The DBEI distinctively brings together expertise in biostatistics, epidemiology and informatics, to advance population-health science.
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Methods Matter: Understanding and Measuring Race and Racism in Health Research
September 29, 2023 | Jon M. Huntsman Hall, 8th Floor | 3730 Walnut Street, Philadelphia
Co-hosted by the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (Penn LDI) and the DBEI
Announcements
A new research initiative – the Center for AI-Driven Translational Informatics (CATI) – supported by the Penn Institute for Biomedical Informatics (IBI), the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics (DBEI), and the Penn Institute for Immunology and Immune Health (I3H) will be led by Dokyoon Kim, PhD, Associate Professor of Informatics.
The mission of the newly launched center is to bridge the “bench-to-bedside” gap between theoretical frameworks and proof-of-concept methodologies to widespread clinical applications. To achieve this, the CATI plans to focus on demonstrating the reliability and safety of artificial intelligence (AI) methods within the medical sphere. As the role of AI continues to evolve and expand, AI-based recommendations within the field of medicine cannot realize their full potential unless they are accepted and trusted by healthcare providers and patients alike – this means that researchers developing algorithms must also invest in building transparency and accountability around their research.
That’s where the new center aims to make an impact. Dr. Kim and the CATI team envision the development of additional resources and infrastructure for translational research via this initiative as a powerful catalyst for individual labs and interdisciplinary collaborations at the University of Pennsylvania and beyond. Read the full story on the DBEI's LinkedIn.
Yong Chen, PhD, FASA, FAMIA, Professor of Biostatistics, and the Founding Director of the Computer, Inference, and Learning Lab at the University of Pennsylvania (PENNCIL) and the Center for Health Analytics and Synthesis of Evidence (CHASE) will be inducted, along with twenty-two other new Fellows, into the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) on November 12 at a ceremonial dinner during the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) 2023 Annual Symposium. New Fellows are elected annually to the College by the 473-member body of Fellows.
According to the ACMI biography on Dr. Chen: “Dr. Yong Chen has made profound contributions to biomedical sciences and public health, pioneering research in clinical evidence generation, evidence synthesis, data integration, and federated learning for multi-institutional collaborations.His exceptional quantitative skills, engineering expertise, and outstanding leadership exemplify all we hope for in an ACMI Fellow.”
“This year we welcome a large and diverse cohort of highly acclaimed ACMI Fellows to the College," said ACMI President Kevin B. Johnson, MD, MS, FACMI, FAMIA, FIAHSI, David L. Cohen University Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Computer and Information Science, Pediatrics, and Science Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. "The FACMI designation is one of distinction and pride. They represent excellence from academia, government and industry and are the best and brightest stars in our field demonstrating thought leadership, stellar experience and established scholarship. Together their important contributions to biomedicine and healthcare inform, educate and inspire the informatics community to improve human health."
In the News
September 2023
Joel Gelfand, MD, the James J. Leyden, M.D. Endowed Professor in Clinical Investigation of Dermatology and Epidemiology, and colleagues at Penn found that adults and children with atopic dermatitis (AD) are more likely to develop inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) than their peers. In a new study published in the journal JAMA Dermatology, Dr. Gelfand and his team compared data from more than 409,000 children and 625,000 adults with atopic dermatitis and compared them to more than 1.8 million children and almost 2.7 million adults without the disease. Upon analysis, the scientists reported a “statistically significant” increased risk of incident or new-onset IBD among 44% of children and 34% of adults with atopic dermatitis, compared to the control groups.
"Less work has been done with atopic dermatitis, which is a very common skin disorder, and IBD. Both atopic dermatitis and IBD are diseases with barrier dysfunction, microbiome alterations, and chronic inflammation suggesting commonalities between the two diseases,” said Dr. Gelfand in a recent interview with Medical News Today. According to Dr. Gelfand, these findings are important for better understanding the health trajectories of people with atopic dermatitis.
February 2023
Elizabeth Nesoff, PhD, MPH discusses her recently published study in the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI) blog investigating neighborhood features that were correlated with fatal opioid overdoses among the homeless population in New York City. Dr. Nesoff uses these discoveries to make important policy recommendations with respect to targeted outreach and other interventions.
February 2023
Jeffrey Morris, PhD and Jeffrey Gerber, MD, PhD, MSCE collaborated with researchers to examine measles serostatus among pregnant persons about to give birth and whether rubella serostatus, which is routinely assessed during pregnancy, can serve as a proxy for measles serostatus.
About Us
To understand health and disease today, we need new thinking and novel science —the kind we create when multiple disciplines work together from the ground up. That is why this department has put forward a bold vision in population-health science: a single academic home for biostatistics, epidemiology and informatics.
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