People > Profile
Yalini Senathirajah, PhD
- Associate Professor (2017–2024) and Researcher (2025), Biomedical Informatics
- Departmental Director, Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP/MD-PhD) (2018–2024)
- Adjunct Associate Professor, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto (2021–Present)
Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI) | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Biography
Dr. Yalini Senathirajah is an Associate Professor in Biomedical Informatics at the University of Pittsburgh (2017–2024) and continues as a researcher in 2025. She also holds an adjunct appointment at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. She received her PhD in Biomedical Informatics from Columbia University and her AB (Honors Biology) from Harvard University. Dr. Senathirajah is the creator and lead developer of MedWISER — a modular, user-composable EHR platform that allows clinicians to customize their own interfaces — which has been recognized through multiple international awards. She served as Departmental Director of the MSTP (MD-PhD) Program from 2018 to 2024 and is a section editor of the IMIA Yearbook on Human Factors and Organizational Issues.
Research Interests
Dr. Senathirajah’s research centers on two main areas. The first is the design and evaluation of modular, user-composable electronic health record platforms (MedWISER/MedWISE) that allow clinicians to configure their own displays, with demonstrated advantages for HCI, workflow efficiency, and cognitive load. The second is patient-facing technology interventions to improve health equity, particularly for underserved populations, including minority patients with sleep disorders, youth with HIV, and communities affected by COVID-19. She leads the large chart review component of the NIH RECOVER project, creating computable phenotypes for long COVID across 14 million patient records, and is exploring sex-based bias in clinical AI algorithms.
Specialties
- Electronic Health Record Design and Usability
- User-Composable and Modular EHR Platforms
- Human-Computer Interaction in Clinical Settings
- Patient-Facing mHealth and Web-Based Interventions
- Clinical Informatics and Workflow Analysis
- COVID-19 and Post-Acute Sequelae (PASC) Research
Websites & Links
Education & Training
- A.B. (Honors), BiologyHarvard University, Cambridge, MA
- DVM Program (partial), Veterinary MedicineOntario Veterinary College, Guelph, ON
- Ph.D., Biomedical InformaticsColumbia University, New York, NY
Awards & Distinctions
- Best Paper Award — Context-Sensitive Health InformaticsMedInfo2013
- Ariadne Award (winning team) — Twiage app for emergency EMS-to-ED transmissionBrigham/MIT Medical Hackathon2013
- Best Talk AwardRobert Wood Johnson Public Health Informatics Fellows Meeting2009
- Best Poster AwardNLM Informatics Trainee Conference2009
- Finalist, Diana Forsythe Award for Best Qualitative Methods PaperAMIA2006
- Finalist, 'Ideas that Work' Innovation CompetitionAMIA2014
- IMIA Year in Review selectionIMIA2015, 2020
Representative Publications
Senathirajah Y, Kaufman D, Bakken S. User-composable Electronic Health Record Improves Efficiency of Clinician Data Gathering for Patient Case Appraisal: A Mixed-Methods Study. eGEMs. 2016;4(1):7.
Senathirajah Y, Kaufman D, Borycki E, et al. Characterizing and Visualizing Display and Task Fragmentation in the Electronic Health Record: Mixed Methods Design. JMIR Hum Factors. 2020;7(4):e18484.
Cheng L, Senathirajah Y. Using Clinical Data Visualizations in Electronic Health Record User Interfaces to Enhance Medical Student Diagnostic Reasoning. JMIR Hum Factors. 2023;10:e38941.
Senathirajah Y, Kaufman DR, Cato K, et al. The Impact of the Burden of COVID-19 Regulatory Reporting in a Small Independent Hospital and a Large Network Hospital. Online J Public Health Inform. 2025;17:e63681.
Subbian V, Solomonides A, …Senathirajah Y, et al. Ethics and informatics in the age of COVID-19: challenges and recommendations for public health organization and public policy. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2021;28(1):184–189.
Research Grants
| Grant / Funding Agency | Role | Grant Number | Years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evaluating and Enhancing Health IT for COVID-19 Response Workflow in a Medically Underserved Community AHRQ | PI | R01HS028220 | 2021–2024 |
| Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative — EHR Computable Phenotypes NIH (subcomponent) | Co-I | OT2 HL161847 | 2022–2023 |
| Finding the Safer Way: Novel Interaction Design Approaches to Health IT Safety AHRQ | PI | R01HS023708 | 07/2015–04/2021 |
| Understanding and Reducing Cognitive Load in Clinician EHR Use American Medical Association | PI | Active |