October 9 – 11, 2024 | In person at Duke University
JB Duke Hotel, 230 Science Drive, Durham, NC 27708

Participation is open to everyone, including faculty, students, and staff at Duke and other academic institutions, as well as healthcare professionals, industry professionals, and business professionals. Please join us!

Overview

Duke AI Health and the Pratt School of Engineering are partnering to host the Duke Summit on AI for Health Innovation with the goal of fostering a community of practice around health-oriented AI development, that bridges the medical and engineering fields.

This event will leverage the strengths of Duke in AI product development and the ecosystem for healthcare innovation, harnessing responsible AI in the service of patients and communities for better health. To enhance the impact of our discussions and collaborations, the summit will integrate the principles of design thinking into its programming. This approach will guide participants through a process of empathy, ideation, prototyping, and testing, ensuring that solutions are user-centered and more readily deployed once developed.

The summit, to be held on the beautiful Duke campus in Durham, North Carolina, will include extensive Duke student engagement and opportunities for participants to engage with the large community of AI development including industry partners, venture capital, and startups.

Register here: https://events.duke.edu/innovation-summit-2024

Focus of the Event

Engineers think about the world in a special way. What can an engineering mindset teach us about defining opportunities and creating innovation in the world of health? AI is disrupting technology, but it is also disrupting how we create new innovations and holds the promise of harnessing AI as a companion to human thinking. This event was designed to help participants think differently about clinical problems: both in defining problems and designing solutions. AI will change the way that we do research and design, as well as commercialize, license, and share innovation. This event has a “wide aperture” in framing possibilities from molecules to bedside to community, and how design innovation and technology can help us in what to do about them.

Three-Day Event Format

This summit is for people who want to:

• Explore the development process from concept to finished product through hands-on educational experiences and interactive discussions with experts, incorporating design thinking methodologies.
• Actively participate in setting the agenda for future work, using insights gained from a design thinking approach to identify user needs and create impactful solutions.
• Network with students and representatives from industry, medicine, academia, and funders, fostering cross-disciplinary collaborations.
• Engage with fellow attendees to identify open problems, generate new ideas, and spark innovation through collaborative and user-centered approaches.

We especially encourage participation from industry, academia, government, and the local community.

Registration

Register here: https://events.duke.edu/innovation-summit-2024

The registration fee for the Summit is $375 and includes lunch for each day.  We are able to offer a set number of seats at a discount for members of nonprofit organizations ($150), and registration is free to current students with a valid ID at Duke or other institutions. All fees are payable through the registration site.

All fees are non-refundable. Once we reach maximum registration, we will maintain a waitlist, and will contact those on the waitlist as spots become available. *All student tickets have been claimed. Please join our active waitlist here.

Hotel Accommodations

Our team has secured a block of rooms at a discounted rate at the Washington Duke Hotel Inn & Golf Club, just a quick 10-minute walk from the Summit venue.

Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club 3001 Cameron Blvd. Durham, NC 27705  (919) 490-0999

This is only a 10-minute walk from the JB Duke Hotel, where the Summit will be held. 

There are two ways to make your reservation: group booking deadline is Tuesday, October 8, 2024.

1. If you would prefer to book your accommodations over telephone, please contact the Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club at (919) 490-0999 and request reservations. Please reference the Duke Industry Roundtable AI Conference (#1084123)
2. If you would prefer to book your accommodations online, please use the following reservation booking link: https://bookings.travelclick.com/11999?groupID=4451959#/guestsandrooms

Note: If you encounter any problems opening the link – hold down the CTRL key while clicking on the link. *The reservations link may not be supported on all mobile devices*

Sponsorship

We thank Johnson & Johnson, Globant – Healthcare & Life Sciences, IBM Data AI and Automation, and MARK III Systems with NVIDIA for being our summit sponsors!

