We are excited to announce the launch of a new Enterprise Research Center, the Center for HeAlthSystemScIenceS(CHASSIS). CHASSIS will be co-led by Dr. Yhenneko Taylor, Assistant Vice President and Adjunct Associate Professor of Social Sciences and Health Policy, and Dr. Nicholas Pajewski, Associate Professor of Biostatistics and Data Science and Director of Statistical Analytics for the Center for Healthcare Innovation. CHASSIS will support the growth of our next generation Academic Learning Health System (aLHS) by providing an enterprise-wide, multidisciplinary methodologic home for aLHS-focused research. It represents the successful combination of the Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation’s (CORE) track record in health system-focused research in the Charlotte market and the rich academic portfolio of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
The focus of CHASSIS will be successfully competing for extramural funding to support pragmatic research studies aimed at improving care delivery and advancing healthcare equity. The center will partner with faculty across the Enterprise and will support health system-funded projects that have been mutually reviewed and approved by the Health System and School of Medicine leadership to further our collective goal of becoming a preeminent aLHS. Information sessions describing the goals, structure, and collaboration opportunities for CHASSIS are planned for the near future.
Our sincere thanks to Dr. Andy McWilliams, Dr. Matt Sullivan and Andy Crowder for their roles in leading CORE and partnering to make this transition a reality.
If you are interested in becoming a member or requesting more information, please click the button below. Alternatively, please direct questions to
Dr. Taylor (Yhenneko.Taylor@atriumhealth.org) and Dr. Pajewski
(npajewsk@wakehealth.edu).
Background on CHASSIS’ Directors
Dr. Nicholas Pajewski is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Data Science, Director of Statistical Analytics for the Center for Health Care Innovation, and also an Associate Director for the Center for Biomedical Informatics. Dr. Pajewski is a biostatistician and clinical trialist with experience in large, multi-site randomized trials, largely focused on pharmacologic management of common chronic diseases in older adults. Dr. Pajewski's research also centers around leveraging the electronic health record (EHR) and other administrative data sources for pragmatic trials, health services research, and population health. In particular, he has worked for several years on the electronic Frailty Index, a risk stratification tool based on the deficit accumulation model of frailty that has been integrated into the EHR (WakeOne) since 2019. Nick received his bachelor’s degree in Statistics from Loyola University-Chicago and a PhD in Biostatistics from the Medical College of Wisconsin. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University at Alabama at Birmingham before coming to Wake Forest in 2010.
Dr. Yhenneko Taylor is Assistant Vice President for Information Analytics and Outcomes Research at Atrium Health and Adjunct Associate Professor of Social Sciences and Health Policy at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She previously served as founding director of the health services research program within the Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, where she led an interdisciplinary team that collaborated with clinicians and other stakeholders to improve care delivery and patient outcomes by conducting real-world studies leveraging quantitative and qualitative research methods. As a health equity researcher, she studies access to care and outcomes of pregnancy, social determinants of health and health care needs of vulnerable populations and has published more than sixty peer-reviewed articles on these topics. Dr. Taylor received her Master’s in Statistics from North Carolina State University and her PhD in Health Services Research from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she is associate graduate faculty and member of the Public Health Advisory Board.