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About Me
I’m a general pediatrician at MetroHealth and Professor of Pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University. For over 30 years, I’ve had the privilege of caring for children and supporting families through every stage of their health journey. I believe in empowering parents with clear, thoughtful medical guidance to help their kids thrive.
In addition to my clinical work, I serve as MetroHealth’s Director of Informatics for Clinical Decision Support. I’m passionate about using technology to improve care—making it safer, smarter, and more personalized for every patient.
Outside of medicine, I enjoy spending time with family and friends, reading both fiction and nonfiction, and playing the cello, which I began learning as an adult. Whether in the exam room or through innovation, my goal is always the same: to help children grow up healthy, supported, and understood.
SPECIFIC RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Clinical informatics approaches to improving pediatric and adult hypertension diagnosis and management
- Improving pediatric and adult immunization rates
Selected Recent Projects
Immunization
- Self-scheduled immunizations: When an immunization is due in Health Maintenance, configure MyChart to allow pediatric and adult patients to self-schedule appointments in the appropriate venue.
- Risk-based immunization forecasts: Extend our Health Maintenance functionality to detect patient-specific risk factors of vaccine preventable diseases and have that risk impact which vaccines are due and when.
- Support for combination vaccine ordering: Collaborating with developers at the Epic Corporation to create improved tools to support ordering of combination vaccines which satisfy multiple Health Maintenance Topics. The functionality will be informed by what we have hard coded at MetroHealth but will be informed by low-code modifications by subject matter experts at local sites.
Improved tracking of preventative care for Women’s Health
- New functionality to forecast Automated Breast Ultrasound (ABUS) for patients who need an additional test because of breast tissue density.
- Improved forecasting of Pap Smears based on the latest cervical cancer screening results.
Adolescent depression screening
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- Forecast yearly PHQ2 starting at age 12 years with at least a 3-month gap between questionnaires.
- Make the questionnaire appear automagically in advance of the visit via MyChart, or on check-in (paper or kiosk).
Dr. David Bar-Shain’s career profoundly impacts healthcare, marked by accolades reflecting his dedication to patients, education, and medical informatics. His journey inspires through passion and innovation.
In 2017, Dr. Bar-Shain received the prestigious PACademy Award from Epic Systems, a peer-selected honor from hundreds of physicians for "outstanding contributions to the Epic community," showcasing his global influence in empowering clinicians to better care for patients with computers. In 2021, he became a Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association and received the Byron Oberst Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics. This honor celebrates his significant contributions to improving pediatric clinical systems, educating health professionals in technology, and shaping health policies, underscoring his pivotal role in child health informatics.
His commitment to nurturing future medical professionals is equally profound. He earned multiple Excellence in Teaching Awards from MetroHealth's Department of Pediatrics , chosen by residents for "outstanding effort and achievement in resident education." This culminated in the Mark Richards Humanism in Medicine Award in 2007, recognizing him as a "caring, compassionate, and inspiring mentor" practicing patient-centered care. His influence extends to integrated care, exemplified by the Excellence in Interprofessional Teaching Award from Psychiatry in 2018.
These awards paint a vivid portrait of Dr. Bar-Shain: a physician dedicated to making a profound difference—impacting patients, empowering colleagues, and shaping healthcare through innovative leadership. His journey is a powerful reminder of what expertise and unwavering commitment achieve.
PubMed Publications
- The Impact of a Bidirectional Clinic to Community Social Care Referral Program Abstract: CONCLUSIONS: An EHR-facilitated, closed-loop CCL program to address patients' social needs is feasible. Further research on the comparative effectiveness and sustainability of models to address social needs will be critical in advancing health equity.
- Missed anti-D immune globulin administration to postpartum patients in 2 health systems: an unrecognized patient safety risk Abstract: CONCLUSION: Given the serious nature of Rh-alloimmunization, we believe missed prophylaxis should be a never event. Through examination of our current processes, we identified areas of improvement and developed a Postpartum Anti-D Immune Globulin Prophylaxis Electronic Health Record Toolkit, which showed improvement in administration rates. Such a toolkit has the potential to identify patients appropriately and avoid missed anti-D immune globulin prophylaxis events.
- Improving Timeliness of Antibiotic Administration Using a Provider and Pharmacist Facing Sepsis Early Warning System in the Emergency Department Setting: A Randomized Controlled Quality Improvement Initiative Abstract: CONCLUSIONS: In this single-center randomized quality improvement initiative, the display of an electronic health record-based sepsis early warning system-triggered flag combined with electronic health record-based pharmacist notification was associated with shorter time to antibiotic administration without an increase in undesirable or potentially harmful clinical interventions.
- Improving Regional Blood Pressure Control: a Positive Deviance Tiered Intensity Approach Abstract: CONCLUSIONS: Employing a positive deviance approach can accelerate translation of real-world best practices into care across diverse health systems in the context of a regional health improvement collaborative (RHIC). Using this approach within RHICs nationwide could translate to meaningful improvements in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
- Using Preventive Health Alerts in the Electronic Health Record Improves Hepatitis C Virus Testing Among Infants Perinatally Exposed to Hepatitis C Abstract: CONCLUSIONS: Among children with perinatal HCV exposure, using a point-of-care alert within the EHR significantly increased the HCV antibody testing rate in accordance with American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommendations. More effective EHR-based interventions combined with increased provider awareness of appropriate HCV testing in perinatally exposed infants is imperative.
- Association of Repeated Measurements With Blood Pressure Control in Primary Care Abstract: This observational cohort study evaluated the effect of a second blood pressure (BP) measurement on the rate of BP control among more than 38 000 patients with diagnosed hypertension and who were followed in primary care.
- Advanced Clinical Decision Support for Vaccine Adverse Event Detection and Reporting Abstract: CONCLUSIONS: An open-source, electronic health record-based clinical decision support system can increase AE detection and reporting rates in VAERS.
- Direct messaging to parents/guardians to improve adolescent immunizations Abstract: CONCLUSIONS: Automated texts, voice messages, and postcards had a significant positive effect on vaccination rates in adolescents needing vaccination and required minimal financial expenditure.
Education & Training
Education
Medical Education
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (Ohio) MDResidency
Rainbow Babies and Childrens Hospital (Ohio) – PediatricsInternship
Rainbow Babies and Childrens Hospital (Ohio) – PediatricsBoard Certifications
American Board of Pediatrics - PediatricsAmerican Board of Preventive Medicine - Clinical Informatics