WASHINGTON, DC – The American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) is proud to announce the winners of the 2026 Edward H. Shortliffe Doctoral Dissertation Award. Tara V. Anand, PhD, Columbia University, received the First Prize award with her dissertation titled “Coarse Graphical Representations for Causal Inference with High-Dimensional Clinical Data.” Ran Xu, PhD, Emory University, received Honorable Mention for her dissertation titled “Trustworthy and Retrieval-Augmented Machine Learning for Digital Health.”
The awardees will be acknowledged at the 2026 AMIA Annual Symposium, November 7-11 in Dallas. Drs. Anand and Xu will present their work to their informatics colleagues onsite during a scientific session at the Symposium.
The AMIA Edward H. Shortliffe Doctoral Dissertation Award offers prestigious recognition for outstanding doctoral research that contributes to the science of informatics in any biomedical application domain, with cash prizes totaling $10,000. The award draws on guidelines published in JAMIA in 2016 to prepare high-quality dissertations in biomedical informatics. The award is named for Edward H. “Ted” Shortliffe, MD, PhD, a pioneer in biomedical informatics and artificial intelligence in medicine who has played a foundational role in informatics research and graduate education.
Dr. Anand’s dissertation introduces a new approach to using complex clinical data to better understand causal relationships. Her framework uses “coarse” causal diagrams that group related variables, making causal methods more practical for high-dimensional biomedical data while allowing researchers to be transparent about assumptions and uncertainty.
Dr. Xu’s dissertation advances machine learning approaches designed to make digital health systems more reliable, transparent, and clinically useful. Her work combines methods for improving the interpretability and fairness of clinical predictions with retrieval-augmented approaches that incorporate external biomedical knowledge to strengthen clinical prediction and medical reasoning.
Drs. Anand and Xu will be recognized at the 2026 AMIA Annual Symposium in Dallas, where they will present their award-winning research during a scientific session.
About AMIA
The American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) is the professional home for more than 6,400 clinicians, researchers, educators, data scientists, and health technology leaders dedicated to advancing health and healthcare through informatics. AMIA connects members to leading research, education, policy leadership, and collaboration opportunities that transform health data into knowledge and improve patient outcomes. Through conferences, publications, professional development, and a vibrant professional network, AMIA empowers informatics professionals to shape the future of digital health and healthcare innovation.