Sanja Avramovic, PhD

Sanja Avramovic
Titles and Organizations

Associate Professor, HAP

Contact Information

Email: savramov@gmu.edu
Phone: 703-993-4548
Building: Peterson Hall
Room 4419

Personal Websites

Biography

Sanja Avramovic is an associate professor in the Department of Health Administration and Policy at George Mason University. Her research focus is on big data sets available through electronic health records; health informatics; and developing an efficient and scalable algorithm for variable selection and predictions. She is interested in examining the association of antibiotics and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) with mortality; and the risks to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among veterans. She worked on developing an index for mortality calculation based on Naïve Bayesian Networks. Also, using a Veteran Administration data set she conducted a retrospective cohort study to describe clinical characteristics and outcomes associated with Clostridium difficile infection. She analyzed data provided by National Cancer Institute, mapped codes into Unified Medical Language System identifiers and ran a machine learning method on the prepared dataset.

Research Interests

  • Health Informatics
  • Data Mining
  • Predictive Modeling

Selected Awards Related to Teaching

  • 2023 University-wide Teaching Excellence Award (2023) 
  • Open Education Resource Award, for HAP 360: Introduction to Health Information Systems course, 2016  

Select Publications

Avramovic S., Uriyo M., Alemi F.,Intensely Interactive Online Course, Journal of Health Administration Education, The Journal of Health Administration Education 2023 39(2).303-310 https://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/aupha/jhae/2023/00000039/00000002/art00009 

Avramovic S., Alemi F., Kanchi R., Lopez P., Hayes R.B., Thorpe L.E., Schwartz D.M., Cohort Profile: The US Veterans Administration Diabetes Risk (VADR) National Cohort, BMJ Open, 2020. https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/12/e039489 

Alemi F., Avramovic S., Schwartz M. Predicting 6-month mortality of patients from their medical history: Comparison of multimorbidity index to Deyo–Charlson index, Medicine, Volume 102, Number 5, 3 February 2023, pp. e32687-e32687(1) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000032687 

Alemi F, Avramovic S, Schwartz D.M. Electronic Health Record-Based Screening for Substance Abuse. Big data. 2018 Sep 1;6(3):214-24. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/big.2018.0002 

Davis PJ, Liu M, Sherman S, Nataranjan S, Alemi F, Jensen A, Aramovic S, Schwartz MD, Hayes, RB. HbA1c, Lipid profiles and Risk of Incident Type 2 Diabetes in United States Veterans. PloS one. 2018 Sep ember 13; 13(9):e0203484. 

Avramovic S., Asadzadehzanjani, N., Mogharab Nia, R., Baldelli, E., Petricoin, E., Pierobon, M., Wojtusiak, J. The Side Out Foundation Metastatic Breast Cancer Database, an Open-access Portal for multi-omics Molecular Data and More. Reports of the Machine Learning and Inference Laboratory. MLI 18-2, 2018. 

Appaneal HJ., Caffrey AR., Beganovic M., Avramovic S., LaPlante KL. Predictors of mortality among a national cohort of Veterans with recurrent Clostridium difficile infection. Open Forum Infectious Diseases. 2018 July 18; 

Davis PJ., Liu M., Alemi F., Jensen A., Avramovic S., Levy E., Hayes RB., Schwartz MD. Prior antibiotic exposure and risk of type 2 diabetes among Veterans. Primary care diabetes. 2018 July 18; 

Min, H., Mobahi, H., Irvin, K., Avramovic, S., & Wojtusiak, J. Predicting activities of daily living for cancer patients using an ontology-guided machine learning methodology. Journal of biomedical semantics, 8(1), 39. 2017 

Tuck, M. G., Alemi, F., Shortle, J. F., Avramovic, S., & Hesdorffer, C. A comprehensive index for predicting risk of anemia from patients' diagnoses. Big Data, 5(1), 42-52. 2017 

Min, H., Avramovic, S., Wojtusiak, J., Khosla, R., Fletcher, R. D., Alemi, F., & Elfadel Kheirbek, R. A comprehensive multimorbidity index for predicting mortality in intensive care unit patients. Journal of palliative medicine, 20(1), 35-41. (2017). 

Grants

"Community Characteristics Associated with Geographic Disparities in Diabetes and Cardiometabolic Health (DP17-001)," New York University. September 2017-present. Role: Investigator.

Database and portal for "Side Out 3 Precision Medicine Trial for Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients," Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine GMU/ Side Out Foundation. May 2018-June 2018. Role: Principal Investigator. 

"Burden of Clostridium difficile infection throughout the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System," VA Ocean State Research Institute, GMU 222890. May 2016-December 2016. Role: Co-Investigator.

"Pre-diabetes and Diabetes among Veterans," New York University, GMU 222764. August 2015-September 2016. Role: Investigator.

Selected Conferences

Avramovic S., Maria Uriyo, LP-09: Intensive Interactive Online Classes - Experience from Health Informatics Program, Long Presentation (Faculty-led) interactive session, Innovations in Teaching & Learning (ITL) 2022. 

Avramovic S., Schwartz M.D., Enquobahrie D., Boyko E.J., Wander P. Early-Onset Type 2 Diabetes Is Associated with Higher A1C and Glycemic Variability in a Cohort of Veterans followed Prospectively. American Diabetes Association (ADA), Diabetes 2022;71(Supplement_1):172-LB. 

Avramovic S., Building career readiness through online professional networks, video presentation, Discussions. Innovations in Teaching & Learning (ITL) 2021. 

Avramovic S, Alemi F. ON DEMAND: “Learn One, Do One, Teach One” Learning Strategy for Health Informatics Courses (5 mins). Innovations in Teaching & Learning Conference Proceedings 2020 Jul 31 (Vol. 12). 

University and Community Service

  • NFRFT New Frontiers in Research Fund Transformation Competition Panelist
  • IEEE BIBM, Program Committee Member
  • Volunteer for COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic, Database development, George Mason University
  • Health Informatics Bachelor's/Accelerated Master's Programs (BAM) coordinator
  • Reviewer, Journal of Medical Systems, 2017-present
  • Grant Reviewer, McMaster Institute for Research on Aging, 2018-present
  • Undergraduate Advisor, 2017-present
  • Security Officer, Center for Discovery Science and Health Informatics, 2017-present

Selected Service

  • NFRFT New Frontiers in Research Fund Transformation Competition Panelist
  • IEEE BIBM, Program Committee Member
  • Volunteer for COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic, Database development, George Mason University
  • Health Informatics Bachelor's/Accelerated Master's Programs (BAM) coordinator

Patents

GMU, GMU-17-005 “Removing Confounding in Real World Evidence: Procedures for Outcome-Based Prescription of Antidepressants” (2018) 
 

Degrees

PhD, Information Technology, George Mason University

MS, Information Systems and Technology, University of Belgrade, Serbia

BS, University of Belgrade, Serbia