HBHI is excited to announce the 2026 Pilot Grant awardees! From the many strong applications from across Johns Hopkins University, five research project proposals and two workgroup proposals have been awarded.

HBHI sought pilot projects and workgroup proposals that advance its mission to incubate and accelerate collaborative research within the domains of at least one of the HBHI strategic pillars:

Market Competition and Healthcare Policy

Health Delivery Performance

Health of Populations and Health Equity

Innovation: Health Technology and Systems

Read about the winning pilots and teams below.  Congratulations on such excellent proposals!

Research Project Awards

Assessing the Fairness of the Kidney Failure Risk Equation as a Decision Tool

PI: Marika M. Cusick (BSPH)

Co-I(s): Kadija Ferryman (BSPH); Elyse Lasser (BSPH); Hadi Kharrazi (BSPH)

Project Description: The objective of this project is to evaluate whether the Kidney Failure Risk Equation supports fair clinical decision-making across racial and ethnic groups, particularly at the risk thresholds recommended by clinical guidelines. Adults from racial and ethnic minority groups, who experience a higher burden of kidney disease and are underrepresented in data used to develop prediction algorithms, may be more likely to receive inaccurate risk estimates and subsequent misinformed care decisions. This pilot project will serve as preliminary evidence towards developing a generalizable framework for algorithmic evaluation centered on fair decision-making at decision thresholds. 

Understanding Physician Learning and Prescribing Decisions: Micro Evidence from Medicare Part D Claim Data

PI: Andrew T. Ching (Carey Business School).

Co-I(s): Daniel L. Chen; Elissa Philip Gentry; Matthew L. Gentry

Project Description: This project will identify the significant determinants of physician prescription decisions, use our model estimates to quantify the value of counterfactual policies meant to improve physician learning, and propose practical regulatory and private interventions to bridge the gap between legal assumptions and the reality of prescription decisions. These practical deliverables are important to patient welfare considering the difficulty and disparity pursuing ex-post compensation for medical injuries.

Patterns and Outcomes of Remote Patient Monitoring in Medicare

PI: Anjali Bhatla (SOM) and Ravi Gupta (SOM)

Project Description: This study will use national Medicare claims data to examine adoption and real-world impacts of remote patient monitoring (RPM), a technology that collects and relays patient health data to clinicians, across diverse clinical settings and patient populations. By characterizing patterns of RPM use and assessing associations with key health outcomes, including acute care utilization, this research will generate evidence to inform payment policy, clinical practice, and equitable implementation. Findings will advance understanding of how digital health tools influence care delivery and outcomes for adults with chronic conditions and guide value-based care strategies and policy decisions.

Quantifying the Return on Investment of Ambient AI Scribes

PI: Brian Hasselfeld (SOM).

Co-I(s): Helen K. Hughes (SOM); Tej D. Azad (SOM); Derek J. Baughman (SOM)

Project Description: Leveraging health system-wide rollout of ambient AI scribe technology, this pilot will quantify how documentation-related time savings translate into increased patient access versus reduced after-hours work, and whether improved documentation changes per visit billing.  Using a provider-level difference-in-differences design, the goal of this pilot is to produce a clinic-archetype AI scribe deployment playbook and a generalizable return-on-investment calculator to guide future technology deployments.

Words Clinicians Choose: Nudging during Prognostication in Severe Acute Brain Injury

PI: Susanne Muehlschlegel (SOM).

Co-I(s): Mario Macis (Carey Business School); Gordon Gao (Carey Business School)

Project Description: Our project aims to improve the quality, equity, and patient-centeredness of care for people with severe acute brain injury, including large strokes, traumatic brain injury, and hypoxic injury after cardiac arrest—conditions that leave families to make difficult, preference-sensitive decisions during moments of profound uncertainty about the future. Using a unique multi-center repository of audio-recorded and transcribed clinician–family meetings in the neuro–intensive care unit, we will apply qualitative methods and advanced artificial intelligence tools to identify biased or misleading “nudges” in prognostic communication that may unintentionally steer decisions, such as prematurely withdrawing life-sustaining treatment. We will also conduct a population-based survey to understand how the public distinguishes between acceptable and unacceptable nudges in this context. Together, these efforts will generate the first empirically grounded framework to detect “bad” nudges and lay the foundation for future interventions that improve communication, foster trust, and support decisions aligned with patients’ values, while advancing HBHI pillars by optimizing resource use and reducing costly, inequitable decisions that are misaligned with what patients would have wanted.

Workgroup Awards

Post-Acute Care Payment and Policy Workgroup

Co-Leads: Melinda Buntin (BSPH); Bruce Leff (SOM); Kathryn Linehan (BSPH); Katherine Miller (BSPH); Kali Thomas (SON)

Project Description: The Post-Acute Care Payment and Policy Workgroup aims to foster interdisciplinary research on post-acute care payment and delivery reform. By building shared analytic tools and fostering collaboration across disciplines, it will enable Hopkins researchers to pursue external funding and deliver timely, policy-relevant analyses. The workgroup will support these goals through shared research infrastructure, engagement with external experts, and mentorship of early-career investigators.

Learning Health System Symposium

Co-Leads: Jodi Segal (SOM); Risa Wolf (SOM)

Project Description: This proposal, led by Dr Jodi Segal and Dr Risa Wolf, will support the development of a multidisciplinary workgroup focused on advancing Learning Health Systems (LHS) science, an approach that brings together clinicians, researchers, informaticians, operational leaders, and patients to leverage internal data and scientific evidence to inform practice change and continuously improve patient care. The workgroup will connect experts from across the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health to design and host the first Johns Hopkins symposium on LHS science in June 2026. Through this effort, the group will highlight existing work, foster collaboration across disciplines, and identify shared priorities for strengthening Johns Hopkins as a leading learning health system.