC/McKesson. Substantial improvements attained in health outcomes, preventive
care delivery and medical error prevention.
Remediated a contentious, failed $500K Invasive Cardiology information system project
in regional facility performing over 6,000 cardiac procedures per year (providing ~ 25% of
organization’s revenue) through intensive workflow and data remodeling, personnel
changes, and application of state-of-the-art medical informatics science. Success
enabled $1M annual cost reduction while enhancing quality improvement (QI), outcomes
assessment, and accreditation via participation in major national registries including the
American College of Cardiology (ACC) and Society for Thoracic Surgery (STS).
Chaired multidisciplinary committee of clinical, legal, operations, and IT personnel that
developed Electronic Information Security Policy in compliance with HIPAA Act of 1996.
As a consultant to the Delaware Health Care Commission, authored key foundational
plan for development of the Delaware Health information Network (DHIN) for
improvement of state healthcare resource allocation and reduction of administrative
costs.
1992 – 1996
YALE UNIVERSITY, New Haven, Connecticut
Faculty, Yale Center for Medical Informatics, School of Medicine (1994-1996)
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Informatics leader in a pioneering international collaboration in clinical genetics in the
Middle East. Designed and developed a database system, field electronic data capture
(EDC) tool and analytical application for capture and integration of clinical, genetic and
genealogical information in Saudi Arabian genetics clinics. Improved understanding of
intermarriage-related birth defects common in the Middle East.
An advanced user interaction design was extremely well received, including a unique
information capture system of my invention (Virtual Pedigree Template™) for real-time
collection of complex familial relationships typical in tribal cultures, essential in genetics.
Supported electronic medical records (EMR) and computerized physician order entry
(CPOE) implementation and customization, and clinical decision support initiatives in
acute-care and ICU settings at Yale-New Haven Medical Center.
Instructor, postdoctoral seminar in Medical Informatics. Taught postdoctoral fellows
utilizing the text “Medical Informatics: Computer Applications in Health Care” by Shortliffe
and readings I selected from the medical informatics literature.
NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, Yale Center for Medical Informatics (1992-1994)
Conducted research in innovative use of IT in clinical medicine, molecular biology and other
areas of biomedicine. Participated in research projects including:
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Unified Medical Language System (UMLS). Acquired experience in development of
biomedical ontologies and in data modeling as part of UMLS-related research.
Yale IAIMS (Integrated Advanced Information Management Systems) Project. Assisted in
National Library of Medicine project to develop an integrated approach to clinical
information systems within Yale New Haven Medical Center.
Clinical Computing Within Yale New Haven Medical Center.
Participated in
implementation of a hospital-wide computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system.
Biomedical Information Retrieval. Developed an information sources mapping tool (ISM)
to provide active assistance in determining which of many information resources on the
network are relevant to specific research questions. Also assisted in building a "network
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SCOT M. SILVERSTEIN, M.D.
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menu" that helped the user connect easily to network-based information resources
located anywhere in the world, targeted to specific scientific needs.
Internet-Based Support of Research Collaboration in the Human Genome Project.
Supported gene-mapping collaborations involving laboratories at Yale and at several
other institutions.
Clinical Applications of Mobile Computing Technologies. Helped develop PDA-based
applications to provide real-time decision support and workflow support for clinicians in
various specialties.
JEANES HEALTHCARE SYSTEM, Philadelphia, PA
Director, Department of Occupational and Industrial Medicine
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1990 - 1991
Directed Occupational and Industrial Medicine (OEM) department for a 300 bed
Philadelphia hospital.
Managed staff of 10, including physicians, physician’s assistant (PA), physical therapy and
administrative personnel in supporting client employers’ medical needs.
Obtained and managed contracts with the City of Philadelphia for care of employees
injured on duty (police, fire, streets, etc.), and with local companies as well.
Also managed a satellite urgent care and occupational medicine facility.
Preferred provider of IME’s (independent medical exams) for the city of Philadelphia in
complex Worker’s Compensation cases.
SOUTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY, Phila., PA 1988 - 1990
Staff physician and Manager, Medical Programs
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Managed Workers’ Compensation and Federal Railroad Administration injury/disability
cases for the third largest (at the time) municipal transit authority in the U.S., in
collaboration with line management, case managers, authority attorneys and labor union
representatives.
Gave depositions and attended arbitration hearings as needed.
Managed preventive health programs including asbestos, PCB, hearing conservation as
well as fitness for duty determinations for safety sensitive positions.
Medical Review Officer for the Authority’s random drug testing program under DOT and
NIDA guidelines. Liaison to employee assistance program for employees under stress
from accidents, fatalities, and other causes.
EDUCATION:
MEDICAL RESIDENCY
Internal Medicine: Hospital of the Medical College of Pennsylvania and Abington Memorial
Hospital, Philadelphia, PA.
COMBINED SEVEN YEAR PREMEDICAL/MEDICAL PROGRAM
Boston University and Boston Univ. School of Medicine
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M.D. degree
B.A. in Biomedical Sciences with minor in Computer Science
Advanced courses in scientific computer programming.
Formal medical school clerkship in Biomedical Engineering, Boston Medical Center.
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SCOT M. SILVERSTEIN, M.D.
MISCELLANEOUS - Practical skills in applied technology
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Electronics and telecommunications expertise. FCC licensee by government
examination, 1984, amateur Extra class (highest license class achievable). Licensed as
KU3E. Facilitates conversing with medical and technical professionals with equal ease.
Publications:
Book:
Associate Editor. H.I.T. or Miss: Lessons Learned from Health Information Technology
Implementations. American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), 2010
Papers:
Silverstein S, Miller P, Cullen M. An Information Sources Map for Occupational and
Environmental Medicine: Guidance to Network-Based Information Through Domain-Specific
Indexing. Proceedings of the 17th Annual Symposium for Computer Applications in Medical Care.
Washington, D.C.: IEEE Computer Society Press, 1993.
Silverstein S, Weissman S, Gruen J, Nadkarni P, Miller P. A Database and Relationship
Visualization Tool for cDNA Hybridization Selection Data. Proceedings, Genome Mapping &
Sequencing, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, 1994.
Kannry J, Wright L, Shifman M, Silverstein S, Miller P. Portability Issues for a Structured Clinical
Vocabulary: Mapping from Yale to the Columbia Medical Entities Dictionary. Journal of the
American Medical Informatics Association, 3:66-78, 1996.
Cheung K, Nadkarni P, Kidd J, Pakstis A, Silverstein S, Miller P, Kidd K. A Pilot Database for the
Human Genome Diversity Project. Proceedings, Genome Mapping & Sequencing, Cold Spring
Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, 1995.
Cheung K, Nadkarni P, Silverstein S, Kidd J, Pakstis A, Miller P, Kidd K. PhenoDB: An Integrated
Client/Server Database for Linkage and Population Genetics. Computers and Biomedical
Research, August 1996, 29(4):327-37.
Miller P, Shiffman R, Silverstein S, Frawley S, Nadkarni P. Medical Informatics Training at Yale
University School of Medicine. Yearbook of Medical Informatics, International Medical Informatics
Association (IMIA), 1996.
Chen Y, Silverstein S, Weber R. A Lessons Learned System in Healthcare IT Implementation.
Proceedings of the American Medical Informatics Association, 2007.
McCain K, Silverstein S. Using Historiographic Mapping to Trace Persistent. Highly Visible
Research Themes in Medical Informatics. Proceedings of the 11th International Conference of
the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics, 2007
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SCOT M. SILVERSTEIN, M.D.
Presentations:
April 1994
“A database and entity relationship visualization tool for cDNA hybridization selection data”, S.
Silverstein, S. Weissman, J. Gruen, P. Nadkarni, P. Miller.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Genome Mapping Conference
Cold Spring Harbor, NY
May 1994
“A database and entity relationship visualization tool for cDNA hybridization selection data”
Stanford University
CAMIS Symposium
Palo Alto, Calif.
