UC Center for Health Informatics

Dr. Embi is Director of the CHI, Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine and Director of Clinical and Translational Informatics for the UC Medical Center. He is actively involved in applied and academic informatics activities across the academic health center. Prior to arriving at UC, Dr. Embi specialized in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology, completed a Fellowship in Medical Informatics and General Internal Medicine, and earned his Master of Science in Medical Informatics and Outcomes Research at the Oregon Health & Science University. In 2006, he was instrumental in establishing the UC Center for Health Informatics.

Dr. Embi’s informatics research interests span the domains of clinical, educational, and clinical research informatics. Past works include research on the clinical and educational impacts of information technology, including his seminal work on the impacts of computerized physician documentation published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. His article on the subject was selected from over 200 candidates as a finalist for AMIA's 2005 Diana Forsythe Award for excellence at the intersection of Informatics and the social sciences.

Dr. Embi's current research focuses on enhancing the conduct of clinical research by applying Informatics tools and methods. His development and evaluation of a novel Clinical Trial Alert system as published in the Archives of Internal Medicine demonstrated that an EHR-based approach can significantly improve subject recruitment to a clinical trial. In support of his research, Dr. Embi is the recipient of NIH funding, including being one of the first recipients of the National Library of Medicine's Early Career Development Award for Informatics (K22) in 2004. In 2008, he recieved an R01 research grant from the NLM to continue this line of study.

He is active in the American Medical Informatics Association, currently serving on the AMIA Ethics Committee, chair-elect of the organization's Clinical Research Informatics Working Group, and member of the Clinical Research Informatics Steering Task Force.

In addition to his informatics activities, Dr. Embi practices rheumatology at the Cincinnati VAMC and is an active educator of medical students and residents in both clinical medicine and medical informatics. He is a regular contributor to educational sessions on health information technology use by clinicians for such organizations as the American College of Physicians and the American College of Rheumatology and serves on the ACR's annual meeting planning committee.