Kimberly A. Smith, PhD, MT(ASCP)

Assistant Professor

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Department of Clinical and Health Informatics

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Contact

Kimberly.A.Smith@uth.tmc.edu | 713-500-3946

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Biosketch

Google Scholar

"Dr. Smith holds a Ph.D. in Health Informatics from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston's School of Biomedical Informatics. Her undergraduate degree is in microbiology from Eastern Kentucky University, and she is also a medical technologist (medical laboratory scientist). Before entering graduate school, she worked in clinical laboratories at MD Anderson Cancer Center (both medical and veterinary) and at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital. She then implemented St. Luke’s first laboratory information system in 1989. After that project went live, she went to work for the vendor, and over the next decade, worked for five different vendors, implementing and supporting clinical laboratory and anatomic pathology systems for over fifty hospitals. One of these companies was ADAC HealthCare Information Systems (a subsidiary of ADAC Laboratories), where she was part of the effort that led to the company earning the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award in 1996. In 2000, she returned to MD Anderson Cancer Center, where she was project manager and lead technical contact for the anatomic pathology system replacement project in 2000-2002.

She entered the School of Health Information Sciences (now McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics) in 2002, and earned her MS in 2005 and her PhD in 2010. Her dissertation work focused on the effect of proximity, explicitness, and representation of basic science information on student clinical problem solving. She then joined The University of Texas at Austin’s Health IT professional education certificate program, where she taught, advised, and mentored over 550 students. She returned to SBMI in 2014, and now teaches in the Applied track. She completed the Health Educators Fellowship Program at the McGovern Medical School, has twice earned the prestigious John P. McGovern Outstanding Teacher Award, and has been awarded the Dean’s Excellence Award for Teaching. Her courses include BMI5300 Introduction to Biomedical Informatics and BMI5371 Business and Technical Communication.

• What does the future of your research look like?
  Extensive use of artificial intelligence tools combined with human processes that cannot be automated.
• What courses do you teach?
  BMI5300 Introduction to Biomedical Informatics: This introductory graduate level survey course provides an overview of biomedical informatics and health information technology and introduces the major areas of the evolving discipline.
  BMI5371 Business and Technical Communication: The focus of this course on producing clear, plain, reader-centered writing using a range of business documents.

Publications

1. McLane, S., Turley, J.P., Wood, Esquivel, A., G., Engebretson, J., Smith, K., Zhang, J.  Concept analysis of cognitive artifacts. Advances in Nursing Science.  2010 Oct/Dec;33(4):352-362. PubMed ID: 21068556
2. Smith-Akin, K. A., McLane, S., Craig, T. M., & Johnson, T. R. (2006). Application of cognitive engineering principles to the redesign of a dichotomous identification key for parasitology. AMIA Annual Symposium proceedings / AMIA Symposium. AMIA Symposium, 739-43. PubMed ID: 17238439
3. Smith-Akin, K.A., Bearden, C.F., Pittenger, S.T., & Bernstam, E.V. Toward a veterinary informatics research agenda: an analysis of the PubMed-indexed literature. International Journal of Medical Informatics. 2007 Apr;76(4):306-12. PubMed ID: 16569509.
4. Edmonson, S., Smith-Akin, K.A., & Bernstam, E.V. Context, automated decision support, and clinical practice guidelines: Does the literature apply to the United States practice environment? International Journal of Medical Informatics. 2007 Jan;76(1):34-41. PubMed ID: 16524767