Opportunities for sponsorship are still available and are structured as follows:

• Bronze-level sponsorship ($2.5k): Includes invitation for the sponsor to display an information table
• Silver-level sponsorship ($10k): Named sponsorship of a coffee break, plus invitation for the sponsor to display an information table
• Gold-level sponsorship ($25k): Named sponsorship of a meal, plus invitation for the sponsor to display an information table
• All sponsors receive 2 free registrations

For sponsorship opportunities, please contact Jonathan Owens, MBA, Director of Industry Partnerships for the Pratt School of Engineering (jonathan.owens@duke.edu)

Growing our Community of Practice

Health AI is a rapidly evolving field, rife with innovations that often move it in unexpected directions. In this summit, we will also emphasize how Health AI also bridges two fields – medicine and engineering – that each demand specialized knowledge and have complex structures of rules and procedures that must be navigated.  In such a context, formal education and training is necessarily incomplete, and practitioners must independently problem solve and teach themselves in order to remain competitive.  Our vision is that this becomes an ongoing community of practice to advance the overall field by explicitly incorporating the design thinking methodology as a consistent yet flexible framework that each participant can take back to their home organizations to move innovation forward.

Presenter Bios

Monica Agrawal, PhD; Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Biostatistics & Bioinformatics; Co-Founder, Layer Health. Dr. Agrawal’s work centers on AI applications that facilitate clinical decision support and improve accessibility for patients.

Suresh Balu, MS, MBA serves as Associate Dean for Innovation and Partnership for the School of Medicine and as Program Director, for the Duke Institute for Health Innovation (DIHI).  In his role as Associate Dean, Suresh is responsible for creating, implementing, and sustaining innovation and partnership initiatives for the School of Medicine, specifically, to support the strategic priorities for clinical and translational research.  As Program Director for DIHI, Suresh works closely with Duke Health leadership to develop innovation frameworks and approaches across healthcare delivery, education and research. His responsibilities include, strategic evaluation of opportunities, developing competitive landscape for healthcare and research initiatives, complex strategic, operational and financial analyses and recommendations for Duke Health leadership and corporate development for global and US-based collaborations as they relate to an innovation platform.

Dan Buckland, MD, PhD is an Attending Physician at Duke University Hospital Emergency Department. He is the Director of the Duke Acute Care Technology Lab where he leads research in developing technology for the diagnosis and treatment of acute disease in data science and robotics projects by managing collaborative research projects between clinicians and engineers. His work at involves studying how advancements in autonomy impact safety critical systems, including the healthcare system. As part of his focus on autonomy, he is the Medical Director of the Laboratory for Transformational Administration (LTA) an Operational Data Science group in the Duke Department of Surgery. In addition, Dr. Buckland is the Deputy Chair of the Human System Risk Board of the Office of the Chief Health and Medical Officer via an Intergovernmental Personnel Act agreement with NASA, where he determines the human system risk of spaceflight and how standards, countermeasures, and mission design can mitigate risk.

David Carlson, PhD is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Duke University. His research focuses on advancing machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques to accelerate scientific discovery. Dr. Carlson’s work spans both the development of fundamental theory and algorithms, as well as their application in diverse scientific fields. He has established extensive collaborations deploying machine learning in areas such as environmental health, mental health, and neuroscience.

Pranam Chatterjee, PhD is an Assistant Professor at Duke University and co-founder of Gameto, Inc. and UbiquiTx, Inc. His research focuses on integrating computational and experimental methodologies to design novel proteins for genome editing, targeted protein modulation, and reproductive bioengineering. A PhD graduate from the MIT Media Lab, Dr. Chatterjee developed innovative CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technologies and now leads the Programmable Biology Group at Duke, where he explores the intersection of AI and protein engineering. His work also extends to proteome editing, developing peptide fusions for applications in cancer and viral diseases, and machine learning-based approaches for stem cell differentiation. Passionate about translating research to clinical solutions, Dr. Chatterjee actively promotes an inclusive environment that welcomes students of diverse backgrounds to science and engineering.

