Rachel L Richesson | Scholars@Duke

Rachel L Richesson
Associate Professor in the School of Nursing

Rachel Richesson, PhD, MPH, a noted informaticist, joined the DUSON faculty in December 2011. Dr. Richesson earned her BS (Biology) at the University of Massachusetts in 1991, and holds graduate degrees in Community Health (MPH, 1995) and Health Informatics (MS, 2000 and PhD, 2003) from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston. Her dissertation involved the integration of heterogeneous data from multiple emergency departments. Dr. Richesson spent 7 years as at the University of South Florida College of Medicine directing 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) and The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY) study.

Dr. Richesson has conducted original research on the quality and usability of various terminological data standards, particularly in the context of clinical research, and has presented dozens of posters and invited talks on the topic of data standards in clinical research. She has fostered numerous interdisciplinary research collaborations and is nationally and internationally recognized for her extensive clinical informatics experiences. In 2012, she edited Clinical Research Informatics, the first textbook dedicated to this topic, and co-authored several chapters.

Dr. Richesson is particularly interested in new applications and technologies and standards specifications that will increase the efficiency of clinical research data collection and analysis, and that will enable interoperability between clinical research and health care systems. She co-leads the Phenotyping, Data Standards, and Data Quality Core for the NIH Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory, a demonstration program for the transformation of clinical trials based upon use of electronic health records (EHRs) and healthcare systems partnerships. In this role, she is developing standard approaches and guidance for the extraction of clinical data to support research and learning healthcare systems. She is also the co-lead of the Rare Diseases Task Force for the national distributed Patient Centered Outcomes Research Network (PCORnet), specifically promoting standardized EHR-based condition definitions (“computable phenotypes”) for rare diseases, and helping to develop a national research infrastructure that can support observational and interventional research for various types of conditions.

At DUSON, Dr. Richesson teaches Health Information Exchange Standards, Methods and Models (N410) and Health Information Systems (N409), supports informatics practica (N498), and co-teaches Data-Driven Health Care Improvements (N653). She also engages in informatics-focused initiatives across the Duke campus, particularly within the Duke Center for Health Informatics and Duke Clinical Research Institute programs.

Current Appointments & Affiliations

Associate Professor in the School of Nursing, School of Nursing, Duke University 2016
Associate Professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Biostatistics & Bioinformatics, Basic Science Departments 2017

Contact Information

311 Trent Drive, Durham, NC 27710
rachel.richesson@duke.edu (919) 681-0825

Background
Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston 2003
Duke Appointment History
- Associate Professor in the School of Nursing, School of Nursing, Duke University 2012 - 2016
- Consulting Associate in the School of Nursing, School of Nursing, Duke University 2011 - 2012
Recognition
In the News
- NOV 19, 2014
  
