Yan Xiao, a professor and patient safety specialist in the College of Nursing and Health Innovation, is researching innovative interventions to reduce unsafe use of medications and provide patients and caregivers more efficient ways to manage and follow discharge instructions.
Dr. Xiao is the principal investigator of the Partnership in Resilience for Medication Safety Learning Lab, a consortium project led by UTA. The lab is one of 29 patient safety learning labs in the U.S. funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research Quality.
The consortium project started in 2019 with a four-year, $2.5 million grant aimed at improving medication safety. Xiao and his team will employ systems engineering methods and use interviews, focus groups, and design sessions at 12 clinics around the country. The team will add a simulated primary care clinic to UTA’s Smart Hospital to prototype and test interventions.
What past accomplishment makes you proudest?
Being able to build up an interdisciplinary team of collaborators from the different UTA colleges and the R01 research I began at Baylor Scott & White. The study focused on medication safety during transition of care. When patients are discharged from hospitals, they are at a higher risk of adverse drug events. UTA proved to be an excellent institution for working with clinical partners in reaching our patient recruitment targets and collecting clinical data.
What are you excited about right now?
Innovation of processes and technology to enhance patient engagement in health care. We will study ways patients can be best supported in their decision-making and in understanding educational materials. This will help providers to have meaningful engagements with their patients that will hopefully lead to better health outcomes.
What are you most looking forward to?
My research is based on the understanding of the strengths and limitations of human performance. Our current way of designing the health care system does not take into account basic human factors. So, it is exciting that here at UTA we are advancing in that direction to see how we can support these interactions with human limitations in mind.