Basia Coulter, PhD, is a Partner at Globant, Healthcare & Life Sciences. A neuroscientist turned technology consultant, Basia leads Globant’s global strategy for digital and AI enablement for life sciences R&D clients. After dedicating over a decade to academic research, she transitioned into technology consulting where she now leads the development of digital and AI solutions with a strong emphasis on user experience and ethical responsibility. Basia works with a range of life sciences organizations helping them define and implement scalable AI and digital solutions in support of R&D strategy, clinical development, and real-world evidence research.

Jessilyn Dunn, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at Duke University with appointments in Biomedical Engineering and Biostatistics & Bioinformatics. Her research focuses on developing innovative tools and infrastructure for multi-modal biomedical data integration, aiming to advance precision and personalized approaches for early detection, intervention, and prevention of disease. Dr. Dunn earned her PhD from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2015 and continues to lead groundbreaking efforts in health data science to improve patient outcomes.

Brendan Fowkes, IBM Global Industry Technology Healthcare Leader, almost 30 years of healthcare experience across Payors, Providers, Governments, and Life Sciences provide a unique viewpoint on the industry. His previous roles include a progression from Electronic Medical Record development and implementation to Revenue Cycle Business process optimization to Analytics and AI consulting.  This allows Brendan to easily bridge the gap from the executive suite to the technical solution design and deployment for any healthcare business challenge. As the leader of the global healthcare team, he brings a history of innovation and proven use cases to his clients to help remove complexity in healthcare for patients, caregivers, and citizens including examples in GenAI, intelligent workflows, and predictive modeling to prevent post-surgical complications.

Marissa Halfin, MD, MBA, is a key member of LabCorp’s RWD Product Development team, serving in the role of Director of Clinical Informatics. As a dedicated healthcare informatics professional with over 15 years of experience in both the medical and healthcare industries, she is driven by a passion for leveraging data to enhance patient care. Before joining LabCorp, Marissa held leadership positions at Elligo and Invitae where she was instrumental in developing real-world data (RWD) and research solutions aimed at accelerating and improving patient outcomes. Her expertise spans big data analytics, the development of data pipelines, AI-driven solution integration, and RWD research. Marissa holds a MD degree with a specialization in Anesthesia and Pain Management, as well as an MBA from George Washington University. Throughout her career, she has worked to advance healthcare data and biotech initiatives. Her unique blend of medical, informatics, and research expertise—coupled with a deep commitment to improving patient outcomes—fuels her drive to innovate through the power of data.

Ricardo Henao, PhD, Associate Director of Clinical Trials AI, Duke Clinical Research Institute. A quantitative scientist whose research focuses on the development of novel statistical methods and machine learning algorithms primarily based on probabilistic modeling, Dr. Henao’s expertise spans several fields, including applied statistics, signal processing, pattern recognition, and machine learning. His methods research targets hierarchical or multilayer probabilistic models to describe complex data for the purposes of hypothesis generation and improved predictive modeling. Most of his applied work is dedicated to the analysis of biological data such as gene expression, proteomics, medical imaging, clinical narrative, and electronic health records. His recent work has been focused on the development of sophisticated machine learning models, including deep learning approaches, for the analysis and interpretation of clinical and biological data with applications to predictive modeling for diverse clinical outcomes.

Jacqueline Henson, MD, MMCi is a Transplant Hepatologist and Assistant Professor of Medicine who specializes in caring for patients with various liver conditions, encompassing autoimmune liver diseases like autoimmune hepatitis, primary biliary cholangitis, and primary sclerosing cholangitis, alcohol-associated liver disease, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C, among others. Additionally, she provides care for patients requiring liver transplants and post-transplant care.

Kirsten Lum, MSE, PhD, Senior Data Scientist, Johnson & Johnson.  Dr. Lum joined Johnson & Johnson (J&J) in 2017 and has held roles specializing in data privacy and anonymization. In her current role in the Commercial Data Sciences organization of J&J, Dr. Lum leverages her expertise in statistical modeling and machine learning to uncover the patient journey in real-world data and generate evidence on unmet needs. She is also part of a team which leverages AI to enable a chatbot to answer employee’s questions regarding real-world datasets. Dr. Lum is passionate about diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace and has led initiatives at J&J focused on women’s leadership.  Prior to joining J&J, Dr. Lum completed her postdoctoral fellowship at University of Pennsylvania and her doctoral work at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in the department of Biostatistics jointly with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Behavior in Bayesian modeling of pregnancy, lifestyle behaviors and environmental chemicals.

