Dr. Fenn is an emergency medicine (EM) physician who is a lifelong techie. He cannot remember a time when he wasn’t the go-to IT support person for family and friends.
Dr. Fenn grew up in Colorado and studied English Literature at the University of Colorado Boulder. After graduation, Dr. Fenn was a third-grade teacher for three years with Teach For America.
Dr. Fenn then completed a post-baccalaureate pre-medical program at CU Boulder, moving to the Triangle to attend the Duke University School of Medicine. During medical school, Dr. Fenn was exposed to Clinical Informatics via working with the Duke Institute of Health Innovation (DIHI) during a research year. As a part of DIHI, Dr. Fenn co-created a machine learning model to help predict hospital admissions from the emergency department waiting room. He also assisted with research regarding differences in electronic health record (EHR) utilization by gender.
Dr. Fenn completed his EM residency at UNC where he helped to develop a Best Practice Advisory to better capture Critical Care billing. As a seasoned teacher, he led multiple lectures to his co-residents on Epic usage and tips/tricks for EHR efficiency. He recognizes that the informatics world is broad, though he is keenly interested in physician burnout and EHR utilization.
In his free time, Dr. Fenn enjoys ultrarunning, cooking/baking (and eating), gardening, anything outdoors, attempting to keep his cat from lying down on his keyboard, and going on walks around his neighborhood with his wife.
Education
Undergraduate: University of Colorado Boulder – English Literature
Medical school: Duke University School of Medicine
Residency: University of North Carolina – Emergency Medicine