Kenrick Cato, PhD, RN, CPHIMS, FAAN

Standing Faculty Clinician-Educator Track

Professor of Informatics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Kenrick Cato, PhD, RN, CPHIMS, FAAN, is a clinical informatician whose research focuses on mining electronic patient data to support decision-making for clinicians, patients, and caregivers. Operationally, he spends his time mining and modeling Nursing data to optimize Nursing value in Healthcare. He is also involved in several national-level informatics organizations, including as a board member of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), Chair of the Nursing Informatics Working Group(NIWG) of AMIA, as well as a convening member of the AMIA-sponsored 25 x 5 initiative to reduce documentation burden. Dr. Cato received his BSN, MS, and Ph.D. in Clinical informatics at Columbia University.

“It is my honor and privilege to help educate and train future leaders.”

Education

PhD, Columbia University School of Nursing, 2014
MPhil, Columbia University School of Nursing, 2012
BSN, Columbia University School of Nursing, 2008
BA, Swarthmore College, 1994

Innovation

Our research team has combined machine learning and clinical decision support in developing the CONCERN Clinical Decision Support system which models Nursing expert judgement to predict patient deterioration. Our software won the American Medical Informatics Association’s 2022 HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) software competition.

Social Justice

I am proud to be a member of the Diversity Committee of the American Medical Informatics Association. In 2010, I was a founding member of the Columbia University School of Nursing Diversity Committee. Also, I have used my expertise to create non-biased predictors of patient outcomes.

Teaching

I have taught health care information systems on the baccalaureate level and clinical informatics and data mining on the graduate level.

Research

My work has been guided by National Academy of Medicine reports that highlight issues related to patient safety and clinician burnout that focus my efforts on three areas: (1) Nursing-related electronic patient data to support clinical decision-making; (2) Characterizing clinical phenomena from electronic patient data; (3) Reducing clinical burnout through clinical informatics; and (4) the implications of the use of artificial intelligence in Nursing.

Opportunities to Learn and Collaborate at Penn Nursing

I work closely with interdisciplinary teams at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, New York Presbyterian Hospital, Mass General Brigham Health System, Harvard University, Vanderbilt University, the University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada and other national and international partners to conduct applied clinical informatics research and implementation.

Selected Career Highlights

AMIA/HL7 FHIR Applications Completion 2022 1st Place Winner
Board member ELDR (www.youreldr.com)
Outstanding Faculty Award from Columbia University School of Nursing
Board member of the American Medical Association
Co-Chair American Medical Informatics Association Clinical Informatics Conference
Fellow American Academy of Nursing
Caribbean American Healthcare Professional Award
Fellow Columbia University Data Science Institute
Fellow, New York Academy of Medicine
Bronze Star, Unites States Army
Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) Nursing, Editorial Board Member
Journal of Emergency Nursing, Editorial Board Member