A Star Cluster Program
Ushering in a New Era of Patient-Centric Treatment and Care
Institute for Precision Health
The ever-evolving capabilities of precision health are transforming healthcare, placing the patient at the center. Historically, treatment was generalized; what worked for a group was assumed to be best for individuals. Today, patient-centric care focuses on enhancing the health of the individual within their community, even as new knowledge emerges. Empowering patients with rights, incentives, transparency and control, these scalable and open access advances will elevate healthcare and wellness in Orange County and beyond.
The Precision Health Star Cluster
The Precision Health Star Cluster aims to reshape healthcare by identifying the most effective strategies at a personal level. By recruiting a visionary executive director to assemble an interdisciplinary team, we will harness the full potential of precision health and achieve breakthroughs for diseases like Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s. Our success will be measured through improvements in individual and community health.
Impact on Healthcare
At the Institute for Precision Health (IPH), we develop technologies to resolve data-intensive issues, utilizing big data to improve healthcare quality, safety and equity. By providing individualized care while learning from past patient experiences, we analyze patient data – including genes, medical images, lab values, environmental exposures, lifestyle and diet – using computer algorithms, predictive modeling and artificial intelligence to guide personalized treatment and health decisions. Outcomes are fed back into the system to inform future decisions. This approach to healthcare results in more effective
treatments, fewer side effects and a holistic view of health and wellness.
The vision for IPH, long in the making, saw accelerated implementation due to the pandemic. In 2020, UC Irvine researchers, healthcare providers and data scientists created the COVID Vulnerability Index, assessing the risk for COVID-19 patients to guide treatment decisions. Our data strategies, recognized for their value, have been shared nationwide by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Key Focus Areas
Statistics, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence: Develop methodologies to integrate and analyze health records, molecular data and clinical outcomes.
Applied Artificial Intelligence Research: Design cost-effective solutions for clinical problems and value-based care.
Advanced Analytics and Artificial Intelligence: Implement solutions in various healthcare settings and support pilot applications.
Precision Omics: Manage and analyze genomic, proteomic and chemical data.
End to End: Provide comprehensive data infrastructure to impact clinical outcomes, quality, research and operations.
Collaboratory for Health and Wellness: House dynamic analytics platforms and patient-controlled data at the core of the IPH ecosystem.
Deployable Health Equity: Engage with communities to reduce health disparities among vulnerable populations.
Education and Training: Offer educational opportunities in statistics, machine learning-AI, omics and bioinformatics for professionals and students.
Precision Physiological Signaling Unit: Develop field and bedside analytics for individual patient data to advance precision predictive health.
Interdisciplinary teams at UC Irvine will advance precision health to improve patient outcomes, cost-effectiveness and equity. With renowned experts and ample resources, our potential for innovation and life-changing progress is boundless.
Join Us in Making an Impact
We are seeking philanthropic partners to fund this distinctive, highly specialized Star Cluster and significantly strengthen our research enterprise.
A philanthropic investment will:
- Endow the Institute for Precision Health, equipping our experts with the advanced technologies and research funds required to solve data-intensive health problems.
- Provide capital support for the Institute for Precision Health to name the institute and provide a dedicated home for our team of world-class researchers.
- Establish a named endowed chair to recruit a renowned Star Cluster leader.
- Endow two professorships to drive innovation as collaborating Star Cluster faculty.
To learn more about supporting this transformative initiative at UC Irvine, please contact Health Advancement at healthadvancement@uci.edu.