Susan D. Horn, Ph.D. - Biographical Sketch

SUSAN D. HORN, Ph.D.

Biographical Sketch

Susan D. Horn, Ph.D., is senior scientist for the Institute for Clinical Outcomes Research (ICOR), and vice president of research for International Severity Information Systems, Inc. (ISIS), both located in Salt Lake City, Utah. In addition, she is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Medical Informatics at the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City.

From 1968 to 1991, Dr. Horn was a full-time faculty member at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where she conducted research, taught biostatistics and health services courses, and directed the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Program for Faculty Fellowships in Health Care Finance. From 1991 to 1995, she was senior scientist at Intermountain Health Care in Salt Lake City.

In 1979, Dr. Horn and her colleagues began developing severity of illness measures, which became the basis for the Comprehensive Severity Index (CSI^®), with inpatient, outpatient, hospice, rehabilitation, and long-term care components for patients of all ages. The CSI software system is used to collect disease-specific, physiologic severity data for clinical practice improvement and risk-adjusted outcomes. CSI applies to all patients--adult and pediatric--and all medical, surgical, and psychiatric conditions.

Some of the areas in which Dr. Horn has conducted clinical practice improvement projects include cost-containment practices in health maintenance organizations, pediatric severity of illness, asthma and bronchiolitis, prevention of complications in GI surgery patients, desirable outcomes for congestive heart failure, prevention of pressure ulcers in long-term-care patients, ambulatory diabetes care, hospice care, post-stroke rehabilitation, preventing falls, and women’s health care, including the elderly.

Dr. Horn speaks frequently on severity of illness and clinical practice improvement methods used to determine best medical practice. She has authored over 130 publications on statistical methods, health services research, severity of illness measurement, clinical practice improvement, and quality of care; see her Selected Bibliography or Curriculum Vitae. She is editor of the book Clinical Practice Improvement Methodology: Implementation and Evaluation, originally published by Faulkner & Gray, 1997, and now available exclusively through ICOR (801-466-5595 x201).

Dr. Horn earned a B.A. in mathematics at Cornell University in 1964, and a Ph.D. in statistics at Stanford University in 1968. She resides in Salt Lake City with her husband, Dr. Roger A. Horn.

Susan D. Horn, Ph.D., Senior Scientist
Institute for Clinical Outcomes Research
699 E. South Temple, Suite 100
Salt Lake City, Utah 84102-1282
(801) 466-5595; FAX: (801) 466-6685
shorn@isisicor.com
www.isisicor.com