Research
Dr. Kaushal conducted foundational investigations of the epidemiology of medication errors in children and comparative effectiveness of prevention strategies improving pediatric patient safety. She then conducted the largest scale evaluation of a state-based policy for health information exchange, which informed interoperability standards for the national EHR Incentive Program and the National Quality Forum. Under her leadership, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) funded the INSIGHT Clinical Research Network, which brings together 22 organizations, including seven academic medical centers, to share data to facilitate patient-centered research and learning healthcare systems.
In a recent PCORI-funded health system demonstration project, Dr. Kaushal and her research team developed novel computable phenotypes for high-need, high-cost patients utilizing claims, clinical, and social determinant data across INSIGHT and another clinical research network. She has also led Weill Cornell Medicine’s efforts in recruiting 66,000 patients for a one million-person, NIH-funded, national precision medicine cohort for the All of Us Research Program. As the principal investigator of INSIGHT, Dr. Kaushal has extensive experience leading large studies with collaborating health systems and comparing the effectiveness of several healthcare interventions. Most recently, she is spearheads the electronic health records cohort studies for the NIH Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) initiative funded by NHLBI. Dr. Kaushal and her colleagues have published groundbreaking research on the epidemiology of long COVID in diverse populations using advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence models to detect symptom patterns in electronic patient records.
Current projects:
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute/New York University:
- PASC EHR/ORWD Phase II Proposal (RECOVER)
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute:
INSIGHT Phase 3 Clinical Research Network
Identifying and Predicting Patients with Preventable High Utilization
Bio
Dr. Kaushal is the inaugural senior associate dean for clinical research at Weill Cornell Medicine. She is also the chair of the Department of Population Health and the Nanette Laitman Distinguished Professor. She earned her MD from Harvard Medical School and her MPH from Harvard School of Public Health in clinical effectiveness. Dr. Kaushal is double-board certified in internal medicine and pediatrics, having completed her clinical residency as an inaugural resident at a combined program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital. Under Dr. Kaushal’s leadership, the Department of Population Health Sciences has launched three novel master’s degree programs, including the MS programs in health policy and economics, health informatics, and biostatistics and data science, and the Executive MBA/MS in healthcare leadership jointly offered by WCGSMS and the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University.
Distinctions:
Dr. Kaushal was elected to the Association of American Physicians in 2022, and to the National Academy of Medicine and the Clinical Research Forum Board, both in 2019. In 2018, she was an invited representative at the Women Leaders Global Forum in Iceland and named in Crain’s Inaugural Notable Women in Health Care.
Selected Publications:
Kaushal R, Hripcsak G, Ascheim DD, et al. Changing the research landscape: the New York City Clinical Data Research Network. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2014; 21:587-597. PMC4078297.
Kern LM, Edwards A, Kaushal R. The patient-centered medical home, electronic health records, and quality of care. Ann Intern Med 2014; 160(11):741-749. PMID: 24887615.
Kern LM, Barron Y, Abramson EL, Patel V, Kaushal R. HEAL NY: Promoting interoperable health information technology in New York State. Health Aff (Millwood) 2009; 28(2):493-504. PMID: 19276009.
Kaushal R, Bates DW, Landrigan C, McKenna KJ, Clapp MD, Federico F, Goldmann DA. Medication errors and adverse drug events in pediatric inpatients. JAMA 2001; 285(16):2114-20.