DIVISION LEAD
Michael J. Ward, MD, PhD, MBA
Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Biomedical Informatics
Research Director, Division of Emergency Medicine 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.
OUR TEAM
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. His research foci include pragmatic clinical trials, epidemiologic surveillance, acute severe infections, and resuscitation. 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 of Emergency Medicine and co-director of the Vanderbilt Coordinating Center, Associate Director of Clinical Trials in the Institute for Medicine and Public Health, and Director of the Center for Emergency Care Research and Innovation at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. His current research interests are in cardiovascular and ED-based clinical trials.Dr. Collins completed residency in Emergency Medicine 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. In July 2011, Dr. Collins joined the Vanderbilt faculty as an Associate Professor. He has directed and served on several steering committees for international cardiovascular trials and has published over 180 peer-reviewed manuscripts often as first or senior author. He is currently PI of several federally funded cardiovascular and acute care clinical trials including 3 from NHLBI and 1 from PCORI.
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.
Jin H. Han, MD, MSc
Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine
Dr. Han is an Associate Professor with the Department 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 80 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. He is currently the Co-Principal Investigator of a National Institute on Aging R01 and is the Principal Investigator on a National Institute on Aging R21 and a National Health, Lung, Blood Institute R56.
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.
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
Clinical Instructor of Emergency Medicine
Dr. DeMasi is a is a board-certified emergency physician that joined faculty in 2023. She completed Residency at University of Alabama at Birmingham. Following residency, she completed a Fellowship in Clinical Ultrasound and Resuscitation at VCU. She joined faculty as a T32 research scholar through the Department of Anesthesia Training in Perioperative Science Grant. Her current research interests are investigating time sensitive interventions in the emergency department and intensive care unit spaces