Second Annual Duke Summit on AI for Health Innovation
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October 8–9, 2025
In-Person | North Carolina Biotechnology Center, Research Triangle Park
15 TW Alexander Drive, Durham, NC 27713
The Duke Summit on AI for Health Innovation is open to healthcare professionals, industry leaders, and business professionals, including faculty, students, and staff from Duke and other academic institutions. Please join us!
Overview
Hosted by Duke AI Health, the Center for Computational and Digital Health Innovation at Duke University, and the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI), this event will bring together experts from healthcare, engineering, industry, and academia to explore how AI can drive health innovation. Duke’s strengths in AI product development and healthcare innovation will be leveraged to explore responsible AI applications that improve health outcomes for patients and communities. The summit, to be held in Durham, North Carolina, will feature extensive Duke student engagement and offer opportunities for participants to engage with the broader AI development community, including industry partners, venture capital, and startups.
Event Highlights
- Keynote Address: Revolutionizing Healthcare through Responsible AI: Explore how responsible AI is reshaping the future of healthcare.
- AI in Surgical Innovation: Discover how AI is reshaping surgical procedures, enhancing precision, and improving patient outcomes.
- Lightening Talks and Panel in Computational Medicine: Fast-paced presentations followed by a dynamic panel exploring cutting-edge research and innovations in computational medicine.
- Designing the Human Systems for AI-Powered Health Innovation: Examine how human-centered design can build trust and effectiveness in AI-enabled healthcare delivery.
- Industry-Focused Panel Session: Hear from top industry experts as they discuss real-world applications, challenges, and opportunities for AI in healthcare.
- Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration: Engage with a diverse community, including students, industry, academia, and government.
- Networking Opportunities: Connect with industry partners, venture capitalists, and startups to discuss the future of AI in healthcare.
- Real-World AI Applications: Discover how AI is shaping research, innovation, and commercialization in health tech.
- Structured Breakout Tables: Engage in meaningful discussions and tangible takeaways by joining breakout sessions centered around key research challenges.
- Building on 2024’s Success: This year’s event builds on the momentum of last year’s sold-out Summit. Explore highlights from the 2024 event— explore the 2024 Summit Impact Report which offers detailed feedback from over a quarter of the event’s nearly 100 participants.
This summit is designed for those who want to:
- Contribute to the future agenda of AI-driven health innovation.
- Network with leaders from academia, industry, and healthcare.
- Understand how to work with healthcare & learn about AI limitations and opportunities.
- Learn about the landscape of AI development in healthcare.
Registration
The registration fee for the Summit is $375, which includes lunch on both Wednesday and Thursday. A limited number of discounted registrations are available for members of nonprofit organizations at $150, and for current students with a valid student ID from Duke or other institutions at $25. To request consideration for a scholarship, please visit here.
All fees are payable through the registration site and are non-refundable. Once registration reaches capacity, a waitlist will be maintained. We will contact individuals on the waitlist as spots become available.
Venue Details
The Conference Center at NCBiotech is centrally located in the heart of Research Triangle Park, just minutes from RDU Airport, hotels, and restaurants. This premier, flexible event and meeting space regularly hosts life sciences companies, organizations, and educational institutions. Complimentary on-site parking is available.
Sponsorship
We are grateful for our sponsors!
Johnson & Johnson for their generous support as a Gold-Level sponsor! Johnson & Johnson is a global leader in healthcare innovation, committed to advancing science and technology to improve health outcomes and deliver better care to people around the world.
An NVIDIA-led consortium, with partners, Cisco, Mark III, and VAST Data, for their generous support as a Gold-Level sponsor! These industry leaders are driving innovation in technology and data solutions, empowering advancements that are transforming research, healthcare, and beyond.
North Carolina Biotechnology Center for their generous support as a Silver-Level sponsor! The NC Biotechnology Center is a vital driver of life sciences innovation and economic development in North Carolina, supporting research, entrepreneurship, and industry growth across the state.
Our sponsorship opportunities are structured as:
Gold-Level Sponsorship: $15,000
- Includes Breakfast or Lunch Sponsorship recognition
- Six complimentary registrations for your organization’s use
- Company table in reception area
- Invitation to work with event directors in developing a panel topic
Silver-Level Sponsorship: $10,000
- Four complimentary registrations for your organization’s use
- Company table in reception area
- Invitation to participate in a panel topic
Bronze-Level Sponsorship: $5,000
- Two complimentary registrations for your organization’s use
- Company table in reception area
For sponsorship inquiries, contact Jonathan Owens, MBA, Director of Industry Partnerships, Pratt School of Engineering: jonathan.owens@duke.edu
Building 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 – healthcare 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.
We look forward to welcoming you to Durham for this exciting event!
