Eric Kirkendall, MD is the CIO & CMIO - Academic Health at Atrium Health.

Eric Kirkendall is a highly-trained and experienced clinical informaticist interested in novel applications of technology to improve healthcare and patient outcomes. As an R01-funded researcher and physician scientist, he works at the intersection of people, processes, and technology.

Eric utilizes health information technology to maximize patient safety and quality in clinical care delivery, data management, and novel application/software development. He was the first Associate Chief Medical Information Officer in Cincinnati Children's history, a role in which he oversaw the design, implementation, and optimization of the electronic health record and other associated technologies.

From a research standpoint, Eric co-led the Decision Support Analytics Workgroup (DSAW), which investigates the links between the effectiveness of clinical decision support (CDS), patient safety, and user efficiency. His research has demonstrated ties between decreasing alert burden on clinicians, increasing CDS alert salience, and improving patient outcomes.

Many of his research projects have also incorporated artificial intelligence techniques (e.g., natural language processing) and other innovative methods to detect adverse events/harm across multiple hospital environments. The results have shown vast improvements in detecting errors related to medication administrations.

Eric now holds a position at the Wake Forest Center for Healthcare Innovation, helping to lead the center and utilize technology to accomplish their mission of rapidly translating innovation and discoveries into their clinical enterprise, promoting increased patient care quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness.