By Jill Pease
As artificial intelligence and digital health technologies increasingly shape the future of health, faculty and students from three Florida universities came together last month at the University of Florida to discuss how to effectively and responsibly advance the technologies’ real-world use in health care.
The 2nd Annual Digital Health Symposium: Accelerating Real-World Applications in Informatics, AI and Innovations featured two keynote speakers, panel discussions, oral presentations, poster sessions, mentoring and networking.
While new AI research and technologies could revolutionize health care, these tools need to be carefully validated and used wisely, said Yan Wang, Ph.D., a member of the symposium’s leadership team and an associate professor at the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions Department of Epidemiology. Symposium attendees identified several ideas for investigation.
“Many exciting applications and directions emerged from the symposium, such as how to best leverage big electronic health record datasets like OneFlorida+ for AI empowered health and medical discovery; how to apply AI in medical practice, but also strengthen professions like nursing as irreplaceable frontline workers; and how to apply more precision medicine approaches in health care with the aid of causal AI, digital twins, individualized interventions and more,” Wang said.
The event was hosted by the UF-Florida State University Clinical and Translational Science Award Hub and the FSU College of Nursing with sponsorship from the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions and the UF Department of Epidemiology.
The symposium attracted more than 100 participants representing 18 colleges and institutes and 28 departments and centers from UF, FSU and the University of South Florida.
“The symposium goals are exactly in line with how science progresses and why UF and FSU collaborations are so effective — they build on the knowledge that sharing ideas, finding new friends, considering different perspectives and working together is exactly how we will make progress and achieve an audacious vision of using digital methods to improve the health of the people of Florida, the U.S. and the world,” said Beth A. Virnig, Ph.D., M.P.H., dean of the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions, in her opening remarks.
Elizabeth Shenkman, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics in the UF College of Medicine and co-director of the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and Rebecca Love, R.N., M.S.N., chief nursing officer at Quadrivia and a visiting professor and entrepreneur-in-residence at the FSU College of Nursing, served as keynote presenters. Panelists included Takis Benos, Ph.D., a professor in the UF Department of Epidemiology; Zhe He, Ph.D., a professor at the FSU School of Information and director of the Institute for Successful Longevity; Lisa Hightow-Weidman, M.D., M.P.H., founding director of the FSU Institute on Digital Health and Innovation; and T.J. Sego, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the UF Department of Medicine.
“One unique strength of our symposium is that we really try to embrace and facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations and cover the full spectrum from basic science research to clinical applications, which is demonstrated by the diverse colleges, institutes, centers and offices represented in our attendees,” Wang said. “The cross talk is really important for advancing the field and translating our research findings into real-world applications.”