Keynote Speakers: Atul Butte and Douglas Fridsma

PSB 2014

Atul Butte Division Chief and Associate Professor, Stanford University School of Medicine Director, Center for Pediatric Bioinformatics, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital

Title: Translating a trillion points of data into therapies, diagnostics, and new insights into disease

Abstract:
There is an urgent need to translate genome-era discoveries into clinical utility, but the difficulties in making bench-to-bedside translations have been well described. The nascent field of translational bioinformatics may help. Dr. Butte's lab at Stanford builds and applies tools that convert more than a trillion points of molecular, clinical, and epidemiological data -- measured by researchers and clinicians over the past decade and now commonly called "big data"-- into diagnostics, therapeutics, and new insights into disease. Several of these methods or findings are spun out into new biotechnology companies. Dr. Butte, a bioinformatician and pediatric endocrinologist, will highlight his lab's work on using publicly-available molecular measurements to find new uses for drugs including drug repositioning, discovering new treatable inflammatory mechanisms of disease in type 2 diabetes, the evaluation of patients presenting with whole genomes sequenced, and new work on integrating and reusing the data that results from clinical trials. Dr. Butte will especially cover big data in biomedicine as a platform for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Biography:
Atul Butte, MD, PhD is Chief of the Division of Systems Medicine and Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Genetics and by courtesy, Computer Science, Pathology, and Medicine at Stanford University and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. Dr. Butte trained in Computer Science at Brown University, worked as a software engineer at Apple and Microsoft, received his MD at Brown University, trained in Pediatrics and Pediatric Endocrinology at Children's Hospital Boston, then received his PhD in Health Sciences and Technology from Harvard Medical School and MIT. Dr. Butte is also a founder of Personalis, providing clinical interpretation of whole genome sequences, and NuMedii, finding new uses for drugs. Dr. Butte has authored more than 120 publications on personalized and systems medicine, biomedical informatics, and molecular diabetes. Dr. Butte's research has been featured in the New York Times Science Times and the International Herald Tribune (2008), Wall Street Journal (2010 -2012), and San Jose Mercury News (2010).

Douglas B. Fridsma, MD, PhD, FACP, FACMI Chief Science Officer Director, Office of Science and Technology Office of the National Coordinator for HIT

Title: Update from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT

Abstract:
Health IT is rapidly changing and dramatically changing the world of healthcare. Advances in health IT will fundamentally change genomics and basic sciences research -- both applying big data techniques to these new data sources, and integrating these technologies into the research enterprise. In this keynote, Dr. Doug Fridsma, the chief science officer at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, will update participants on ONC's efforts to spur adoption of electronic health records and electronic health information exchange. Further, Dr. Fridsma will delve into ONC's interoperability strategy and the development of standards that support interoperability. Areas of focus will include the role of research in healthcare, the learning healthcare system concept, and clinical quality measures. Ample time will be given to engage in discussion with Dr. Fridsma at the conclusion of his talk.

Biography:
Dr. Fridsma is the Chief Science Officer and Director of the Office of Science and Technology in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Prior to arriving at ONC, Dr. Fridsma was on the teaching staff in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Arizona State University and, as a practicing internal medicine physician, had a clinical practice at Mayo Clinic Scottsdale.

Dr. Fridsma completed his medical training at the University of Michigan in 1990, and his PhD in Biomedical Informatics from Stanford University in 2003. In his role at ONC, Dr. Fridsma is responsible for all programs that are focused on providing a foundation for interoperable health information exchange.

He served on the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) Board of Directors from 2005-2008, as well as the Health IT Standards Committee from 2009-2010. Dr. Fridsma currently serves as a board member of HL7 and the National e-Health Collaborative.