Building a Healthier Minnesota, One Data Point at a Time | | |
The MN Electronic Health Record Consortium (MNEHRC) is a partnership between Minnesota health systems and public health agencies to provide timely and granular data to inform the real-time actions of policymakers, health system leaders, and researchers, informing health policy and practice through comprehensive data and collaboration. Nestled within the MN EHRC are several statewide and community projects, including Health Trends Across Communities (HTAC). According to HTAC co-founder Tyler Winkelman, MD, MSc, this robust resource has been available for about two years and is funded by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) and local public health agencies.
Prior to HTAC, local data at the census-tract level was either not available, or it was too outdated to be useful for fast-moving situations. Many states, including Minnesota, don’t have a single repository to pull real-time, region-specific health data.
“The problem that we were trying to solve is that local public health agencies spend a lot of both personnel and financial resources on putting together data for their mandated community health assessments. These are assessments that are required periodically by local public health agencies to report on the health of the population that they serve and to inform their programs and policies to improve the health of the population,” said Dr. Winkelman.
| | See How HTAC Turns Community Health Data Into Action | | Learn how HTAC provides community-level health data that helps public health leaders, policymakers, and organizations better understand local health trends and take targeted action to improve community health. | | Dr. Jason V. Baker receives two new awards to investigate improving treatment outcomes for people living with HIV and to reduce transmission of HIV and STIs in emerging and young adult men at increased risk of infections | | |
Jason V. Baker, MD, MS, has received two subawards from the National Institutes of Health and San Diego State University (SDSU) for two studies aimed at improving viral suppression outcomes for people living with HIV and improving adherence to medications to reduce transmission of HIV and STIs for young adult men at increased risk. The first subaward is a 5-year award for $1,280,519 for the project “Harnessing Multimodal AI to Reduce Virologic Failure in People Living with HIV.” The second subaward is another 5-year award for $966,371 to study “PrEP Step: A Stepped Care Approach for Improving PrEP Adherence Among Emerging and Young Adult Men in the US.”
Harnessing Multimodal AI to Reduce Virologic Failure in People Living with HIV
In the study entitled, “Harnessing Multimodal AI to Reduce Virologic Failure in People Living with HIV,” Dr. Baker will serve as the Co-Investigator (Co-I), alongside San Diego State University Principal Investigator (PI) Keith Horvath, PhD, and as the HHRI Site Principal Investigator (PI). Dr. Baker will lead and oversee the study team and work conducted at HHRI. Additionally, he will coordinate with Hennepin Healthcare’s Research Data Warehouse (RDW) team to retrieve biannual Electronic Health Record (EHR) data pulls. Using his clinical expertise, Dr. Baker will determine the implementation feasibility of AI-generated interventions, as well as provide support for data analysis and manuscript submission and publication.
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PrEP Step: A Stepped Care Approach for Improving PrEP Adherence Among Emerging and Young Adult Men in the US
In the study entitled “PrEP Step: A Stepped Care Approach for Improving PrEP Adherence Among Emerging and Young Adult Men in the US,” Dr. Baker will serve as a Multiple Principal Investigator (MPI) alongside Dr. Horvath, and HHRI researcher Jenell Stewart, DO, MPH, will be a Co-I.
Dr. Baker will direct the study team’s work at HHRI with assistance from Dr. Stewart. Dr. Stewart will lead the Doxy PEP (doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis) content and features development to update the PrEP iT! mobile app. Dr. Baker will create study controls and oversee data collection protocols. Together, Dr. Baker and Dr. Stewart will collaborate with SDSU to engage with the Community Advisory Board; contribute to enrollment goals; adapt existing protocols; oversee human specimen (dried blood spots) collection, storage, and analysis; and support data analysis and manuscript submission and publication.
| MN EHR Consortium Receives Arnold Ventures Grant Award | |
The Minnesota Electronic Health Records Consortium (MN EHRC) is a collaboration of Minnesota healthcare systems and public health agencies which provides timely, detailed data that helps policymakers, health system leaders, and researchers make informed real-time decisions. It provides in-depth, de-identified information on health equity indicators, such as race, gender, rurality, ethnicity, language, age, and other social determinants of health related to COVID-19, substance use disorders, and other chronic conditions, such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease.
