In an effort to guide the transformation of healthcare delivery and discovery from empiric, generalized, disease-based diagnostic and treatment approaches to the era of individualized precision medicine, UC San Francisco is creating a Center for Digital Health Innovation (CDHI).
The university has chosen a leader for the new center, and that is Officer Michael Blum, MD. Blum will operate under the title of associate vice chancellor for Informatics. Blum, a cardiologist and clinical professor of medicine, will coordinate and leverage UCSF’s information technology assets.
Among the CDHI primary focuses are developing new technologies, apps and systems that, along with the proliferation of social media activity, will generate new data sets.
CDHI has a number of objectives. First and foremost it is looking to serve as a home that supports and helps grow digital health innovation among UCSF’s faculty, staff and students.
More specifically, CDHI will explore social media and novel device and sensor usage to understand the characteristics that generate “stickiness” and persistent use in the health care and wellness markets; validate the functionality and accuracy of new digital health devices, sensors and technologies, and evaluate whether they bring value to patients and the healthcare system; incubate emerging digital technologies, apps, sensors, and systems, and bring them to market via collaborations with start-ups and industry and capital partners.
UCSF has been upping its investment in the development of information technology and management resources, showing a strong commitment to giving health care providers, educators, scientists and students the tools to succeed in the digital age that is growing at a rapid pace.
Acknowledging that institutions are experiencing extreme shifts brought about by the boom of social media, mobile technologies and cloud computing, Blum says that the department recognizes that “optimally managing and leveraging the data generated by these resources and marrying them with next-generation data management and analytic technologies will be crucial to the mission of the institution and our future success.”
The CDHI is working on several digital health projects that aim to bring positive impacts to patients, providers and health care organizations. Among these projects are CareWeb, a collaborative, team-based clinical communications platform; Green Dot, a diabetes management open source platform; Trinity, a web-based collaboration technology for Virtual Tumor Board and Multidisciplinary Management of complex patients; and Health eHeart, a social media based cardiovascular study in which CDHI is developing a scalable social media clinical trials platform that integrates with the campuses’ clinical and research information resources.
Edited by
Alisen Downey
