Health Data Field Fuels New Department at University of Miami Miller School of Medicine

Newswise — The University of Miami Miller School of Medicine is taking a giant leap in how it acquires, manages, and interprets health data to improve patient care. The medical school has established the Department of Informatics and Health Data Science to impact how data is applied to education, research, clinical care, private ventures, and service and outreach.

“We are bringing in data scientists, biostatisticians, and computer scientists, but that’s just the start. We are also reexamining the Miller School’s relationship with data to make transformative changes in health care. We're entering this space to redefine it.” said Azizi Seixas, Ph.D., interim chair of the new department and associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Miller School.

While data is ubiquitous, different formats are often funneled into their own impregnable silos. By bringing information from multiple disciplines under one roof, the new department will help researchers cross-pollinate ideas and, eventually, bring those ideas to market via collaborations with industry.

“Sometimes, ideas with great therapeutic potential are published in prestigious journals but never get to patients,” said Dr. Seixas. “We want to advance those technologies and create a new revenue model to fuel innovation and investigation.”

The department is focusing on five pillars:

• Education: Working with the private sector on internships and other collaborations, the team is developing a new generation of innovators.
• Clinical: The team is advancing remote health applications, such as telemedicine and smart devices, to give patients new opportunities to heal at home, rather than in the hospital.
• Research: The team is investigating disease treatments to test and implement groundbreaking solutions.
• Private venture: Funneling informatics and health data into one department will help researchers advance their ideas into new therapies that will improve patient outcomes.
• Outreach: The team is collaborating with South Florida communities to help them advance research and catalyze change.

“We want to reimagine academic medicine, health care, and the life sciences to make profound improvements in patient care,” said Henri R. Ford, M.D., M.H.A., dean and chief academic officer of the Miller School.