College of Medicine and Wexner Medical Center | CRIO & Associate Dean for Research Information Technology
The Center for Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) | Director of Biomedical Informatics
The Center for the Advancement of Team Science, Analytics and Systems Thinking (CATALYST) | Core Member Department of Family and Community Medicine and Department of Biomedical Informatics | Professor
Research Information Technology and Center for Biostatistics
530 West Spring Street
Suite 275
Columbus, Ohio 43215
Phone: 614-333-6636
Timothy.Huerta@osumc.edu
Prior to joining the faculty at Ohio State, Dr. Huerta was the director of the Center for Healthcare Innovation, Education and Research at Texas Tech University, where he developed the infrastructure currently in use throughout the province of British Columbia for the online delivery of continuing medical education in the area of community oncology. Finally, Dr. Huerta has a long history outside of academia developing tools and technologies that support both research and practice.
Research, Education and Clinical Interests
Dr. Huerta is a nationally recognized expert on issues related to hospital productivity and process with extensive expertise in the area of outcomes as it relates to electronic health records (EHRs), health information technology (HIT) and meaningful use. In particular, his interest in non-parametric approaches to the assessment of outcomes vis-à-vis frontier methodologies has been useful in gaining a greater understanding of how the explosion of investment in HIT has impacted both research and practice. He has conducted a number of studies looking specifically at adoption of EHR technology and the differences that exist based by medical focus.Recently, Dr. Huerta has taken his knowledge and experience with large dataset analysis to address impactful areas of research. In this context, he has also worked to engage junior researchers to help them develop their research agendas and this has diversified the focus of his work beyond efficiency, including some of the first work on the use of social media by hospitals through the development of objective metrics and automated assessment and evaluation tools. Dr. Huerta has spent a great deal of time focused on the experience that people have when seeking service – including in the domain of social media. He co-developed automated tools to create objective assessment of the usability experience of individuals seeking information online. Further, he has worked with that data across a number of domains, including patient satisfaction, patient safety and facility efficiency.
Education and Training
PhD: Public administration, University of Southern California
Area concentrations: public management, organization theory and behavior
MS: Public administration, California State University, Los Angeles
Research emphasis: Public policy and organization theory
BA: Chemistry, California State University, Los Angeles
Research emphasis: biochemistry and biophysics
Faculty fellow: Public health cyber infrastructure, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)
Post-doctoral research fellow: University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine
School of Population and Public Health, Department of Health Care and Epidemiology
Editorial Activities
Editorial boards
- Associate editor, Education in the Health Professions
- Associate editor, Journal of Healthcare Management
National Positions
National organizations- Academy of Management, chair, membership committee, Healthcare Management Division
- North American Primary Care Research Group
- Family Practice Oncology Network
- American Medical Informatics Association
- National Council on Administrative Fellowship’s Benchmarks and Metrics subcommittee
- American College of Healthcare Executives
- Academy Health
- Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society
- American Society of Quality
- National Association of Parliamentarians
- Standing reviewer, Agency for Health Research and Quality
Awards and Honors
- Myron Fottler Outstanding Service Award, Academy of Management, Health Care Management Division, 2015
- Excellence in Teaching Award, Academy of Management, Health Care Management Division, 2014
The Ohio Equity Institute Evaluation (OEI)
Huerta TR, Tumin, R (Co-PIs)
Competitive Grant: $1,118,892
11/2017-06/2018. Ohio Department of Medicaid
Infant Mortality Research Partnership, Phase 2
Gabbe (PI), Co-Is: Huerta TR, Hebert C, Lemeshow S
Competitive Grant: $206,433
04/2017-03/2021. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (R-01)
Searching for Management Approaches to Reduce HAI Transmission (SMART)
McAlearney AS (PI), Co-Is: Huerta TR, Sieck C, Hefner J, Hebert C
Competitive Grant: $1,887,609.
03/2017-02/2018. Crisafi-Monte Endowment Fund
Trending Research, Extension and National Dissemination Study (TRENDS): Accelerating the Value of HINTS as an Asset for Discovery
Huerta TR (PI), Co-Is: McAlearney AS, Sieck CJ, Hefner, J
Competitive Endowment Grant: $50,000.
07/2016-06/2018. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (R-01)
Development and Evaluation of Socio-Technical Metrics to Inform HIT Adaptation
Yen PY (PI), Co-Is: McAlearney AS, Huerta TR, Sieck C, Hefner J
Competitive Grant: $300,000.
09/2015-08/2019. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (R-01)
High Touch and High Tech (HT2): Transforming Patient Engagement Throughout the Continuum of Care by Engaging Patients with Portal Technology at the Bedside
McAlearney AS (PI), Co-Is: Huerta TR, Sieck C, Moffatt-Bruce S, Hefner J, Johansen M, Wallace L, Rizer MK
Competitive Grant: $973,109.
09/2015-08/2019. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (P-30)
Patient Safety Learning Laboratories: Information for the Design of Environments Aligned for Patient Safety (IDEA4PS)
Moffatt-Bruce SD (PI) Project Directors: McAlearney AS, Co-PD: Huerta, TR
Competitive Grant: $3,963,276.