Presenter Bios
Monica Agrawal, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at Duke University with joint appointments in the Departments of Computer Science and Biostatistics & Bioinformatics, and co-founder of Layer Health. Her research focuses on AI applications that enhance clinical decision support and improve patient accessibility, including developing methods to monitor clinical LLMs, studying human-AI interactions in healthcare, designing smarter electronic health records, and applying machine learning and NLP to women’s health. Dr. Agrawal earned her PhD in Computer Science from MIT CSAIL, where she worked with the Clinical Machine Learning Group, and holds a BS/MS in Computer Science from Stanford University. For more information, please visit her faculty profile: Monica Agrawal | Duke Computer Science & Biostatistics
Brinnae Bent, PhD, is Professor (Executive in Residence) at the Duke University Pratt School of Engineering and Director of the Duke TRUST Lab. Her research focuses on digital health, wearable technologies, and AI for precision health, with an emphasis on trustworthy and ethical AI systems. For more information, please visit her faculty profile: Brinnae Bent | Duke University Pratt School of Engineering
Jeff Denworth, BS, is the Co-Founder of VAST Data, where he specializes in product marketing, product management, and alliance building. He brings over two decades of experience in advanced computation, big data, and cloud storage technologies, with a career spanning leadership roles at DDN, CTERA Networks, and Cluster File Systems. Jeff earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Trenton State College, completing his studies in just five years. For more information, please visit his LinkedIn profile: Jeff Denworth | LinkedIn
Tracey du Laney, PhD, is Vice President of Science and Technology Development at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center (NCBiotech), where she leads initiatives to accelerate life sciences innovation, company growth, and translational research across the state. She has extensive experience bridging science, entrepreneurship, and investment to strengthen North Carolina’s biotechnology ecosystem. For more information, please visit her professional profile: Tracey Du Laney | LinkedIn
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 to advance precision and personalized approaches for early disease detection, intervention, and prevention. Dr. Dunn earned her PhD from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2015 and continues to lead efforts in health data science to improve patient outcomes. For more information, please visit her faculty profile: Jessilyn Dunn | Duke BME & Biostatistics
Jeffrey Ferranti, MD, MS, is the Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer for Duke Health, leading the strategic planning and implementation of integrated technology to support clinical care, research, and education. He directed Duke’s enterprise-wide Epic electronic health record rollout, unifying systems across three hospitals and more than 300 ambulatory clinics. Dr. Ferranti is a recognized informatics leader with AHRQ‑funded research, including efforts to develop a model pediatric EHR format and technologies to detect and prevent adverse drug events. He created innovative data platforms such as DEDUCE and DISCERN to enable secure, efficient access to enterprise research data. A practicing neonatologist and Six Sigma Master Black Belt, he is actively engaged in patient safety and quality improvement initiatives. For more information, please visit his faculty profile: Jeffrey Ferranti | Duke Health
Jesse Galliers, BS, is a Systems Engineer at Cisco, where he works within the Splunk division to help customers build agentic AI systems that leverage data and AI for enhanced security and observability solutions. His work focuses on enabling agentic systems that iteratively validate customer integrations, ensuring reliability and safety before deployment. With a background in researching discrete semantic models for language representation, Jesse now concentrates on translating continuous transformer behavior into compact, human-readable invariants to make AI agents safer to deploy. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Eastern Kentucky University. For more information, please visit his LinkedIn profile: Jesse Galliers | LinkedIn
Steven Grambow, PhD, is Associate Professor and Associate Chair of Education in the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics at the Duke University School of Medicine. He serves as Director of the Clinical Research Training Program (CRTP), Duke’s flagship degree-granting program for clinical and translational research education, and as Co-Director of the Workforce Development Pillar of the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). His work emphasizes building pathways into clinical and translational research careers, advancing educational models through mentorship, community partnerships, and innovative program design. Dr. Grambow’s current efforts focus on integrating artificial intelligence into biostatistical training and clinical research education, preparing the next generation of researchers to adapt to evolving scientific and technological landscapes. For more information, please visit his faculty profile: Steven Grambow | Duke Biostatistics & Bioinformatics
Ricardo Henao, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics, Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and a Member of the Duke Clinical Research Institute. A quantitative scientist, his research focuses on developing novel statistical methods and machine learning algorithms—especially hierarchical and multilayer probabilistic models—for hypothesis generation and improved predictive modeling. He applies these methods to biological and clinical data including gene expression, proteomics, medical imaging, clinical narratives, and electronic health records, with recent work centering on deep learning approaches for diverse outcome prediction. For more information, please visit his faculty profile: Ricardo Henao | Duke Biostatistics & Bioinformatics
