Dr. Sam Volchenboum is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Associate Chief Research Informatics Officer for the Biological Sciences Division. He is the Dean of Masters Education and directs a program in health sciences informatics for the division. His clinical specialty is pediatric hematology/oncology, caring for kids with cancer and diseases of the blood.
In addition to his clinical practice, he directs the Pediatric Cancer Data Commons, a research group dedicated to liberating and democratizing data for pediatric malignancies. Until 2019, Dr. Volchenboum directed the Center for Research Informatics, a 40-person group that supports biological research throughout the division. As director of this center, he oversaw high-performance computing, HIPAA-compliant storage and backup, application development to support clinical trials, development and maintenance of the clinical trials management system, the clinical research data warehouse, data analytics and visualization, and bioinformatics, including high-throughput genomic analyses and machine learning.
Dr. Volchenboum participates in and leads various data governance initiatives throughout the University and medical center. He is the director of the Informatics Core for the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) and a fellow and faculty member of the Computation Institute. Since 2015, he has been the faculty director for the Masters in Biomedical Informatics at the Graham School at the University of Chicago.
Dr. Volchenboum has been on the UChicago faculty since 2007, and in 2009 he was named a St. Baldrick's Foundation Scholar. He received his PhD in molecular biology and MD from the Mayo Medical School. He completed his residency at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center before going to Boston for his pediatric hematology/oncology fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital. He also completed a fellowship in informatics and received his Master’s in biomedical informatics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Automated Matching of Patients to Clinical Trials: A Patient-Centric Natural Language Processing Approach for Pediatric Leukemia.
Automated Matching of Patients to Clinical Trials: A Patient-Centric Natural Language Processing Approach for Pediatric Leukemia. JCO Clin Cancer Inform. 2023 07; 7:e2300009.
PMID: 37428994
The Childhood Cancer Data Initiative: Using the Power of Data to Learn From and Improve Outcomes for Every Child and Young Adult With Pediatric Cancer.
The Childhood Cancer Data Initiative: Using the Power of Data to Learn From and Improve Outcomes for Every Child and Young Adult With Pediatric Cancer. J Clin Oncol. 2023 08 20; 41(24):4045-4053.
PMID: 37267580
Advancing clinical and translational research in germ cell tumours (GCT): recommendations from the Malignant Germ Cell International Consortium.
Advancing clinical and translational research in germ cell tumours (GCT): recommendations from the Malignant Germ Cell International Consortium. Br J Cancer. 2022 11; 127(9):1577-1583.
PMID: 36229581
Association Between Critical Events in the PICU and Outcomes in Neighboring Patients.
Association Between Critical Events in the PICU and Outcomes in Neighboring Patients. Crit Care Explor. 2022 Oct; 4(10):e0765.
PMID: 36248315
Early Diagnosis of Primary Immunodeficiency Disease Using Clinical Data and Machine Learning.
Early Diagnosis of Primary Immunodeficiency Disease Using Clinical Data and Machine Learning. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2022 11; 10(11):3002-3007.e5.
PMID: 36108921
Creating a data commons: The INternational Soft Tissue SaRcoma ConsorTium (INSTRuCT).
Creating a data commons: The INternational Soft Tissue SaRcoma ConsorTium (INSTRuCT). Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2022 11; 69(11):e29924.
PMID: 35969120
Molecular testing of rhabdomyosarcoma in clinical trials to improve risk stratification and outcome: A consensus view from European paediatric Soft tissue sarcoma Study Group, Children's Oncology Group and Cooperative Weichteilsarkom-Studiengruppe.
Molecular testing of rhabdomyosarcoma in clinical trials to improve risk stratification and outcome: A consensus view from European paediatric Soft tissue sarcoma Study Group, Children's Oncology Group and Cooperative Weichteilsarkom-Studiengruppe. Eur J Cancer. 2022 09; 172:367-386.
PMID: 35839732
Molecular profiling identifies targeted therapy opportunities in pediatric solid cancer.
Molecular profiling identifies targeted therapy opportunities in pediatric solid cancer. Nat Med. 2022 08; 28(8):1581-1589.
PMID: 35739269
Mapping Pediatric Oncology Clinical Trial Collaborative Groups on the Global Stage.
Mapping Pediatric Oncology Clinical Trial Collaborative Groups on the Global Stage. JCO Glob Oncol. 2022 02; 8:e2100266.
PMID: 35157510
Germline Sequencing Improves Tumor-Only Sequencing Interpretation in a Precision Genomic Study of Patients With Pediatric Solid Tumor.
Germline Sequencing Improves Tumor-Only Sequencing Interpretation in a Precision Genomic Study of Patients With Pediatric Solid Tumor. JCO Precis Oncol. 2021; 5.
PMID: 34964003