About Research IT

We report jointly to School through BIME and UW Medicine ITS supporting investigation at UW Medicine using technology.

Who We Are

Established in 2015, our diverse team is made up of experts in both data and computing from a wide variety of domains and includes 3 Faculty, 30 FTE, and 3 trainees. We have Participated in ~$200M in federally funded research projects:

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Institute of Translational Health Sciences

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Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research Consortium Coordinating Center

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Electronic Medical Records and Genomics Consortium (eMERGE Site and Coordinating Center)

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National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center (NACC) - Alzheimer’s Research Coordination

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National Kidney Precision Medicine Project Central Coordinating Center Hub

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Many R01, R21 awards

Our Support Includes:

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Governance for research infrastructure priorities

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Access to data (consults, chart reviews, self service/Leaf)

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Enterprise platforms that support research (CTMS, EDC/REDCap, Investigation drug management, LMS, etc.)

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Access to specialized computing environments to support research

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Support advanced analytics (machine learning, computing with text, images, video, audio, geocodes)

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Support research integration into clinical systems (e.g. Epic)

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Support high profile faculty driven projects

Executive leadership

Dr. Shawn Murphy MD, Ph.D.

Dr. Shawn Murphy MD, Ph.D. is Chief Research Information Officer for the University of Washington, Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education in UW Medicine and Professor of Neurology. Dr. Murphy served prior to this as Chief Research Information Officer at Mass General Brigham and a Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Over the past 30 years, he has been an integral leader and innovator in supporting research data and technology there and co-founding Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside (i2b2, used in > 300 sites globally) enabling scalable, audit-ready clinical data access for the research community nationally and internationally.

Shawn has also been a leading scientific collaborator and principal investigator on numerous multi-institutional NIH grants, including RECOVER, eMerge, ACT, PCORI, and other major award programs that helped elevate MGB into a leader in translational informatics. His work has shaped standards for privacy-preserving data sharing, cohort discovery tools, and clinical data harmonization, influencing research data operations across Mass General Brigham hospitals and enabling thousands of studies per year.

Katie Avril

As Director of Research IT at UW Medicine, Katie Avril drives innovation at the intersection of technology, compliance, and clinical research. With a career spanning federal defense, academic medicine, and enterprise cybersecurity, she’s known for building foundational programs that enable secure, scalable, and equitable research. Her team supports everything from Epic-integrated applications to GPU-based LLM infrastructure, helping UW researchers move from data to discovery faster and more safely. She also leads key governance and AI readiness efforts across the institution and region.