My work in medical informatics is the product of my clinical experience in internal medicine with my engineering and medical informatics training. My research focuses on increasing the effectiveness of clinical information systems as it relates to improving evidence based care. By examining physician workflow and identifying and overcoming barriers to effective disease management in primary and specialty care, my health services research activities have focused on improving hyperlipidemia disease management, increasing preventative cancer screening rates and improving timely evidence-based HIV care. I have taken advantage of my expertise in system design and engineering to develop and test hypotheses regarding improved information delivery and medical decision making at the point of care. My work also investigates novel ways to improve care with non-visit and population-based quality improvement interventions. By collaborating with others, I have worked to more completely understand physician decision making in order to lay the groundwork for designing interventions to improve diabetes management in primary and specialty care. As an instructor, I have focused my efforts on medical student and residency training in primary care internal medicine, urgent care and in medical informatics. I have mentored students for both research and clinically related endeavors. In my role as assistant fellowship director in medical informatics, I advise Biomedical Informatics research fellows for research and thesis projects on an individual basis and I run formal academic meetings for our laboratory. I also serve as preceptor for residents in internal medicine completing their primary care rotations as well as for medical students on core medicine clerkships. As a primary care clinician, from the beginning of my medical training, I have placed high value on the quality longitudinal relationship that develops between physician and patient. In addition to maintaining a wonderfully rewarding primary care panel and to maintain a broad clinical exposure I see my own inpatients on the wards and continue practicing weekly in The Internal Medicine Associates Urgent Care Clinic.
AMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings. AMIA Symposium
Facilitating transitions to EMR adoption through client-side electronic documentation. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2007 Oct 11; 992.
Facilitating transitions to EMR adoption through client-side electronic documentation.
Celi LA, Tang RJ, Villarroel MC, Davidzon GA, Lester WT, Chueh HC
A Clinical Database-Driven Approach to Decision Support: Predicting Mortality Among Patients with Acute Kidney Injury. J Healthc Eng. 2011 Mar; 2(1):97-110.
A Clinical Database-Driven Approach to Decision Support: Predicting Mortality Among Patients with Acute Kidney Injury.
Atlas SJ, Grant RW, Lester WT, Ashburner JM, Chang Y, Barry MJ, Chueh HC
A cluster-randomized trial of a primary care informatics-based system for breast cancer screening. J Gen Intern Med. 2011 Feb; 26(2):154-61.
A cluster-randomized trial of a primary care informatics-based system for breast cancer screening.
Proceedings of the 27th Annual Meeting of the Society of General Internal Medicine
Guidelines vs reality: Physician explanations for not adjusting cholesterol therapy. Proceedings of the 27th Annual Meeting of the Society of General Internal Medicine. 2004.
Guidelines vs reality: Physician explanations for not adjusting cholesterol therapy
Zai AH, Grant RW, Estey G, Lester WT, Andrews CT, Yee R, Mort E, Chueh HC
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA
Lessons from implementing a combined workflow-informatics system for diabetes management. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2008 Jul-Aug; 15(4):524-33.
Lessons from implementing a combined workflow-informatics system for diabetes management.
Pablo Moreno-Ger, Javier Torrente, Yichuan Grace Hsieh, William T Lester
Usability Testing for Serious Games: Making Informed Design Decisions with User Data
Advances in Human-Computer Interaction. Usability Testing for Serious Games: Making Informed Design Decisions with User Data. 2012; 2012:Article ID 369637, 13 pages.
Lester WT, Fernandez B, Gonzalez R, Barr R
American Society Of Mechanical Engineers
A neural network approach to electromyographic signal processing for a motor control task. American Society Of Mechanical Engineers. 1994.
A neural network approach to electromyographic signal processing for a motor control task
Marion V. Nelson Professor of Biomedical Informatics
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Part-time
Donald A. B. Lindberg Professor of Pediatrics
Practical Aspects of Implementing and Applying Health Care Cloud Computing Services and Informatics to Cancer Clinical Trial Data. JCO Clin Cancer Inform. 2021 08; 5:826-832.
Practical Aspects of Implementing and Applying Health Care Cloud Computing Services and Informatics to Cancer Clinical Trial Data.
Precision Medicine Landscape of Genomic Testing for Patients With Cancer in the National Institutes of Health All of Us Database Using Informatics Approaches. JCO Clin Cancer Inform. 2022 01; 6:e2100152.
Precision Medicine Landscape of Genomic Testing for Patients With Cancer in the National Institutes of Health All of Us Database Using Informatics Approaches.
Mary Ellen Avery Professor of Pediatrics
Feldman MJ, Hoffer EP, Conley JJ, Chang J, Chung JA, Jernigan MC, Lester WT, Strasser ZH, Chueh HC
Dedicated AI Expert System vs Generative AI With Large Language Model for Clinical Diagnoses. JAMA Netw Open. 2025 05 01; 8(5):e2512994.
Dedicated AI Expert System vs Generative AI With Large Language Model for Clinical Diagnoses.
Sex-specific patterns and differences in dementia and Alzheimer's disease using informatics approaches. J Women Aging. 2016; 28(5):403-11.
Sex-specific patterns and differences in dementia and Alzheimer's disease using informatics approaches.
Journal of innovation in health informatics
Assessing the readiness of precision medicine interoperabilty: An exploratory study of the National Institutes of Health genetic testing registry. J Innov Health Inform. 2017 Nov 17; 24(4):918.
Assessing the readiness of precision medicine interoperabilty: An exploratory study of the National Institutes of Health genetic testing registry.
Journal of public health (Oxford, England)
Using informatics to guide public health policy during the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA. J Public Health (Oxf). 2020 11 23; 42(4):660-664.