Allan Kirk, MD, PhD, is the David C. Sabiston, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Surgery in the Duke Department of Surgery. His research focuses on the immune management of transplant recipients, with particular interest in therapies that influence T cell costimulation pathways and adjuvant therapies that facilitate costimulation blockade. Dr. Kirk aims to prevent organ rejection without compromising protective immunity, while also studying how injury, including trauma and surgery, alters immune responses and healing. His work integrates clinical insight and translational science to advance transplant medicine and improve patient outcomes. For more information, please visit his faculty profile: Allan Kirk | Duke Surgery
Charley Kneifel, PhD, is Chief Technology Officer for the Duke Office of Information Technology, where he oversees enterprise IT architecture, research computing, and cloud strategy. His leadership ensures technology platforms effectively support academic, research, and clinical missions across Duke University. For more information, please visit his professional profile: Charley Kneifel | Duke OIT
Andy Lin, MBA, is Vice President of Strategy & Innovation and Chief Technology Officer at Mark III Systems. He leads technology strategy, innovation, and digital transformation with expertise spanning AI, cloud, and modern infrastructure to accelerate research and enterprise outcomes. For more information, please visit his professional profile: Andy Lin | LinkedIn
Chris Lindsell, PhD, is the Director of Biostatistics at the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI), where he leads strategic planning, development, and execution of innovative research to advance the institute’s scientific mission. He is a recognized leader in applying rigorous methods to acute care and to the intersection of emergency medicine and public health. Dr. Lindsell has directed data coordinating centers for numerous multi-center clinical trials and epidemiological studies, including FDA-regulated trials, pragmatic and embedded designs, and large network collaborations. His research spans sepsis, trauma, and critical illness, with patents in precision medicine approaches using clinical data, biomarkers, and transcriptomics. He has published more than 350 peer-reviewed papers and played a leading role in major COVID-19 data initiatives, including TREAT NOW, ACTIV-6, and the IVY Network. For more information, please visit his faculty profile: Chris Lindsell | Duke Clinical Research Institute
Jerome P. Lynch, PhD, is the Vinik Dean of Engineering at Duke University. He is an expert in advanced sensing and information technologies for monitoring and control of civil infrastructure systems and is widely recognized for his pioneering work in structural health monitoring. His research advances cyber-physical system architectures that integrate sensing, computing, and control to create intelligent and resilient infrastructure. Dr. Lynch also co-founded the Urban Collaboratory at the University of Michigan, bringing together interdisciplinary researchers and community stakeholders to design sustainable solutions for smart cities. For more information, please visit his faculty profile: Jerome Lynch | Duke Pratt School of Engineering
Steve McClelland is the Director of the Christensen Family Center for Innovation at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, where he leads initiatives to foster creativity, entrepreneurship, and technology development. He is passionate about building teams, inspiring innovation, and creating impactful products, with more than two decades of experience spanning startups, global technology companies, and higher education. Steve co-founded a Boston-based internet consulting company before moving to San Francisco in 2004 to join Citizen Sports, where he served as head of engineering, chief architect, and VP of User Experience, helping develop mobile and social sports applications for iOS, Android, and Facebook. Following Yahoo!’s acquisition of Citizen Sports in 2010, he became VP of Product Management focused on content and personalization, and later served as Director of Product Management at Twitter, overseeing onboarding, client platforms, and publishing tools. He returned to Duke in 2017 to direct the Christensen Family Center for Innovation and now also serves as Executive in Residence at Pratt. For more information, please visit his profile: Steve McClelland | Duke Pratt School of Engineering
Jonathan Owens, MBA, is the Director of Business Development and Industry Partnerships at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering. He brings extensive experience in technology transfer, commercialization, strategic alliances, intellectual property, and new business creation. Prior to joining Duke in 2022, he spent more than 15 years at LORD Corporation, where he launched and led a global business unit that translated aerospace technologies into energy industry applications. He later served as Global Operations Growth and Innovation Director for LORD’s fastest-growing business unit, supporting over $200 million in electric vehicle capital projects across six plants in four countries. For more information, please visit his profile: Jonathan Owens | Duke Pratt School of Engineering
Christian Péan, MD, is faculty in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Duke University School of Medicine, where he serves as Executive Director of AI & IT Innovation, and also holds a secondary appointment as core faculty at the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy. He is an orthopaedic trauma surgeon whose clinical expertise includes fracture care, arthroplasty for fracture and post-traumatic hip arthritis, complex traumatic conditions (proximal humerus fractures, humerus nonunion, periprosthetic fractures, pelvis/acetabulum reconstruction), and shoulder procedures. Dr. Péan’s research spans artificial intelligence, public health, ethics, and clinical care transformation, with over 80 peer-reviewed publications focused on risk prediction, large language models, social drivers of health, and value-based musculoskeletal care. He is also Founder and CEO of RevelAi Health, a company advancing conversational AI and care coordination to improve outcomes and reduce clinician burnout. For more information, please visit his faculty profile: Christian Peán | Duke University School of Medicine
