Brian Hazlehurst, PhD
Senior Investigator

Photo of Brian Hazlehurst

Dr. Hazlehurst is a cognitive anthropologist interested in the cognitive, social, and cultural properties of health and illness. He focuses on technology use in health care. His investigations include the study of provider work practices and the everyday tasks of people with chronic illness, as well as the design and development of appropriate information-processing tools for these populations.

Dr. Hazlehurst joined the CHR as a Medical Informatics Investigator in the summer of 2001. Previously, he was chief scientist and Director of Research and Informatics at WebMD, an Internet health care company. At WebMD he led the R&D effort focused on using the Internet to empower chronically ill people. His work included the design and development of information retrieval and knowledge-based systems, for which he received three US patents.

Dr. Hazlehurst received his Ph.D. in Cognitive Science and Anthropology from University of California, San Diego, in 1994. He currently holds an external clinical faculty appointment at the Division of Medical Informatics and Outcomes Research at OHSU.

E-mail: Brian.Hazlehurst@kpchr.org
Current Studies:
    		• Automating Assessment of Asthma Care Quality—ASTHMA CARE QUALITY
    		• Collaborative Research: Supporting Rapid Transfer of Information and Responsibility
    		• Investigating the generalizability of natural language processing of EMR data — Mediclass NLP
    		• Surveillance for Incident Cases of Asthma: Implementing Population-Based Models in HMOs—PASS 2
    		• Vaccine Safety Datalink: Comprehensive Linked Data Collection of Medical Events and Immunization—VSD Adult
    		• Vaccine Safety Datalink: Comprehensive Linked Data Collection of Medical Events and Immunization—VSD Youth

    Recently Completed Studies:
    		• Development of a method to assess obesity and its treatment through analysis of electronic medical records
    		• Genetic counseling for heritable breast/ovarian cancer susceptibility: Feasibility of identifying the cohort through electronic medical records.
    		• Knowledge-Based Information Retrieval System – KBIRS
    		• Making Sure in Cardiac Care: An ethnographic investigation of the patient’s transition from emergency department to ICU
    		• Making Sure: An ethnographic study of health professionals' work practices


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