Using informatics to guide public health policy during the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA.
Pharmacogenomic testing and prescribing patterns for patients with cancer in a large national precision medicine cohort. J Med Genet. 2023 01; 60(1):81-83.
Pharmacogenomic testing and prescribing patterns for patients with cancer in a large national precision medicine cohort.
Award Winner MGH Clinical Research Day: FastTrack to Improved Hyperlipidemia Management: Closing the
Studies in health technology and informatics
Facilitated lipid management using interactive e-mail: preliminary results of a randomized controlled trial. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2004; 107(Pt 1):232-6.
Facilitated lipid management using interactive e-mail: preliminary results of a randomized controlled trial.
Marsh DR, Hinds LR, Lester WS, Reinking BE, Booth FW
The force-frequency relationship is altered in regenerating and senescent rat skeletal muscle. Muscle Nerve. 1998 Oct; 21(10):1265-74.
The force-frequency relationship is altered in regenerating and senescent rat skeletal muscle.
New models of population management for patients with diabetes--using informatics tools to support primary care. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2006 Dec; 74 Suppl 2:S220-4.
New models of population management for patients with diabetes--using informatics tools to support primary care.
Designing healthcare information technology to catalyse change in clinical care. Inform Prim Care. 2008; 16(1):9-19.
Designing healthcare information technology to catalyse change in clinical care.
Robbins GK, Lester W, Johnson KL, Chang Y, Estey G, Surrao D, Zachary K, Lammert SM, Chueh HC, Meigs JB, Freedberg KA
Efficacy of a clinical decision-support system in an HIV practice: a randomized trial. Ann Intern Med. 2012 Dec 04; 157(11):757-66.
Efficacy of a clinical decision-support system in an HIV practice: a randomized trial.
Grant RW, Wexler DJ, Watson AJ, Lester WT, Cagliero E, Campbell EG, Nathan DM
How doctors choose medications to treat type 2 diabetes: a national survey of specialists and academic generalists. Diabetes Care. 2007 Jun; 30(6):1448-53.
How doctors choose medications to treat type 2 diabetes: a national survey of specialists and academic generalists.
Lester WT, Ashburner JM, Grant RW, Chueh HC, Barry MJ, Atlas SJ
Mammography FastTrack: an intervention to facilitate reminders for breast cancer screening across a heterogeneous multi-clinic primary care network. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2009 Mar-Apr; 16(2):187-95.
Mammography FastTrack: an intervention to facilitate reminders for breast cancer screening across a heterogeneous multi-clinic primary care network.
Lester WT, Gonzalez RV, Fernandez B, Barr RE
A neural network approach to electromyographic signal processing for a motor control task. 1997; 119(2):335-337.
Irwin L, Kotton CN, Elias N, Palafox J, Basler D, Shao SH, Lester W, Zhang X, Kimball B, Trencher C, Fishman JA
Transplant infectious disease : an official journal of the Transplantation Society
Utilization of increased risk for transmission of infectious disease donor organs in solid organ transplantation: Retrospective analysis of disease transmission and safety. Transpl Infect Dis. 2017 Dec; 19(6).
Utilization of increased risk for transmission of infectious disease donor organs in solid organ transplantation: Retrospective analysis of disease transmission and safety.
Facilitating group learning and dialogue between neighboring academic institutions using a collaborative web application framework. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2007 Oct 11; 1107.
Facilitating group learning and dialogue between neighboring academic institutions using a collaborative web application framework.
Atlas SJ, Ashburner JM, Chang Y, Lester WT, Barry MJ, Grant RW
Population-based breast cancer screening in a primary care network. Am J Manag Care. 2012 12; 18(12):821-9.
Population-based breast cancer screening in a primary care network.
Lester WT, Grant RW, Barnett GO, Chueh HC
Randomized controlled trial of an informatics-based intervention to increase statin prescription for secondary prevention of coronary disease. J Gen Intern Med. 2006 Jan; 21(1):22-9.
Randomized controlled trial of an informatics-based intervention to increase statin prescription for secondary prevention of coronary disease.
Mid-America Orthopaedic Association Annual Meeting
Comparison of cement stresses in all-polyethylene and metal-backed total knee replacements. Mid-America Orthopaedic Association Annual Meeting. 1996.
Comparison of cement stresses in all-polyethylene and metal-backed total knee replacements
42nd Annual Meeting, Orthopaedic Research Society
Cement stresses under all-polyethylene tibial total knee replacements. 42nd Annual Meeting, Orthopaedic Research Society. 1996.
Cement stresses under all-polyethylene tibial total knee replacements
Quicksilver: a novel publish and subscribe clinical messaging platform. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2007 Oct 11; 1030.
Quicksilver: a novel publish and subscribe clinical messaging platform.
Journal of diabetes science and technology
Diabetes information technology: designing informatics systems to catalyze change in clinical care. J Diabetes Sci Technol. 2008 Mar; 2(2):275-83.
Diabetes information technology: designing informatics systems to catalyze change in clinical care.
Proceedings of the 5th Scientific Forum on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research in Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke
Closing the knowledge-performance gap of hperlipidemia management: preliminary results of a randomized controlled trial. Proceedings of the 5th Scientific Forum on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research in Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke. 2004.
Closing the knowledge-performance gap of hperlipidemia management: preliminary results of a randomized controlled trial
Genetic testing behavior and reporting patterns in electronic medical records for physicians trained in a primary care specialty or subspecialty. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2012 Jul-Aug; 19(4):570-4.
Genetic testing behavior and reporting patterns in electronic medical records for physicians trained in a primary care specialty or subspecialty.