Biography

Yanshan Wang’s research centers on health informatics and clinical research informatics. He develops innovative methodologies using artificial intelligence (AI), specifically natural language processing (NLP) techniques to serve the needs of patients, physicians and researchers using electronic health records (EHRs), particularly free-text EHRs. Wang has collaborated with clinicians and researchers to create multiple NLP algorithms that extract meaningful information from clinical notes. These novel NLP approaches have been applied in areas such as Alzheimer’s disease, mental health disorders, cancer phenotyping and social determinants of health.

Wang is involved in various NIH-funded projects aimed at creating advanced clinical NLP algorithms and infrastructures to support clinical and translational research. Notably, he serves as the NLP Lead for the ENACT Network funded by NCATS, which disseminates NLP infrastructure to 57 CTSA hubs. He also leads the development of the Rehabilitation Datamart with Informatics Infrastructure for Research (ReDWINE), designed to streamline EHR data access and enhance informatics tools for rehabilitation research at SHRS.

Currently, Wang leads the Clinical Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence Innovation Laboratory (PittNAIL). PittNAIL focuses on cutting-edge technologies in AI and NLP for health care applications, pioneering the use of generative AI and large language models (LLMs) in clinical NLP. The lab is among the first to use these LLMs in zero-shot and few-shot settings for clinical purposes. Recently, their research has expanded to evaluate generative AI models and assess the impact of generative AI in health care, particularly its ethical implications. Wang is the original author of the GREAT PLEA ethical principles for using generative AI in health care.