The MN EHRC was recently awarded a grant from the philanthropic organization Arnold Ventures. The funding will support the Consortium's proposal "Optimizing MN EHR Consortium Processes for External Causal Research" and will be used for website updates that will make it easier for healthcare professionals, researchers and others to request data quotes and use MN EHRC data for research projects.
| | Measuring Outcomes, Stress and Time (MOST)
Study Funded for Third Year | | Photo source: September 18, 2026, Department of Medicine (DOM) Digest. MOST Project Team from top left to bottom right: Dr. Mark Linzer, Brian Imdieke, Dr. Ryan Jelinek, Mike Wambua, and Sara Poplau. | | |
The Measuring Outcomes, Stress and Time (MOST) project team will continue its ongoing study for the third year in collaboration with Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. The study, funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), is examining the relationship between time pressures and workplace stress among clinicians and diagnostic errors.
For this project, Mark Linzer, MD, and his team based at Hennepin Healthcare will be enrolling General Internal Medicine clinicians, while Harvard clinicians prepare for data collection. Surveys created by the Hennepin Healthcare team (called Brief Mini Z surveys) will be administered to gauge how clinicians fare during their workdays and how working conditions can be improved in primary care. The patients will also provide feedback on the level of care they received.
| | Dr. Rachel Nygaard receives new award from the Department of Defense (DoD) and Versiti Blood Health, Inc. to improve frostbite outcomes | | |
Rachel Nygaard, PhD, received a new subaward from the Department of Defense (DoD) and Versiti Blood Health, Inc., for the project “A Countermeasure for Microthrombosis and Tissue Injury in Freezing Cold Injury That Prevents Pathologic Fibrinogen Elevation.” This is a 3-year subaward for $58,622.
Dr. Nygaard is a Co-Investigator and Site Principal Investigator (PI) on this study, focusing not only on frostbite injury protocols, but on improving frostbite outcomes overall. An internationally recognized leader in frostbite research, she will assist with designing study models and controls, lend her expertise on frostbite injury, interpret study outcomes, and aid in developing a manuscript. Congratulations, Dr. Nygaard!
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Featured: Dr. Anne Frosch, HHRI Director of Training and Mentoring
Earlier this year, Anne Frosch, MD, MPH, was appointed as Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute’s (HHRI) Director of Training and Mentoring. A physician-scientist, Dr. Frosch is leading the program, which provides hands-on mentoring to junior faculty (MD and PhD) and resources for mid-career investigators to enhance their mentoring skills. She is working across HHRI and Hennepin Healthcare (HHS) with the long-term goal of creating a research training program for fellows and junior faculty.
Dr. Frosch brings deep research expertise and experience in mentorship to this role, with knowledge in malaria prevention and treatment and epidemiologic and qualitative research. She leads a translational immunology lab conducting both clinical and basic immunology research under HHRI’s Center for Infectious Disease Research (CeIDeR) umbrella. She has a proven track record of receiving numerous types of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding (T32/F32/K08 and R01 level), foundation and industry awards, and professional organization involvement.
Dr. Frosch’s diverse experiences will benefit mentees as they build their research programs at HHRI and help position HHRI and HHS as leaders in training the next generation of researchers who are passionate about serving the community.
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Recognizing Excellence
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| | Go Behind the Scenes on October 8: Explore HHRI Research Shaping the Future of Healthcare | | |
Join us for an evening showcasing HHRI and four of our researchers whose work is transforming healthcare. This will be an in-person event hosted by our partners at the Hennepin Healthcare Foundation on October 8, 2026, from 5:30 to 7 p.m., at Hennepin Healthcare’s Clinic and Specialty Center in downtown Minneapolis.
You’ll hear from:
The CSC is located at 715 South 8th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55404. Free parking in the CSC parking lot is accessed on Park Avenue before 8th Street.
Visit the Hennepin Healthcare Foundation to learn more!
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