Dec. 1995
SAYGR: A Database to Support International Clinical Genetics and Genomics Collaboration
King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre
Riyadh
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Nov. 1996
Medical Informatics Education Day
Medical Center of Delaware (now Christiana Care Health System)
Newark, DE
Nov. 9, 1999
Informatics in the Real World: Applied Informatics in the Nonacademic Setting (panel member)
American Medical Informatics Association Annual Symposium
Washington, D.C.
Sep. 29, 1999
Medical Informatics: the Gateway to Advanced Clinical Computing. Abington
Memorial Hospital, Abington, PA, Department of Medicine Grand Rounds.
Feb. 20, 1999
The Benefits and Challenges of the Electronic Medical Record
American College of Physicians/American Society of Internal Medicine Scientific Meeting
DE chapter
Nov. 17, 1998
A Challenge for Y2K and Beyond: Improving Healthcare through Integrated Information
Capitol Hill Conference on Medical Freedom and Integrated Patient Care
Ethics and Public Policy Center
Washington, D.C.
Sept. 29, 2005
iSchool Consortium
iConference 2005
Penn State University
Presented “The iSchools and Health Information Technology”
Feb. 28, 2006
iSchool Consortium
Dean's meeting, Washington, D.C.
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SCOT M. SILVERSTEIN, M.D.
Presented “A Grand Challenge in Medical Informatics:
Pharmaceutical Post-Marketing
Surveillance as a Pilot Environment Towards Broad National Health Data Initiatives”
March 14, 2006
Invited presentation, “Medical Informatics Perspectives on Pharma eClinical: Leveraging EMR
Expertise”
eClinical Trials: Managing implementation of EDC and other eClinical Processes,
Hilton Philadelphia. Sponsored by Center for Business Intelligence.
April 20, 2006
Invited presentation "Medical Informatics perspectives on Electronic Medical Records"
Amer. Records Management Association (ARMA)
Liberty Bell chapter, Philadelphia, PA.
May 19, 2006
Invited visiting professor, Scottsdale Health System, Arizona
Presentation: “Medical Informatics: Friend or Foe”
Nov. 8, 2006
Merck Research Labs
Clinical Risk Management & Safety Surveillance
Invited presentation, “Medical Informatics Perspectives on Leveraging the EMR in Pharma”
Nov. 2006
AMIA 2006 Annual Meeting
Poster presentation
Access Patterns to Website on Health IT Failure
Jan 12, 2007
Fox Chase Cancer Center
Philadelphia, PA
Invited presentation, “Novel human-computer interaction for capture and management of
genealogical data: the Saudi Arabia-Yale Genetics Research Database”
March 2007
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)
“Introduction to Healthcare Informatics”
Invited kickoff presentation, Center for Biomedical Informatics
June 19, 2007
American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA)
Legal EHR Conference: Ensuring Health Record Integrity
“Do Not Fold, Spindle, or Modify: Fidelity in EHR Output Reports”
Sept. 27, 2007
Beaumont Hospital
Royal Oaks, MI
Invited presentation, Healthcare IT in the 21st Century: A Medical Informatics Vision
Dec. 10, 2007
IEEE Medical Technology Policy Committee
Washington, DC
Invited presentation - To The Moon In A Hot Air Balloon: Why Is Clinical IT Difficult?
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SCOT M. SILVERSTEIN, M.D.
Dec. 17, 2007
The Cancer Institute of New Jersey
Invited Presentation - SAYGR: A Database With Novel Human Computer Interaction Supporting
International Clinical Genetics Collaboration
May 21, 2009
Avoiding the Next Vioxx: Medical Informatics Perspectives on Leveraging Electronic Medical
Records for Earlier Detection of Drug Adverse Events
University of Texas Health Sciences Center – San Antonio
Department of Biostatistics
San Antonio, TX
Oct. 1, 2009
Health IT Promises and Threats
American Association of Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) Annual Meeting
Nashville, TN
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