Eric Poon, MD, MPH, serves as the Chief Health Information Officer for Duke Medicine and practices primary care internal medicine at the Durham Medical Center as part of Duke Primary Care. In his role as CHIO, he oversees the strategic vision and optimization of clinical and analytic information systems, including Maestro Care (Epic), to enhance patient care, research, and education across Duke Health. His research focuses on leveraging health information technology to improve care quality and patient safety, including decision support in ambulatory care, patient-clinician communication through portals, and the adoption of hospital IT innovations such as computerized physician order entry and barcode systems. For more information, please visit his faculty profile: Eric Poon | Duke University School of Medicine
Jon Reifschneider, MS, MBA, MEM, is the Founding Executive Director of the AI Master of Engineering Program and Director of the Center for Research & Engineering of AI Technology in Education (CREATE) at Duke University, and Co-Founder and CEO of Inquisite. He has over 20 years of experience in AI, strategy, and product innovation, including leadership in healthcare and education technology. For more information, please visit his professional profile: Jon Reifschneider | Duke Pratt School of Engineering
Shelley Rusincovitch, MMCi, FAMIA, is the Managing Director of Duke AI Health, a multidisciplinary initiative within the Duke University School of Medicine that advances research and applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning in medicine and population health. She is an informaticist and technical leader with expertise in healthcare AI, machine learning, data modeling, and data science experiential learning. With more than 20 years of experience in clinical research—including trials, registries, and health system data warehousing—she is a Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA). In addition to her role at Duke, Ms. Rusincovitch serves as an adjunct instructor in software and web development at Durham Technical Community College. For more information, please visit her profile: Shelley Rusincovitch | Duke AI Health
Kurt Schmidt is a Senior Account Manager at NVIDIA, specializing in higher education and research partnerships. He collaborates with academic institutions to advance AI research and education, emphasizing the importance of supporting researchers and students in their AI endeavors. Schmidt has been instrumental in initiatives such as the AI Makerspace at Georgia Tech and has contributed to discussions on AI infrastructure at events like the OCP Global Summit. His work focuses on enabling the academic community to leverage cutting-edge resources and facilitate knowledge exchange to accelerate discovery. For more information, please visit his profile: Kurt Schmidt | NVIDIA
Richard Shannon, MD, is the Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, and Chief Quality Officer for Duke Health. In this role, he partners with physician, nurse, and administrative leaders to oversee governance, strategy, and operational outcomes for Duke’s centers of excellence, while also directing the health system’s quality and safety programs. Dr. Shannon previously served in senior leadership roles at the University of Virginia, the University of Pennsylvania, and Allegheny General Hospital, and has held faculty appointments at Harvard Medical School and Drexel University College of Medicine. His research has focused on myocardial metabolism and heart failure, including pioneering discoveries on the cardiovascular effects of incretins, while his innovative work in patient safety has been featured in national media and chronicled in Charles Kenney’s The Best Practice. An elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, Dr. Shannon also serves on the Boards of Directors of the Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Health Plan, where he chairs the Quality Health Improvement Committee. For more information, please visit his faculty profile: Richard Shannon | Duke Health
Catherine Staton, MD, MSc, is a Professor of Emergency Medicine, Neurosurgery, Population Health, and Global Health at Duke University, where she serves as Vice Chair of Research Strategy & Faculty Development in Emergency Medicine and Director of the GEMINI (Global EM Innovation & Implementation) Research Center. Her research focuses on integrating innovative implementation methods into health systems globally and locally to improve access to acute care, with a strong emphasis on injury prevention and alcohol-related harm reduction. Dr. Staton has led numerous international collaborations, including the TReCK Program in Tanzania, which builds trauma research capacity and trains the next generation of implementation and data science researchers. For more information, please visit her faculty profile: Catherine Staton | Duke University School of Medicine
Xiang (Mike) Yu, PhD, is Director of AI Innovations and Real World Analytics at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine, where he leverages data science, digital health, and AI to drive clinical development and real-world evidence generation. His expertise spans biomedical engineering, clinical data analytics, and translational research partnerships. For more information, please visit his professional profile: Xiang (Mike) Yu | LinkedIn
Event Team
This event is directed by Shelley Rusincovitch (Duke AI Health) and Jonathan Owens (Pratt School of Engineering)
Team: Jessica Johnstone, Jonathan McCall, Tiffany Torres, Anurodh Tripathi, Whitney Welsh
With many thanks to Sharlini Sankaran and Dan Dardani for their expert guidance
Photography: Brian Strickland | Graphic design: Catherine Pipkin
