Somewhere right now, a provider is searching VisualDx for answers. Maybe it is a pediatrician trying to distinguish between eczema and an allergic reaction. Maybe it is an ER doctor at 3 AM trying to rule out a life-threatening condition. They type their patient symptoms into VisualDx to get results that they can trust.
They probably don’t think about Tom Baumgartner.
But Tom has already thought about them. As Manager of our Medical Data and Library Research Department, he’s spent years building the invisible architecture that makes those searches work. The connection of over 226,000 data relationships between findings and diagnoses ensures that when a provider needs answers, they get accurate help.
In an era where AI hallucinations and medical misinformation can spread faster than actual evidence, Tom and his team are doing something increasingly important.
We sat down with Tom to learn more about his role in the Clinical Informatics team and the work they do at VisualDx.
Q: What does it mean to be a medical librarian at a software company?
“We have meaningful jobs and get to work with doctors and engineers to develop a product that directly impacts patient care and medical education. It’s all about medical metadata. We spend our days researching how diseases present and creating data relationships that power how the VisualDx differential building capabilities work.”
Q: Who works with you on the clinical informatics team?
“We have several practicing physicians – dermatologists, emergency and infectious disease doctors, a pediatrician, and others – who lead the Clinical Informatics Department from medical advisory and editorial standpoints. We have three separate department teams that manage the medical content in VisualDx: Medical Data & Library Research, Editorial, and Imaging.
“I manage the Medical Data & Library Research Department, which includes four medical librarians and one physician. Our role is to research, create, and review medical data relationships that power the back-end functionality of the VisualDx search engine and differential-building capabilities. This data engine includes more than a quarter of a million relationships between 4,300 searchable findings and 3,700 searchable diagnoses.
“The content teams work very closely with one another and are very attuned to each other’s needs. It can be a complicated dance to coordinate our content – because medicine can be complicated! – but having exceptional colleagues makes it all run smoothly.”
Q: How does the data you work on in the software affect what a user experiences?
“Any time a user searches for something in VisualDx they are using data built by our librarian and data team.
“We also create the Sympticons™, add references, code standards such as ICD and SNOMED, and manage other miscellaneous data types that are part of our differential engine.”
Q: What are some of the challenges you’ve faced in 2025?
“Many of the obstacles we’re facing are well-documented – instability in health science at the federal level, particularly around public health, erosion of trust in healthcare, etc. It’s been difficult. Historically, we’ve relied on government sources such as CDC and the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) series for information. Increasingly, we are also looking to states, professional medical organizations, and international groups for public health information. Combined with outbreaks of measles, mpox, and other infectious diseases with dermatologic presentations, it’s been a tough confluence of events.
“From a librarianship standpoint, AI has certainly complicated the landscape, particularly in the past year. While AI can be a fantastic tool, it has exacerbated some issues librarians have faced for a long time. “Paper mills” publish faster than ever, generative content is finding its way into otherwise reputable journals, and good research data is being misinterpreted or misapplied.
“As librarians, we have to be more vigilant than ever to ensure the content that makes it into VisualDx is timely and accurate.”
Q: Why is it so important to have such a thorough review process of clinical information?
Medical misinformation literally kills people.
That’s why it is imperative that we include accurate clinical information that is reviewed by experts in their fields.
Tom’s job isn’t glamorous. He knows that. But when he hears from a doctor friend who used VisualDx to help Spanish-speaking migrant workers in the Finger Lakes get an accurate diagnosis, or when he thinks about all the providers they’ll never meet who are getting reliable information in a critical moment – that’s when the work becomes more than data.
“Medical misinformation literally kills people,” Tom reminds us.
Which means accurate information saves them.
Behind every search, every diagnosis, every patient helped by VisualDx, there’s a team like Tom’s. Doing painstaking, careful work, and making sure the information is right. Not because it is easy. Not because anyone will notice.
But because it matters.
That’s the difference between a tool and a trusted partner. And that’s why Tom and his team come to work every day.
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