  Richesson Elected Fellow of American College of Medical Informatics
Research
Selected Grants
- NIH Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory - Coordinating Center awarded by National Institutes of Health 2017 - 2022
- Improving SCD Care using Web-based Guidelines, Nurse Care Managers and Peer Mentors in Primary Care and Emergency Departments in Central North Carolina awarded by National Institutes of Health 2016 - 2022
- Quantifying System and Data Readiness for Automated Clinical Decision Support awarded by National Institutes of Health 2016 - 2018
- Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory - Coordinating Center awarded by National Institutes of Health 2012 - 2018
Publications & Artistic Works
Selected Publications
- Conference Papers
  - Richesson, RL, Pathak, J, McLeod, W, Blackmon, G, and Vehik, K. "Requirements and Strategy for the Development of a Pediatric Drug Ontology." CEUR-WS.org, 2012.
  - MacIsaac, P, Walker, D, Richesson, RL, Grain, H, Elkin, PL, and Patrick, J. "Essential SNOMED: Simplifying SNOMED-CT and supporting Integration with Health Information Models." CEUR-WS.org, 2008.
  - Richesson, RL, Syed, A, Guillette, H, Tuttle, MS, and Krischer, JP. "A Web-based SNOMED CT Browser: Distributed and Real-time Use of SNOMED CT During the Clinical Research Process." IOS Press, 2007. Full Text
  - Mirhaji, P, Richesson, RL, Turley, JP, Zhang, JJ, and Smith, JW. "Public health situation awareness, towards a semantic approach." 2004. Full Text Link to Item
  - Mirhaji, P, Zhang, JJ, Srinivasan, A, Richesson, RL, and Smith, JW. "Knowledge based public health situation awareness." 2004. Full Text Link to Item
  - Turley, JP, Johnson-Throop, KA, Eick, C, Tuttle, MS, and Richesson, RL. "The role of context in the integration of heterogeneous health care databases." 2004. Full Text Link to Item
  - Richesson, RL, Turley, JP, and Tuttle, MS. "The semantic Web and the integration of health data resources." 2002. Link to Item
- Journal Articles
  - Montejo, L, Richesson, R, Padilla, BI, Zychowicz, ME, and Hambley, C. "Response." Workplace health & safety 66, no. 1 (January 2018): 4-. Full Text
  - Montejo, L, Richesson, R, Padilla, BI, Zychowicz, ME, and Hambley, C. "Increasing Influenza Immunization Rates Among Retail Employees: An Evidence-Based Approach." Workplace health & safety 65, no. 9 (September 2017): 424-429. Full Text
  - Richesson, RL, Green, BB, Laws, R, Puro, J, Kahn, MG, Bauck, A, Smerek, M, Van Eaton, EG, Zozus, M, Hammond, WE, Stephens, KA, and Simon, GE. "Pragmatic (trial) informatics: a perspective from the NIH Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory." Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA 24, no. 5 (September 2017): 996-1001. Full Text
  - Westra, BL, Sylvia, M, Weinfurter, EF, Pruinelli, L, Park, JI, Dodd, D, Keenan, GM, Senk, P, Richesson, RL, Baukner, V, Cruz, C, Gao, G, Whittenburg, L, and Delaney, CW. "Big data science: A literature review of nursing research exemplars." Nursing outlook 65, no. 5 (September 2017): 549-561. (Review) Full Text
  - Spratt, SE, Pereira, K, Granger, BB, Batch, BC, Phelan, M, Pencina, M, Miranda, ML, Boulware, E, Lucas, JE, Nelson, CL, Neely, B, Goldstein, BA, Barth, P, Richesson, RL, Riley, IL, Corsino, L, McPeek Hinz, ER, Rusincovitch, S, Green, J, Barton, AB, DDC Phenotype Group, , Kelley, C, Hyland, K, Tang, M, Elliott, A, Ruel, E, Clark, A, Mabrey, M, Morrissey, KL, Rao, J, Hong, B, Pierre-Louis, M, Kelly, K, and Jelesoff, N. "Assessing electronic health record phenotypes against gold-standard diagnostic criteria for diabetes mellitus." Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA 24, no. e1 (April 2017): e121-e128. Full Text
  - Matney, SA, Settergren, TT, Carrington, JM, Richesson, RL, Sheide, A, and Westra, BL. "Standardizing Physiologic Assessment Data to Enable Big Data Analytics." Western journal of nursing research (July 18, 2016). Full Text
  - Richesson, RL, Sun, J, Pathak, J, Kho, AN, and Denny, JC. "Clinical phenotyping in selected national networks: demonstrating the need for high-throughput, portable, and computational methods." Artificial intelligence in medicine 71 (July 2016): 57-61. Full Text
