First Annual CIRCE Symposium

On June 30^th, the CIRCE Project and the PAIR Center hosted the first annual CIRCE Symposium!

Directed by Dr. Gary Weissman, the Complete Integrated Record Using Comprehensive Electronic Data (CIRCE) Project is a Penn-led initiative providing researchers and hospital operations leaders access to a clean, up-to-date dataset representing key patient encounter elements. The symposium marked the official, university-wide launch of CIRCE. The hybrid event brought together 75 investigators, clinicians, trainees, data scientists, and health system leaders—in person on Penn’s campus and online—for a symposium exploring CIRCE’s capabilities and applications.

Introduction to CIRCE

After opening remarks from Dr. Weissman, CIRCE Project Manager Nicholas Bishop and Data Scientist Benjamin Schmid provided a summary of CIRCE data and access, followed by additional details on outpatient CIRCE data, presented by the Outpatient Project Lead Dr. Michael Anne Kyle (Assistant Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy). To learn more and access CIRCE, utilize the online access form.

Subsequent presenters shared how CIRCE is situated within the larger Penn Medicine data ecosystem and the overlap of CIRCE with broader national efforts. Director of the Center for Computational Biomedicine Dr. Bogdan Pasaniuc shared about the Penn Medicine Data Commons, followed by Penn Medicine’s Chief Health Information Officer Dr. Srinath Adusumalli, sharing about data and technology solutions to build Penn Medicine’s technology future. Dr. Alexander Ortiz, Lead CLIF Network Liaison for the CIRCE Project, presented on the Common Longitudinal ICU data Format (CLIF) Consortium, a network of 17 institutions across North America taking a new approach to multicenter observational research based on centralized data management. And CIRCE Software Engineer Kevin Long presented on data architecture for mechanical ventilation and cardiopulmonary telemetry.

Scientific Sessions

After the comprehensive overview of the CIRCE Project, the rest of the morning featured presentations on ongoing and emerging research using CIRCE data, including:

• Dr. Kathryn Connell (Assistant Professor of Nursing and Affiliated Faculty at the PAIR Center): “Finding the Signal in the Bedside Noise”
• Drs. Monisha Kumar (Professor of Neurology) and Joshua Levine (Professor of Neurology): “Building the Neuro-ICU of the Future”
• Dr. Ari Friedman (Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine): “Anticipation and Ordering Under Uncertainty”
• Dr. Emily Moin (Pulmonary and Critical Care Senior Fellow): “Waveform data capture substantial variation in tidal volume and other respiratory parameters”
• Dr. Rajeev Alur (Zisman Family Professor, Department of Computer and Information Science): “Trustworthy AI for Clinical Decision Making”
• Dr. Kenrick Cato (Professor of Family and Community Health, Penn Nursing): “Leveraging Real-World EHR Data to Support Clinical Decision Making”

Awards

The Symposium concluded with Dr. Weissman presenting the Penn CIRCE Project Data Science Awards to recognize researchers who have demonstrated a commitment to advancing the rigor of EHR-based science and innovation through leadership, technical contributions, and/or education. Congratulations to the inaugural award winners, Dr. Alexander Ortiz and Dr. Michael Anne Kyle!