Rachel Richesson, M.S., Ph.D., M.P.H.
Dr. Rachel Richesson received her Ph.D. in Health Informatics from the University of Texas in 2003. Her dissertation involved the integration of heterogeneous data from multiple emergency departments. Since 2003, Dr. Richesson has helped to direct strategy for the identification and implementation of data standards for a variety of multi-national multi-site clinical research and epidemiological studies housed within the USF Department of Pediatrics, including the NIH Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network (RDCRN; http://rarediseasesnetowk.epi.usf.edu/) and The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY; http://teddy.epi.usf.edu/) study. Dr. Richesson co-chairs the RDCRN Standards Committee, and interacts with standards bodies and other organizations to ensure that clinical research data representation needs are being addressed. Because of the variety of studies that she consults with, she has exposure to representational and technical requirements across a spectrum of research and delivery settings, application contexts, users, patient age groups, and disease populations. Additionally, several of the projects she supports, particularly those in type1 diabetes, are international in scope. She is an active member of standards development and user groups including IHTSDO (SNOMED CT), LOINC, W3C, HL7 and CDISC.
Additionally, Dr. Richesson is responsible for conducting original research on the quality and usability of various terminological data standards in the context of clinical research. She has present over 15 posters and invited talks on the topic of data standards in clinical research studies and has had several manuscripts published on the topic in high impact peer-reviewed journals. She is interested in new applications and technologies that will increase the efficiency of clinical research data collection and analysis, and that will enable interoperability between clinical research and health care systems and data sources.
Education & Training
| M.P.H. | University of Texas Health Science Center, School of Health Information Sciences, 2000 |
| M.S. | University of Texas Health Science Center, School of Health Information Sciences, 2003 |
| Ph.D. | University of Texas Health Science Center, School of Health Information Sciences, 2003 |
Scholarly Interests
- Data standards
- Controlled terminologies
- Implementation and evaluation of controlled terminologies in clinical and research settings
- Clinical research informatics
- Public health informatics
Selected Publications
Richesson, Andrews J, Krischer J. Use of SNOMED CT to represent clinical research data: A Semantic characterization of data items on case report forms in vasculitis research. J Am Med Informatics Assoc 2006: 13:536-546.