  - Dizon, JM, Richesson, RL, Lytle, KS, and Hawks, SJ. "Factors Disrupting the Preference Card Management Process: A Root Cause Analysis." AORN journal 103, no. 1 (January 2016): 105.e1-105.12. Full Text
  - Lytle, KS, Short, NM, Richesson, RL, and Horvath, MM. "Clinical Decision Support for Nurses: A Fall Risk and Prevention Example." Computers, informatics, nursing : CIN 33, no. 12 (December 2015): 530-E1. Full Text
  - Richesson, RL, and Chute, CG. "Health information technology data standards get down to business: maturation within domains and the emergence of interoperability." Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA 22, no. 3 (May 16, 2015): 492-494. Full Text
  - Rice, HE, Englum, BR, Rothman, J, Leonard, S, Reiter, A, Thornburg, C, Brindle, M, Wright, N, Heeney, MM, Smithers, C, Brown, RL, Kalfa, T, Langer, JC, Cada, M, Oldham, KT, Scott, JP, St Peter, S, Sharma, M, Davidoff, AM, Nottage, K, Bernabe, K, Wilson, DB, Dutta, S, Glader, B, Crary, SE, Dassinger, MS, Dunbar, L, Islam, S, Kumar, M, Rescorla, F, Bruch, S, Campbell, A, Austin, M, Sidonio, R, Blakely, ML, and Splenectomy in Congenital Hemolytic Anemia (SICHA) Consortium, . "Clinical outcomes of splenectomy in children: report of the splenectomy in congenital hemolytic anemia registry." American journal of hematology 90, no. 3 (March 2015): 187-192. Full Text
  - Richesson, RL. "An informatics framework for the standardized collection and analysis of medication data in networked research." Journal of biomedical informatics 52 (December 2014): 4-10. (Review) Full Text
  - Mooney, J, Spalding, N, Poland, F, Grayson, P, Leduc, R, McAlear, CA, Richesson, RL, Shereff, D, Merkel, PA, and Watts, RA. "The informational needs of patients with ANCA-associated vasculitis-development of an informational needs questionnaire." Rheumatology (Oxford, England) 53, no. 8 (August 2014): 1414-1421. Full Text
  - Grayson, PC, Amudala, NA, McAlear, CA, Leduc, RL, Shereff, D, Richesson, R, Fraenkel, L, and Merkel, PA. "Causal attributions about disease onset and relapse in patients with systemic vasculitis." The Journal of rheumatology 41, no. 5 (May 2014): 923-930. Full Text
  - Fung, KW, Richesson, R, and Bodenreider, O. "Coverage of rare disease names in standard terminologies and implications for patients, providers, and research." AMIA Annual Symposium Proceedings 2014 (January 2014): 564-572.
  - Richesson, R, Fung, KW, and Bodenreider, O. "Coverage of rare disease names in clinical coding systems and ontologies and implications for electronic health records-based research." CEUR Workshop Proceedings 1327 (January 1, 2014): 78-80.
  - Richesson, RL, Horvath, MM, and Rusincovitch, SA. "Clinical research informatics and electronic health record data." Yearbook of medical informatics 9 (January 2014): 215-223. Full Text
  - Richesson, RL. "An informatics framework for the standardized collection and analysis of medication data in networked research." Journal of Biomedical Informatics 52 (January 1, 2014): 4-10. (Review) Full Text
  - Richesson, RL, Hammond, WE, Nahm, M, Wixted, D, Simon, GE, Robinson, JG, Bauck, AE, Cifelli, D, Smerek, MM, Dickerson, J, Laws, RL, Madigan, RA, Rusincovitch, SA, Kluchar, C, and Califf, RM. "Electronic health records based phenotyping in next-generation clinical trials: a perspective from the NIH Health Care Systems Collaboratory." J Am Med Inform Assoc 20, no. e2 (December 2013): e226-e231. Full Text Link to Item
  - Richesson, RL, Rusincovitch, SA, Wixted, D, Batch, BC, Feinglos, MN, Miranda, ML, Hammond, WE, Califf, RM, and Spratt, SE. "A comparison of phenotype definitions for diabetes mellitus." J Am Med Inform Assoc 20, no. e2 (December 2013): e319-e326. Full Text Link to Item
  - Grayson, PC, Amudala, NA, McAlear, CA, Leduc, RL, Shereff, D, Richesson, R, Fraenkel, L, and Merkel, PA. "Illness perceptions and fatigue in systemic vasculitis." Arthritis Care and Research 65, no. 11 (2013): 1835-1843. Full Text
  - Richesson, RL, Moldwin, R, Andrews, JE, and Shereff, DE. "The use of metadata and terminology standards to support for retrieval and re-use of question and answer sets for patient registries." International Journal of Functional Informatics and Personalised Medicine (December 2012). (Academic Article)
