Penn PORTAL Congratulates Cycle 1 Learning Health System Clinician Leaders and Scientist Investigators

May 28, 2024

Excerpt

Congratulations to the Penn PORTAL Cycle 1 Awardees Drs. Renee Betancourt, Denise Xu, Eric Bressman, and Kyra O’Brien!

Penn PORTAL is thrilled to announce the awardees of our inaugural cycle of Learning Health System (LHS) Clinician Leaders and Scientist Investigators. PORTAL is designed to accelerate progress toward an integrated Learning Health System at Penn and in the wider Philadelphia region. By combining formal didactic training, tailored mentorship, and support from research and operations professionals, PORTAL trains the next generation of health system operations leaders and independently funded LHS investigators.

Read on to learn more about the Penn PORTAL Cycle 1 awardees. For more information about the Penn PORTAL program, click here.

Renee Betancourt, MD

LHS Pathway

Clinician Leader

Dr. Betancourt is the Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health; she is also the Faculty Director of the Health Equity Curriculum at Perelman School of Medicine. With an overarching goal of working to eliminate health inequity, Dr. Betancourt’s LHS quality improvement project will focus on patients with chronic kidney disease at Penn Family Care and is titled, “Streamlining evidence-based chronic kidney disease primary care to improve care and health equity.”

Eric Bressman, MD, MSHP

LHS Pathway

Scientist Investigator

Dr. Bressman is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hospital Medicine and is strongly interested in promoting safe transitions of care after hospital discharge. Dr. Bressman’s LHS research project, titled “Mobility-informed dynamic risk monitoring to guide transitional care support for older adults,” will focus on the building blocks for improving transitioning older adults from the hospital to their home.

Kyra O’Brien, MD

LHS Pathway

Scientist Investigator

Dr. O’Brien is an Assistant Professor of Neurology and an MSHP candidate; her research interests are in improving and transforming care delivery for people with dementia. Starting with Penn Medicine primary care, Dr. O’Brien’s LHS research project is designed to develop an effective and equitable pathway for early detection of cognitive impairment. Her project is titled, “Evaluating strategies to improve cognitive assessments in primary care.”

Denise Xu, MD

LHS Pathway

Clinician Leader

Dr. Xu is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurology, the Assistant Program Director for the Neurology Residency, and Director for the Neurology Sub-Internship at the Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Xu is interested in delirium prevention and in improving sleep quality for patients admitted to a Penn Medicine hospital. Her LHS quality improvement project is titled, “Restoring Sleep for Inpatients.”