Medical School Launches New Department to Enhance Patient Care Through AI

The University of Colorado (CU) School of Medicine has announced the launch of its new Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI), which will focus on addressing health disparities and improving healthcare quality using big data and artificial intelligence (AI).

The department is an offshoot of CU School of Medicine’s Center for Health AI, which aims to make CU’s Anschutz Medical Campus “a leader in translating data into advances in research practice, health care delivery, and population health and in scaling these to provide nationwide benefit through innovative technologies.” By leveraging AI and Colorado’s large population, researchers at the DBMI hope to develop analytics solutions to serve people across the state.

“I like to say we're in the serendipity business. We need to put the right information in front of the right person at the right time to make the best possible decision,” said Casey Greene, PhD, founding chair of the DBMI and professor of biomedical informatics at the CU School of Medicine, in the press release. “There’s a lot of opportunity for this on the Anschutz Medical Campus. What we see in the clinic and in basic science research can be connected using informatics technologies to learn from data and make a real, meaningful difference in the world.”

To make this difference, researchers need access to scalable, data-driven technology, Greene noted.

Collaboration is also key to the DBMI’s success. Researchers who are part of the department have already seen some successes through work with campus partners, hospital affiliates, and other CU departments.

In 2021, researchers received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) award to develop novel criteria to modernize pediatric sepsis diagnoses and build clinical decision tools to improve patient outcomes.

Another project resulted in the development of a COVID-19 dashboard, which uses real-time EHR data to predict decisions around the need for crisis care. According to the press release, the dashboard has been used by federal policymakers to make decisions about the pediatric COVID-19 response.

The new department will also strive to close gaps in biomedical innovation by focusing on equity within patient populations and professionals in the field.

“Deployments of AI come with a significant risk of increasing disparities,” Greene said. “Although the use of AI has spread significantly in recent years, the field lacks diversity and risks the reinforcement of harmful biases in the way data is collected, algorithms are developed, and findings are interpreted. As a department, we acknowledge the responsibility we have to change course by supporting a diverse faculty who do research in partnership with affected populations.”

The DBMI’s leadership emphasizes building trust with and supporting individuals within the department. It is also partnering with the CU Anschutz Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) and Community Engagement and the CU School of Medicine DEI Committee to establish policies and best practices for education and employment opportunities.

By promoting DEI in the field of biomedicine and biomedical informatics, the DBMI hopes to significantly improve patient outcomes and reduce harmful biases in data collection and analysis that can lead to disparities, according to the press release.