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Indiana University School of Medicine
Indiana University School of Medicine
Pediatrics
an icon of people seated around a table with text that reads "Child Health Informatics Research and Development Lab"

Improving care with health information technology

Child Health Informatics Research and Development Lab (CHIRDL) is an independent lab within Children’s Health Services Research of the Department of Pediatrics at IU School of Medicine. The Child Health Informatics Research and Development Lab focuses on the use of health information technology in public health and clinical practice. A team of physician scientists and software engineers develop information systems for use in routine clinical practice to capture and analyze health information to improve the health care of all children in state of Indiana.

CHIRDL Specialties

  • RedCap coordination
  • Qualtrics customization
  • Data extraction and analysis
  • Website development
  • Computer decision support
  • Tableau development

CHIRDL Projects

Children's Health Services Research and Child Health Informatics Research and Development Lab have been nationally recognized for its groundbreaking program, Child Health Improvement through Computer Automation (CHICA) system, a computer based decision support system and electronic medical record for primary care pediatrics that has been shown to improve care of conditions as diverse as maternal depression, asthma, and parental smoking cessation.

The goal of Riley Maternal and Newborn Health (RMNH) is to provide infrastructure and support via three cores: data, patient engagement and implementation. Improving access to clinical and administrative data, identification of populations of interest, and developing standard reports will help in the innovation of programs to decrease infant mortality and morbidity rates.

Increasing access to effective prevention and treatment is key to addressing the opioid epidemic. The Telehealth Recovery and Resilience Program (TRRP) is a promising technology-based stepped mobile and website intervention that facilitates treatment access for adolescents and young adults with problematic substance use.

Hypospadias is a condition that is often treated with surgery while the patient is very young. It can be difficult for parents to make the decision of rather hypospadias surgery is right for their child. This decision aid provides parents with information about the basics of hypospadias surgery, shares stories and findings from families and adult men who have and have not had surgery, and helps parents identify preferences and values related to a surgery decision.

Developed by Dr. Tom Imperiale, the Imperiale Prediction Rule uses multiple variables and a wide range of risk factors to determine a patient’s risk of advanced colorectal neoplasm (ACN), a cancer or precancerous polyp. This has been incorporated into a decision aid that aims to increase uptake of colorectal cancer screening by informing and improving patient and provider discussion and decisions.

CHIRDL Team

Team members include Steven McKee (technical lead, senior software developer), Meena Sheley (senior software developer), Htaw Htoo (database/software developer), Seema Sarala, MS (software developer)  and Ashley Street (web/database developer).