Waqas Amin, MD, MSIS, is the new Associate Director of Informatics with Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI). His main role is to oversee the process of data retrieval from various systems and translating them into a streamlined database to benefit Indiana CTSI researchers. He will also work with other researchers on individual projects.
Waqas Amin, MD
Amin started his career as a physician in Pakistan. Seven years later, he came to the United States and started working on research in biomedical informatics. Amin built his career at the University of Pittsburgh and attained a masters in information science. Amin has progressive experience in clinical disease, translational science (including virtual biobanking and clinical data warehouse), data collection and analysis, and operations management. He also has an extensive background in translating electronic health record (EHR) data to fulfill the needs of multiple research projects by developing ontology. He has also played roles in developing standard operating procedures (SOPs) for recruiting patients in research studies, collecting of biological specimens, and answering research queries for the investigators. Amin is well-known for publishing articles related to tumor histology, biobanking, laboratory information system, and clinical data warehouse.
“In clinical informatics, I was part of several national programs, one called CTSI Access to Clinical Trials,” said Amin. “I was co-investigator at Pittsburgh so I was involved in overseeing the data transfer from electronic medical records to the University of Pittsburgh CTSI database that is linked to 35 other sites.”
Amin served as a co-investigator for four clinical informatics projects, including the All of Us Program, for which he was the informatics director. He is currently the primary investigator for his own funded grant, “Genetic variants, pathways, and drug targets of peritoneal mesothelioma” (The Anderson Family Grant).
Author’s note: When this story was first published in February 2020, Amin was named the new director of clinical precision health systems with Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI). His updated role, as of April 2021, is reflected above.