Huerta TR, Walker DM*, Johnson T*, Ford EW. 2016. “A Time Series Analysis of Cancer-Related Information Seeking: Hints From the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) 2003-2014.” J Health Communications. Sep;21(9):1031-8.
Walker DM*, Johnson T*, Ford EW, Huerta TR. 2016. “Trust me, I’m a doctor: Examining changes in how privacy concerns affect patient disclosure.” Journal of Medical Internet Research. Vol. 19, no. 1: e2.
Bae, J*, Ford, EW, Wu, S*, Huerta, TR. (Accepted Sept 2017). “Electronic Reminder’s Role in Promoting Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Use.” American Journal of Managed Care. 2018 Jan Vol. 24, no. 1.
Best A, Tenkasi R, Trochim W, Lau F, Holmes B, Huerta TR. 2006. “Systemic Transformational Change in Tobacco Control: An Overview of the Initiative for the Study and Implementation of Systems (ISIS).” Innovations in Health Care: A Reality Check. Pg4.
Lau F, Best A, Huerta TR, Kerner J. 2007. “What We Know: Managing the Knowledge Content.” Greater Than The Sum: Systems Thinking in Tobacco Control. (18):185-224.
Provan KP, Contractor N, Huerta TR, Kerner J. 2007. “Understanding and Managing Stakeholder Networks.” Greater Than The Sum: Systems Thinking in Tobacco Control. (18):147-83.
Trochim B, Tenkasi R, Milstein B, Berland A, Best GL, Huerta TR. 2007. “How to Organize: Items Organizing.” Greater Than The Sum: Systems Thinking in Tobacco Control. (18):61-108.
Provan KG, Clark PI, Huerta TR. 2008. “Transdisciplinarity among tobacco harm-reduction researchers: a network analytic approach.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Aug;35(2 Suppl):S173-81.
Huerta TR, Ford EW, Peterson LT, Brigham KH. 2008. “Testing the hospital value proposition: an empirical analysis of efficiency and quality.” Health Care Management Review. Oct-Dec;33(4):341-9.
Norman C, Best A, Mortimer S, Huerta TR, Buchan A. 2011. “Promoting Interdisciplinarity in the Life Sciences: A Case Study.” Research Evaluation. 20(4):283-92.
Peterson LT, Ford EW, Eberhardt J, Huerta TR, Menachemi N. 2011. “Assessing differences between physicians' realized and anticipated gains from electronic health record adoption.” Journal of Medical Systems. Apr; 35(2):151-61.
Huerta TR, Ford EW, Peterson LT, Brigham KH. 2008. “Testing the hospital value proposition: an empirical analysis of efficiency and quality.” Health Care Management Review. Oct-Dec;33(4):341-9.
Ford EW, Menachemi N, Peterson LT, Huerta TR. 2009. “Resistance is futile: but it is slowing the pace of EHR adoption nonetheless.” Journal of The American Medical Informatics Association. May-Jun;16(3):274-81.
Huerta TR, Thompson MA, Ford EW, Ford WF. 2013. “Electronic Health Record Implementation and Hospitals' Total Factor Productivity.” Decision Support Systems. 55(2):450-58.
Ford EW, Huerta TR, Menachemi N, Thompson MA, Yu F.2013. “Health information technology vendor selection strategies and total factor productivity.” Health Care Management Review. Jul-Sep; 38(3):177-87.
Ford EW, Huerta TR, Diana ML, Kazley AS, Menachemi N. 2013. “Patient satisfaction scores and their relationship to hospital website quality measures.” Health Marketing Quarterly. 30(4):334-48.
Huerta, TR, Thompson, MA, Ford, EW, Ford, WF. 2013. “Electronic Health Record Implementation and Hospitals’ Total Factor Productivity.” Decision Support Systems. May; 55(2) SI:450-458.
Huerta, TR, Walker, DM*, Ford, EW. 2015. “Cancer Center Website Rankings in the USA: Expanding Benchmarks and Standards for Effective Public Outreach and Education.” Journal of Cancer Education. 1-10. Oct 16.
Johansen, ME*, Kircher, SM, Huerta, TR. 2016. “Reexamining the Ecology of Medical Care Revisited.” New England Journal of Medicine. Feb 4; 374(5):495-6.
Ford, EW, Hesse, BW, Huerta, TR. 2016. “Personal Health Record Use in the United States: Forecasting Future Adoption Levels.” Journal of Medical Internet Research. Mar 30; 18(3):e73.
Huerta TR, Hefner JL, Ford EW, McAlearney AS, Menachemi N. 2014. “Hospital website rankings in the United States: expanding benchmarks and standards for effective consumer engagement.” Journal of Medical Internet Research. Feb 25; 16(2):e64.
Huerta TR, Walker DM, Ford EW. 2016. “An Evaluation and Ranking of Children's Hospital Websites in the United States.” Journal of Medical Internet Research. 2016 Aug 22; 18(8):e228.
Huerta TR, Harle CA, Ford EW, Diana ML, Menachemi N. 2016. “Measuring Patient Satisfaction's Relationship to Hospital Cost Efficiency: Can Administrators Make a Difference?” Health Care Management Review. Jan-Mar. 41(1):56-63.