  - Richesson, RL, Shereff, D, and Andrews, JE. "Standardization of questions in rare disease registries: The PRISM Library Project." Interactive Journal of Medical Research 1, no. 2 (October 2012): e10-. (Academic Article) Full Text Link to Item
  - Richesson, RL, Sutphen, R, Shereff, D, and Krischer, JP. "The Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network Contact Registry update: features and functionality." Contemp Clin Trials 33, no. 4 (July 2012): 647-656. Full Text Link to Item
  - Richesson, RL, and Nadkarni, P. "Data standards for clinical research data collection forms: current status and challenges." J Am Med Inform Assoc 18, no. 3 (May 1, 2011): 341-346. Full Text Link to Item
  - Richesson, RL. "Data standards in diabetes patient registries. (Published online)" J Diabetes Sci Technol 5, no. 3 (May 1, 2011): 476-485. Full Text Link to Item
  - Kallem, C, Richesson, R, DuLong, D, Sison, L, Van Dyke, P, and Mon, DT. "Advancing secondary data uses through data standards." Journal of AHIMA / American Health Information Management Association 82, no. 4 (April 2011): 38-39. (Academic Article) Full Text
  - Barton, C, Kallem, C, Dyke, PV, Mon, D, and Richesson, R. "Demonstrating "collect once, use many"--assimilating public health secondary data use requirements into an existing Domain Analysis Model." AMIA .. Annual Symposium proceedings / AMIA Symposium. AMIA Symposium 2011 (2011): 98-107.
  - Kallem, C, Richesson, R, DuLong, D, Sison, L, Dyke, PV, and Mon, DT. "Advancing secondary data uses through data standards." Journal of AHIMA / American Health Information Management Association 82, no. 4 (2011): 38-39.
  - Shereff, D, Graves, A, Andrews, J, and Richesson, R. "Promoting the use of standard questions in patient registries and research: A library of questions related to rare diseases." Proceedings of the ASIST Annual Meeting 48 (2011). Full Text
  - Pathak, J, and Richesson, RL. "Use of standard drug vocabularies in clinical research: a case study in pediatrics. (Published online)" AMIA Annu Symp Proc 2010 (November 13, 2010): 607-611. Link to Item
  - Rubinstein, YR, Groft, SC, Bartek, R, Brown, K, Christensen, RA, Collier, E, Farber, A, Farmer, J, Ferguson, JH, Forrest, CB, Lockhart, NC, McCurdy, KR, Moore, H, Pollen, GB, Richesson, R, Miller, VR, Hull, S, and Vaught, J. "Creating a global rare disease patient registry linked to a rare diseases biorepository database: Rare Disease-HUB (RD-HUB)." Contemporary clinical trials 31, no. 5 (September 2010): 394-404. (Academic Article) Full Text
  - Richesson, RL, Smith, SB, Malloy, J, and Krischer, JP. "Achieving standardized medication data in clinical research studies: two approaches and applications for implementing RxNorm." J Med Syst 34, no. 4 (August 2010): 651-657. Full Text Link to Item
  - Richesson, R, and Vehik, K. "Patient registries: utility, validity and inference." Advances in experimental medicine and biology 686 (Rare Diseases Epidemiology), no. 2-3 (July 2010): 87-104. (Academic Article) Full Text
  - Richesson, R, Shereff, D, and Andrews, J. "[RD] PRISM Library: Patient Registry Item Specifications and Metadata for Rare Diseases." Journal of library metadata 10, no. 2-3 (April 2010): 119-135. (Academic Article) Full Text Link to Item
  - Andrews, JE, Shereff, D, Patrick, TB, and Richesson, RL. "The Question about Questions: Is DC a good choice to address the challenges of representation of clinical research questions and value sets?." Proceedings of the International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications (2010): 88-93.
  - Patrick, TB, Andrews, JE, and Richesson, RL. "Introduction." International Journal of Functional Informatics and Personalised Medicine 3, no. 4 (2010): 257-259.
  - Richesson, RL, Shereff, D, Spisla, C, Albarracin, N, Konicek, DJ, and Andrews, JE. "The use of SNOMED CT to support retrieval and re-use of Question and Answer Sets for patient registries." I. J. Functional Informatics and Personalised Medicine 3 (2010): 342-365. Full Text
