Sriram Iyengar, PhD, Named Fellow of American Medical Informatics Association

The American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) is a community of professionals and students transforming health care through science, education and the practice of informatics. Each year, the Fellows of AMIA recognize members who apply informatics expertise to enhance health, improve organizational performance and empower individuals.

Sriram Iyengar, PhD, associate research professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix and director of Internal Medicine Clinical Outcomes Research, was selected for the class of 2026 Fellows. Previously, in 2024 he was selected as a Fellow of the International Academy of Health Science Informatics (FIAHSI). 

Dr. Iyengar’s path into informatics began while completing a master’s degree in statistics at the Ohio State University. “I saw an ad from the College of Medicine saying they needed someone who knew statistics and programming,” he recalled. “I showed up, and that’s how it all started.” Since then, his work has spanned systems biology — in which he led development of a methodology called Pathway Semantics and edited a text “Symbolic Systems Biology” — and multiple topics in Clinical informatics.  He remains deeply committed to mentorship and has mentored MS students at the University of Arizona. While at the University of Texas, Houston, he received the Regents Outstanding Teacher Award, awarded annually to a few faculty selected across all 14 campuses of the University of Texas system. In 2023 he received a Fulbright fellowship for teaching and research in Brazil.

For Dr. Iyengar, biomedical informatics is about connecting data, technology and people to improve care delivery and outcomes. Recently his work had an increasing focus on artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning. “All of my work is related to biomedical informatics, and, nowadays, there’s a lot of inclusion of AI, machine learning, real-time sensors and Virtual/Augmented Reality,” he said.

Dr Iyengar has over 100 peer-reviewed publications in journals and scientific conferences. A major focus of his current research could lead to improved treatment decisions in depression care for Veterans. Using data from the VA’s Corporate Data Warehouse, Dr. Iyengar studies how patients move through multiple antidepressant medications before stabilizing. “Patients often go from medication to medication before stabilizing,” he explained. “That can take weeks or even months, and we want to shorten that time. Using AI and machine learning, these pharmacotherapeutic trajectories can be analyzed to match a patient with the pathway that would be shortest for them.”

Another key area of his work is a no-code platform for creating multimedia clinical practice guideline apps with support from the US Army. This was originally developed at NASA Johnson Space Center. It received awards from Microsoft Research, NASA, Vodafone and the US Army. “The goal is to convert complex medical information without programming into easy-to-use smartphone apps including images, voice, video,” Dr. Iyengar said. His published research shows that such informatics systems can help extend the reach of experts to rural areas, support self-care for patients and enable community health workers to provide better, guideline-compliant care.

Dr. Iyengar’s latest research is Resilience Informatics — a field he helped pioneer. It is a people-centric discipline studying the role of informatics to help individuals and communities adapt to challenges such as pandemics, climate change and extreme heat. The first paper on this topic, presented at MEDINFO 2023 in Sydney, Australia received a Best paper award (3^rd place). As part of the Heat Resilience Consortium, a winner of the Big Ideas Challenge, he is leading development of AI-driven conversational agent that delivers personalized health guidance during heat events taking into account the users health and living conditions. This research falls within his long-standing interest in personalization of informatics systems that could result in increased adherence to physician instructions and improved self-management.

Selection as a Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association is especially meaningful to him. “It represents validation from colleagues, many of whom are founders of the field, that the work I’m doing is useful, innovative and important,” he said.

Dr. Iyengar sees informatics playing a critical role in shaping the future of health care for both providers and patients. “If we can improve efficiency, help patients get to the right treatment faster and empower people with better tools for self-care, the impact is enormous,” he said. At the same time, he emphasizes the importance of responsible and ethical use of AI. “There are real risks with overreliance on AI, especially in mental health,” he noted. “We need ethical standards to guide how these tools are developed and used.” 

For colleagues and trainees interested in informatics, Dr. Iyengar encourages curiosity, collaboration and training. “This field is expanding,” he said. “I’m always happy to work with colleagues to explore how informatics can support their research and practice.”