INVESTIGATORS
Michael J. Ward, MD, PhD, MBA
Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Biomedical Informatics
Research Director, Division of Emergency Medicine Research
Vice Chair for Research
Michael Ward, MD, PhD, MBA is a board-certified emergency physician, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and a staff emergency physician at the VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, Nashville. He earned his PhD in operations management at the University of Cincinnati after completing a research fellowship in operations research. His research is funded by the NIH and the Department of Veterans Affairs focusing on care transitions, feedback systems, and implementation of telehealth in emergency care settings.
Wesley H. Self, MD, MPH
Senior Vice President for Clinical Research
VUMC Director, VICTR
PI, Clinical & Translational Science Award
Professor of Emergency Medicine
Dr. Self is the Senior Vice President for Clinical Research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine. He is a practicing emergency physician and clinical researcher focused on investigating early interventions in sepsis and related infections as well as innovative clinical trial design. He is a national leader in coordinating large, complex, multicenter clinical research programs. As leader of multicenter research programs, he focuses on team science, protocol development, regulatory oversight, site recruitment, development of standard operating procedures, creation and deployment of electronic data collection tools, data management, and data analysis. His prior work includes serving as a leader for multiple research programs, including the CDC-funded IVY Network (JAMA 2020, JAMA 2021), NIAID-funded ACTIV-3 program (NEJM 2021), the NHLBI-funded PETAL Network (NEJM 2019, JAMA 2020), the PCORI-funded CODA program (NEJM 2020, NEJM 2021), the Pragmatic Critical Care Research Group (NEJM 2019), the CDC-funded EPIC program (NEJM 2015), the NHLBI ACTIV-4 Host Tissue COVID Clinical Trials Platform, and the NCATS-funded Convalescent Plasma COVID clinical trial. His research has led to multiple practice changing findings, including the superiority of balanced crystalloid solutions over saline for intravenous fluid resuscitation, the lack of efficacy for hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19, the comparative effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, and the high burden of respiratory viruses among severely ill hospitalized adults. During the past decade, he has mentored over 20 trainees, ranging from medical students to faculty members. His research has received over $200 million in funding and he has published over 200 peer reviewed manuscripts, including over 20 manuscripts in The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and Lancet journals.
Sean Collins, MD, MSc
Professor of Emergency Medicine
Dr. Collins is Professor, Executive Vice Chairman and director of the Center for Emergency Care Research and Innovation at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. His current research interests are in acute heart failure (AHF) and ED-based clinical trials. Dr. Collins completed residency at the University of Cincinnati. After his chief resident year, he spent 10 years as faculty at the University of Cincinnati and was promoted to Associate Professor. During this time, he completed a research fellowship and obtained his MSc in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Alan B. Storrow, MD
Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine
Associate Director of Research
Dr. Storrow is an Associate Professor and Associate Director for Research, Department of Emergency Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). He has a passion to improve the care for acutely ill patients and reduce the staggering resource burden associated with cardiovascular emergencies. His career has focused on the early diagnosis, risk stratification, and treatment of emergency department patients with acute coronary syndromes and acute heart failure. He brings over 20 years of experience and NIH funding, including RO1 funding evaluating risk stratification in patients with acute heart failure and directorship of one of only five NHLBI-funded K12 training programs in emergency medicine.
The clinical portion of his career has been dedicated to serving acutely ill patients. This, coupled with a long history of ED-focused cardiovascular research, has allowed him to develop a deep understanding of the clinical, national, and patient-centric challenges surrounding early treatment and emergency department disposition. He has dedicated his career to building one of the best local infrastructures for emergency medicine research and making key contributions to building a network of centers capable of addressing this science.
Jin H. Han, MD, MSc
Professor of Emergency Medicine
Dr. Han is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He is also a faculty member of the Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Care (GRECC) in the Tennessee Valley Health Care System and the Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction, and Survivorship (CIBS) Center. He has over 100 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and reviews in the areas of geriatric emergency medicine, cardiology, and emergency department overcrowding. However, he is best known for his delirium research and for collecting long-term outcomes in acutely ill patients. He is currently the Co-Principal Investigator of a NIA R01 and a PCORI grant. He has also received funding from the NHLBI and EMF.
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Bo Stubblefield, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine
Dr. Stubblefield is an Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. His current research interests are in risk-stratification and prognostication for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with acute pulmonary embolism (PE). Dr. Stubblefield completed residency at LSU's Spirit of Charity Residency in New Orleans, Louisiana. After his chief resident year, he joined the Emergency Medicine faculty in 2019 where he completed a T32 research fellowship and obtained his MPH in epidemiology. At present, Dr. Stubblefield is an NHLBI-supported K12 fellow through the department of emergency medicine. As an early career investigator, his long-term goal is to improve functional outcomes in emergency department patients (ED) with acute PE through personalized therapies and interventions. Acute PE is a major healthcare burden world-wide with an increasing incidence of disease over the last two decades. Many survivors of PE develop persistent symptoms and functional limitations following their diagnosis. Identifying patients most at risk for these functional limitations at the time of presentation and understanding the underlying mechanisms of disease are essential to developing future interventions. Dr. Stubblefield has recently submitted a K23 career development award to develop this research.
Jesse Wrenn, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine
Jesse Wrenn joined the Emergency Medicine faculty in 2021. He completed a PhD in Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University, and after several years working as a data scientist and programmer, returned to medical school at UTHSC in Memphis, TN. He completed residency in Emergency Medicine at Vanderbilt. In addition to his clinical responsibilities in the Emergency Department at Vanderbilt and the VA, he has joined the research division with the intent to capitalize on his background in Computer Science and Informatics. Dr. Wrenn is passionate about using cutting edge technology to improve research, clinical care, and education in Emergency Medicine
Stephanie DeMasi, MD
Instructor of Emergency Medicine
Dr. DeMasi completed Residency at University of Alabama at Birmingham. Following residency, she completed a Fellowship in Clinical Ultrasound and Resuscitation at VCU, served as a co-investigator on several multicenter clinical trials, and took courses for a Masters in Clinical and Translational Science. Dr. DeMasi joined Vanderbilt academic faculty as a T32 research scholar through the Department of Anesthesia Training in Perioperative Science grant. She currently serves as the site primary investigator for the Pragmatic Critical Care Research Group (PCCRG). She is interested in the conduct of emergency-critical care clinical trials and is preparing for a career development award investigating time sensitive interventions in the emergency department and intensive care unit spaces.