Severe aortic stenosis (AS) is a life-threatening condition with a high mortality rate if left untreated. Studies show that symptomatic severe AS can have a 50% mortality rate within one year, yet timely intervention with aortic valve replacement (AVR) significantly improves survival outcomes. Despite the availability of effective treatment, many cases go unnoticed or unaddressed due to gaps in clinical workflows and provider follow-up. The ValveAccess project aims to bridge this gap by integrating cardiology imaging databases with Epic to create an automated, real-time patient identification and referral pipeline. The system detects severe AS findings in echocardiograms and automatically alerts the patient's care team. If no action is taken within 14 days, an automatic referral is triggered to the Cardiac Valve Center for further evaluation. By leveraging technology to streamline clinical decision-making, ValveAccess represents a scalable life-saving innovation in health sciences.
Speaker/Host
The APeX Enabled Research (AER) team at UCSF supports researchers in utilizing UCSF's Epic instance to advance their research and clinical trials. In my role as an AER Build Analyst, I work closely with researchers to implement their algorithms, digital tools, and interventions within APeX. I collaborate with teams across UCSF and external sites to develop tailored technical solutions—from disease registries and clinical detection tools to SMART on FHIR integrations, SQL queries, and custom workflows. The work the AER team does aims to bridge the gap between the research and health systems, implementing technology to support data-driven clinical innovation and outcome evaluation.
Co-speaker(s)
Jory Purvis is the Technical Lead for the APeX (Epic) Enabled Research Team at the University of California, San Francisco. He and his team support the full research project lifecycle—from initial study design, scoping, and budgeting to grant submissions and ongoing implementation. Their work includes developing innovative Epic configurations, supporting multi-site study implementations, and enabling external system integrations to advance clinical research across institutions.