Valerie Vaughn, MD, MSc

Valerie Vaughn, MD, MSc, is a practicing hospitalist, an Assistant Professor of Medicine (tenure track), and the Director of Hospital Medicine Research in the Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Her research focuses on improving the safety of hospitalized patients with common infections, particularly pneumonia and urinary tract infections. To do so, she has focused on combating diagnostic error and overuse, particularly antibiotic overuse at transitions of care. As a practicing hospitalist, Dr. Vaughn works to understand the role hospitalists play in inappropriate antibiotic prescribing related to common infections. These interests span various areas, including understanding drivers and appropriateness of use, physician decision-making and cognitive error, and organizational culture. Dr. Vaughn currently has a grant through the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to develop measures to improve diagnosis of infections in hospitalized patients and a K08 Career Development Award from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to improve antibiotic prescribing at transitions of care. She has authored over 50 peer-reviewed papers including in JAMA, BMJ, JAMA Internal Medicine, and Annals of Internal Medicine. She also serves as hospitalist lead for the Antimicrobial Use Initiative within the Hospital Medicine Safety Consortium (HMS) which helps hospitals use their own data to improve the care of patients with infection. As Director of Hospital Medicine research at the University of Utah, Dr. Vaughn runs the Utah Quality Advancement Laboratory (UQuAL) which includes a research mentorship program, UQuAL Scholars, to improve the care of hospitalized patients.