Joseph W. Hales

Joseph W. Hales, PhD, FACMI

Languages spoken: Korean, English

Academic Information

Departments Adjunct - Pediatrics , Primary - Biomedical Informatics

Dr. Joseph W. Hales earned his PhD in Medical Informatics at the University of Utah. He is an associate professor (clinical) in the University of Utah's Department of Biomedical Informatics and an adjunct associate professor of Pediatrics in the University of Utah's School of Medicine.

Dr. Hales is the Director of Information Systems at Primary Children's Medical Center. His research focuses on the development of an Electronic Health Record format for pediatric care, as well as the integration of clinical data to population billing data for pediatrics and its use in clinical effectiveness research. His published research in health informatics includes controlled vocabularies, decision support systems, online health information, clinical database design and medical informatics education.

Dr. Hales joined the faculty as an assistant professor in 2003, and currently co-chairs the Curriculum Committee and is a course director for the Biomedical Informatics Weekly Seminar. His previous experience includes assistant research professor at Duke University, assistant professor at University of Missouri. He directed the Health Informatics Graduate Studies at University of Missouri as well as the D.A.B. Lindbergh Center for Health Informatics at University of Missouri. He served as a Fellow for the American College of Medical Informatics and is a member of the Health Information Technology Advisory Group of the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions.

¿I was attracted to the field because of my interest in computers and the application of computers to health care, especially the potential to make systematic changes in quality. I continue to be engaged by the field as I see the impact of health information technology on direct patient care and on system-wide care.¿

Research Statement

Information management and service coordination for pediatric, disabled, and chronically ill populations; enterprise information architecture, esp. security and access control; informatics education.

Education History

Undergraduate Brigham Young University
 BS
Doctoral Training University of Utah
 PhD

Selected Publications

Journal Article

  1. Olola CH, Narus S, Poynton M, Nebeker J, Hales J, Rowan B, Smith M, Evans R (2011). Patient-perceived usefulness of an emergency medical card and a continuity-of-care report in enhancing the quality of care. International journal for quality in health care, 23(1), 60-7. (Read full article)
  2. Hales JW, Quetsch JL, Schopp LH, Brown G (2003). Application of peer-to-peer networking to health care. Studies in health technology and informatics, 92, 141-6. (Read full article)
  3. Nkoy FL, Fassl BA, Wolfe D, Colling D, Hales JW, Maloney C (2010). Sustaining compliance with pediatric asthma inpatient quality measures. AMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings. AMIA Symposium, 2010, 547-51. (Read full article)
  4. Maloney CG, Wolfe D, Gesteland PH, Hales JW, Nkoy (2007). A Tool for Improving Patient Discharge Process and Hospital Communication Practices: the Patient Tracker. 31, 493-497.