Boland Lab

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My name is Mary Regina Boland. I am a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Informatics in the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. I am also a Senior Fellow in the Institute for Biomedical Informatics and an Affiliate Member of the Center for Excellence in Environmental Toxicology at University of Pennsylvania. I am also an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical and Health informatics (DBHi) at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a senior fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. I lead the Fertility and Health Informatics Lab at the University of Pennsylvania. I am also a Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association (FAMIA). I have published over 70 peer-reviewed publications in journals and respected informatics conferences, including 48 as either first or senior-author!!! Recently, I was an Associate Editor of a special issue at JAMIA on sex and gender-related health, see our editorial here!!!

Research Summary

I have performd paradigm-changing research demonstrating the utility of electronic health records for integrating clinical phenotypes with environmental exposures using information routinely collected during clinical care. My pioneering work launched a new branch of informatics research that integrates exposures, including seasonal exposures, into EHR phenotyping algorithms.

On the informatics-side, my work focuses on developing novel and interesting data mining methods that integrate data from electronic health records, observational health data and genetic data. On the clinical side, my work focuses on the relationship between environment and disease, especially during the prenatal / perinatal period. Because developmental effects due to the environment can be hard to study in adult populations, I use birth-related data (such as birth month) as a proxy for the environment at birth (perinatal) and prior to birth (prenatal). I have a combined 17 years of experience! This includes 4 years in the Pittsburgh Metropolitan area, 7 in New York City Metropolitan Area (Columbia University) and 6 so far in the Philadelphia Metropolitan area (UPenn).

Recent News

The World Health Organization recently cited our work on Climate Change and Menarche, see their citation here and our paper here: S Canelon, MR Boland. A Systematic Literature Review on Factors Affecting the Timing of Menarche: Potential for Climate Change to Impact Women's Health. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020. In press.
Lena Davidson's work on pharmacological exposures during pregnancy and their potential for drug repurposing during the COVID-19 pandemic, was just recently published: L Davidson, S Canelon, MR Boland. A Medication-Wide Association Study (MWAS) on Repurposed Drugs for COVID-19 with Pre-pandemic Prescription Medication Exposure and Pregnancy Outcomes. Scientific Reports 2022; In Press.
Dr. Silvia Canelon's paper published in JAMA Network Open on Stillbirth among Sickle Cell Trait individuals! S Canelon, S Butts, MR Boland. Evaluation of Stillbirth Among Pregnant People with Sickle Cell Trait. JAMA Network Open. 2021; In press.
Dr. Jessica Meeker just graduated (May 2021) with a PhD in Epidemiology from my lab. She is currently an Epidemic Fellow at the CDC and her latest paper was just published. JR Meeker, HH Burris, R Bai, LD Levine, MR Boland. Neighborhood deprivation increases the risk of post-induction cesarean delivery. Journal of American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA). 2021; In press.
Lena Davidson's comprehensive review was recently published in Briefings in Bioinformatics! L Davidson, MR Boland. Towards Deep Phenotyping Pregnancy: A Systematic Review on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Methods to Improve Pregnancy Outcomes. Briefings in Bioinformatics. 2021; In press.