  - Weng, C, Tu, SW, Sim, I, and Richesson, RL. "Formal representation of eligibility criteria: A literature review." Journal of Biomedical Informatics 43 (2010): 451-467. Full Text
  - Richesson, RL, Lee, HS, Cuthbertson, D, Lloyd, J, Young, K, and Krischer, JP. "An automated communication system in a contact registry for persons with rare diseases: scalable tools for identifying and recruiting clinical research participants." Contemp Clin Trials 30, no. 1 (January 2009): 55-62. Full Text Link to Item
  - Andrews, JE, Patrick, TB, Richesson, RL, Brown, H, and Krischer, JP. "Comparing heterogeneous SNOMED CT coding of clinical research concepts by examining normalized expressions." J Biomed Inform 41, no. 6 (December 2008): 1062-1069. Full Text Link to Item
  - Richesson, RL, Fung, KW, and Krischer, JP. "Heterogeneous but "standard" coding systems for adverse events: Issues in achieving interoperability between apples and oranges." Contemp Clin Trials 29, no. 5 (September 2008): 635-645. Full Text Link to Item
  - Moyers, S, Richesson, RL, and Krischer, JP. "Trans-Atlantic data harmonization in the classification of medicines and dietary supplements: A challenge for epidemiologic study and clinical research." I. J. Medical Informatics 77 (2008): 58-67. Full Text
  - Patrick, TB, Richesson, R, Andrews, JE, and Folk, LC. "SNOMED CT coding variation and grouping for "other findings" in a longitudinal study on urea cycle disorders." AMIA .. Annual Symposium proceedings / AMIA Symposium. AMIA Symposium (2008): 11-15.
  - Richesson, RL, Malloy, JF, Paulus, K, Cuthbertson, D, and Krischer, JP. "An automated standardized system for managing adverse events in clinical research networks." Drug Saf 31, no. 10 (2008): 807-822. (Review) Link to Item
  - Richesson, RL. "Data standards in clinical research: Gaps, overlaps, challenges, and future directions (vol 14, pg 687, 2007)." JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL INFORMATICS ASSOCIATION 15, no. 2 (2008): 265-265. Link to Item
  - Richesson, RL, and Krischer, J. "Data standards in clinical research: gaps, overlaps, challenges and future directions." J Am Med Inform Assoc 14, no. 6 (November 2007): 687-696. Full Text Link to Item
  - Richesson, RL, Young, K, Lloyd, J, Adams, T, Guillette, H, Malloy, J, and Krischer, JP. "An automated communication system in a Contact Registry for persons with rare diseases: tools for retaining potential clinical research participants. (Published online)" AMIA Annu Symp Proc (October 11, 2007): 1094-. Link to Item
  - Andrews, JE, Richesson, RL, and Krischer, J. "Variation of SNOMED CT coding of clinical research concepts among coding experts." J Am Med Inform Assoc 14, no. 4 (July 2007): 497-506. Full Text Link to Item
  - Richesson, R, Syed, A, Guillette, H, Tuttle, MS, and Krischer, J. "A web-based SNOMED CT browser: Distributed and real-time use of SNOMED CT during the clinical research process." Studies in Health Technology and Informatics 129 (2007): 631-635.
  - Richesson, RL, Andrews, JE, and Krischer, JP. "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 Inform Assoc 13, no. 5 (September 2006): 536-546. Full Text Link to Item
  - Richesson, R, Young, K, Guillette, H, Tuttle, M, Abbondondolo, M, and Krischer, J. "Standard terminology on demand: facilitating distributed and real-time use of SNOMED CT during the clinical research process." AMIA .. Annual Symposium proceedings / AMIA Symposium. AMIA Symposium (2006): 1076--.
  - Markham, C, Baumler, E, Richesson, R, Parcel, G, Basen-Engquist, K, Kok, G, and Wilkerson, D. "Impact of HIV-positive speakers in a multicomponent, school-based HIV/STD prevention program for inner-city adolescents." AIDS Education and Prevention 12, no. 5 (2000): 442-454.
  - Richesson, RL, and Hwang, LY. "Impact of the 1993 CDC surveillance definition of AIDS in Texas, 1991-1994." Tex Med 94, no. 1 (January 1998): 56-63. Link to Item
Teaching & Mentoring
Recent Courses

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Education, Training, & Certifications

Duke Appointment History

In the News

Selected Grants

Selected Publications

Conference Papers

Journal Articles

Recent Courses