Barbara E. JonesView profile
Associate Professor
Dr. Barbara E. Jones serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine, with dual appointments in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. Her clinical practice spans diverse healthcare settings within the Veterans Affairs system and academic medical centers, focusing on evidence-based adaptation of care to varied patient populations. Her educational background includes: M.D. from University of Washington School of Medicine B.A. in Philosophy from Dartmouth College Master of Science in Clinical Investigation (M.S.C.I) from University of Utah Postdoctoral Fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at University of Utah Residency in Internal Medicine at University of Utah Dr. Jones' research centers on decision-making processes in pneumonia diagnosis and treatment, employing a tripartite informatics approach combining population analytics, cognitive behavior analysis, and clinical decision support systems. Her work specifically targets reducing diagnostic uncertainty and treatment variation across healthcare systems, with emphasis on equitable care delivery for diverse patient populations. Current projects investigate diagnostic discordance in community-acquired pneumonia, electronic surveillance for hospital-acquired infections, and machine learning applications for diagnostic error detection. Analysis of her 15 most recent publications reveals consistent focus on pneumonia management systems, with emerging emphasis on pandemic impacts on diagnostic practices and AI-driven quality improvement. Her work predominantly utilizes large VA healthcare datasets spanning 100+ medical centers, featuring mixed-methods approaches that integrate quantitative analytics with qualitative clinician experience assessment. Dr. Jones actively contributes to clinical guideline development and medical education through editorial work in major journals including Chest and Annals of Internal Medicine , where she frequently addresses controversies in pneumonia diagnosis and antibiotic stewardship. Her research program operates at the intersection of the University of Utah Health system and the Veterans Affairs national healthcare network, leveraging electronic clinical decision support implementations across diverse hospital settings including rural and critical access facilities. Current initiatives focus on real-time feedback systems for diagnostic performance improvement and automated surveillance for healthcare-associated infections.






