An internationally respected informatics and healthcare research organization, the Regenstrief Institute is recognized for its role in improving quality of care, increasing efficiency of healthcare delivery, preventing medical errors and enhancing patient safety. Established in 1969 by philanthropist Sam Regenstrief on the Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis campus, the Institute is supported by the Regenstrief Foundation and closely affiliated with the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County, Indiana.

Institute investigators, including President and CEO William Tierney, M.D., who also serves as Associate Dean for Clinical Effectiveness Research at the IU School of Medicine, and Institute program directors, Christopher Callahan, M.D., J. Marc Overhage, M.D., Ph.D. and Michael Weiner, M.D., M.P.H., form a highly respected cadre of researchers linked to one of the largest and most comprehensive medical informatics laboratories in the world.

Regenstrief receives $3 million per year in core support from the Regenstrief Foundation and has an annual operating budget of approximately $23 million derived from grants and contracts from the National Institutes of Health, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, national philanthropies, Indianapolis healthcare institutions, and others.

Biomedical Informatics

Over the past three and a half decades, Regenstrief's research scientists have been developing the Regenstrief Medical Records System (RMRS), one of the nation's first electronic medical record systems and the keystone of many Institute activities.  In addition to being a critical research tool, RMRS serves as the day-to-day electronic medical records system at Wishard Hospital and its affiliated community clinics, Methodist Hospital, University Hospital and Riley Hospital for Children.  Regenstrief's Informaticians have created the nation's only citywide electronic medical records system which currently allows emergency department physicians, with the patient's permission, to view as a single virtual record all previous care at any of 18 participating hospitals.  RMRS has been widely recognized for its role in improving quality of care, increasing efficiency of healthcare delivery, preventing medical errors and enhancing patient safety.

Over 32 million physician orders have been entered into the computerized provider order entry system of the RMRS that provides unique clinical decision support and guidelines.  RMRS has a data base of 6 million patients, with 900 million on-line coded results, 20 million full reports including diagnostic studies, procedure results, operative notes and discharge summaries, and 65 million radiology images.

Over the past quarter century, the Institute's informatics group has pioneered international electronic message standards for medical records including the development of HL7, the standard for electronic data interchange in health care.  They also developed the Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC®) system, a standard nomenclature that enables the electronic transmission of clinical data from laboratories that produce the data to hospitals, physician's offices and payers who use the data (now over 50,000 observation terms) for clinical care and management purposes. 

The Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Improvement and Research (RCHIR) was founded in July 2007 by the Regenstrief Foundation to serve the current and looming demand for clinical data management, retrieval, and analyses. The center enhances the content and use of clinical data repositories for quality improvement and epidemiologic and prospective research. RCHIR is a center within the Regenstrief Institute that brings together the complementary expertise of users and producers of information critical to care improvement and research. The center provides services that include: timely data extraction, risk profiles, market projections, surveillance reports, clinical activity analyses, pre-research information, research data support, and other deliverables required for facile adaption and success in the rapidly evolving health care quality and translational research marketplaces.
 

Center for Health Services Research

Long known for outstanding health services research, Regenstrief Institute’s Center for Health Services Research encompasses interdisciplinary, multi-site activity that builds on the expertise of its faculty in assessing factors essential to implementing healthcare systems improvement. Core research faculty examine the complete picture of healthcare - from the level of the patient, care team, organization, medical community, and environment - to streamline the delivery of care and specifically improve the health outcomes of patients.  Regenstrief HSR scientists drive high-impact lines of research from within the VA HSR&D Center of Excellence on Implementing Evidence-Based Practice (VA CIEBP), the IU Center for Health Services and Outcomes Research (IU CHSOR), and from within the Institute itself, under a shared mission to advance the science of transforming the healthcare system, locally, regionally and nationally.

Indiana University Center for Aging Research

Founded in 1997, the mission of the Indiana University Center for Aging Research (IU-CAR) is to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of health care for older adults.  IU-CAR defines healthcare broadly to include prevention and treatment in the formal medical care system as well as activities that promote health and wellness through a variety of family and community-based providers and services.  Of particular interest is a patient-centered approach to health care that seeks to integrate care across providers and sites of care.  Consistent with this goal of integration and origins in Regenstrief, IU-CAR's research exploits the capacities of the electronic medical record to improve communication and coordination of care across the continuum of care.  Researchers in IU-CAR enjoy national and international recognition for their expertise in clinical research on the aging brain, health promotion, innovative models of collaborative care, and the quickly emerging field of gero-informatics.
 

Education and Training

The Institute offers outstanding education and training opportunities to those interested in academic and research careers.

Postdoctoral research fellowships are available for clinician (physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, other health care professionals) and PhD scientists.  These focus on health services and outcomes research, and on a number of content areas including geriatrics, implementation, patient safety, mental health, stroke, pain, and cancer.  The medical informatics fellowship program prepares individuals for careers in academic medicine as well as other health care organizations.

The Clinical Investigator and Translational Education (CITE) Program provides a range of options from selected courses to a Master of Science in Clinical Research degree.