Jerome P. Lynch, PhD, Vinik Dean of Engineering. Lynch is an expert in the field of advanced sensing and information technologies for monitoring and control of civil infrastructure systems and is an advocate for community engagement in research. He is also a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) Engineering Mechanics Institute and led the University of Michigan’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering as department chair from 2017 to 2021. His research program advances cyber-physical system architectures that combine sensing, computing and control to create intelligent civil infrastructure systems. He is best known for his pioneering work in structural health monitoring that allows the performance and health of civil infrastructure systems to be assessed based on monitoring data to improve system safety and resilience. To elevate the impact of his research, he co-founded and directed the Urban Collaboratory at the University of Michigan, an interdisciplinary research institute that partners with community stakeholders to define challenges and to develop sustainable solutions based on smart city technologies and socially-engaged design methods. Lynch also has extensive experience commercializing engineering technologies. He holds three U.S. patents, has two patents pending and has founded two companies – Civionics and Sensametrics – to implement commercial applications of his research.

Steve McClelland, Director of the Christensen Family Center for Innovation. Steve is passionate about products and technology. He loves building teams and inspiring creativity. He co-founded a Boston-based, internet consulting company that designed and built solutions for clients ranging from content management to cache-routing systems. He moved to San Francisco in 2004 to join a second startup, Citizen Sports. He served in many roles there, including head of engineering, chief architect, and VP of User Experience. Citizen Sports made mobile and social sports applications for iOS, Android, and Facebook. Citizen Sports was acquired by Yahoo! In 2010, where he ultimately served as VP of Product Management focused on content and personalization. Steve joined Twitter in 2016 as Director of Product Management, managing product teams in onboarding new customers, native and web clients, and publishing platforms. Steve returned to Duke in 2017 where he now serves as the Director of the Christensen Family Center for Innovation in Duke’s Engineering school.

Ibrahim Mohedas, DPhil, is a mechanical engineer turned user experience researcher and designer, specializing in medical device design for global health. He applies human-centered design methods to develop products that are more usable and impactful. Before joining Duke Engineering, he served as a program director at the National Science Foundation’s Convergence Accelerator, part of the Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships. His research integrates anthropology and design processes to explore how innovative ideas can effectively drive real-world change.

Terry Myerson, CEO and co-founder of Truveta, a leader in EHR data and analytics, led by a growing health system collective that provides more than 18% of all daily clinical care in the US. Truveta is trusted by more than 50 leading healthcare and life science customers to study safety and effectiveness, improve patient care, and train medical AI. Terry previously enjoyed a 21-year career at Microsoft, leading the development of Windows, Xbox, and the early days of Office 365. As Executive Vice President, Terry played a pivotal role in developing Microsoft’s strategy alongside CEO Satya Nadella. After leaving Microsoft in 2018, Terry joined Madrona Venture Group and the Carlyle Group as an advisor to their investment teams. He enjoys learning about new technology, particularly at the intersection of data, AI, healthcare, and life sciences. Terry is a graduate of Duke University and a current member of the Duke Engineering Board of Visitors.
Jonathan Owens, MBA, Director of Business Development and Industry Partnerships, Pratt School of Engineering. Jonathan joined Duke following an extensive career in industry with a focus on technology transfer & commercialization, strategic alliances, intellectual property, new business creation, and innovation. Prior to joining Duke in late 2022, he worked for more than 15 years at LORD Corporation in roles of increasing responsibility, including being named the General Manager and Director of the Global Business Unit he started by successfully commercializing technology originally developed for the Aerospace Industry into Energy Industry applications. In his last role prior to leaving LORD, he was appointed the Global Operations Growth and Innovation Director for the fastest growing business unit in the company, which was focused on electrical vehicle applications, supporting over $200M in capital projects across 6 plants in four countries.

Michael Pencina, PhD, Chief Data Scientist, Duke Health. Dr. Pencina is an internationally recognized authority in the evaluation of AI tools and algorithms. Guideline groups rely on his work to advance best practices for the application of algorithms in clinical medicine. He is actively involved in the design, conduct, and analysis of clinical studies with a focus on novel and efficient designs and applications of machine learning for medical decision support. He interacts frequently with investigators from academic and industry institutions as well as regulatory officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Widely noted as an expert on risk prediction models, Dr. Pencina has authored or co-authored 400 peer-reviewed publications that have been cited over 111,000 times. He co-founded and co-chairs Duke Health’s Algorithm-Based Clinical Decision Support (ABCDS) Oversight Committee and serves as co-director of Duke’s Collaborative to Advance Clinical Health Equity (CACHE). He spearheads Duke’s role as a founding partner of the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI) whose mission is to increase trustworthiness of AI by developing guidelines to drive high-quality health care through the adoption of credible, fair, and transparent health AI systems.

Amanda Randles, PhD, Alfred Winborne and Victoria Stover Mordecai Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Randles’ research is in biomedical simulation and high-performance computing, focusing on the development of new computational tools used to provide insight into the localization and development of human diseases ranging from atherosclerosis to cancer. She received the Pioneer Award from the National Institutes of Health in 2022. Dr. Randles directs the Duke Center for Computational and Digital Health Innovation.

Shelley Rusincovitch, MMCi, FAMIA, Managing Director of Duke AI Health. Ms. Rusincovitch is an informaticist and technical leader who specializes in healthcare applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning, data modeling, and data science experiential learning. She has more than 20 years of experience in clinical research including clinical trials, registries, and health system data warehousing and is a Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA). Ms. Rusincovitch serves as the managing director of Duke AI Health, a multidisciplinary, campus-spanning initiative housed within the Duke University School of Medicine and designed to connect, strengthen, amplify, and grow multiple streams of theoretical and applied research on artificial intelligence and machine learning at Duke University in order to answer the most urgent and difficult challenges in medicine and population health. She also serves as an adjunct instructor in software and web development at Durham Technical Community College.

Richard Shannon, MD, Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, and Chief Quality Officer for Duke Health. Shannon received his BA from Princeton University and his MD from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. He completed his training in internal medicine at Beth Israel Hospital, his cardiovascular training at Massachusetts General Hospital, and was the Francis Weld Peabody Fellow and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School before becoming the Claude R. Joyner Professor of Medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine.

Sreekanth Vemulapalli, MD; Associate Professor of Medicine in Cardiology; Core Faculty Member, Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy. Dr. Vemulapalli is a noninvasive cardiologist with clinical and research specialties in peripheral artery disease, structural heart disease, and hypertension.

Willette R. Wilkins, MBA, brings over 25 years of progressive experience in strategic leadership and business development to her role as Chief Strategy Officer. As part of the DCRI Executive Management Team, she is instrumental in developing and implementing strategic plans that guide growth, expansion, and scientific impact. Wilkins oversees the organization’s short and long-term business strategy, identifying growth opportunities and potential partnerships to expand DCRI’s footprint. Her extensive background includes roles as Associate Director and Assistant Director of Research Proposal Development, where she helped lead the development of strategic grants and proposals for faculty clinical research portfolios and served as a lead liaison with industry, federal, and foundation sponsors. Previously, Wilkins was a Biochemist at GlaxoSmithKline, where she developed small molecules, proteins and peptides in a variety of dosage forms in therapeutic areas such as oncology, antivirals, endocrine/metabolic disorders, and cardiology.

Event Team

This event is directed by Shelley Rusincovitch (Duke AI Health) and Jonathan Owens (Pratt School of Engineering)