Duke Big Ideas Lab

Our society faces rising costs and declining health as a result of a reactive, treatment-based health care system. Our lab is developing technologies to change this paradigm. We believe that a next generation proactive, preventative health care system is possible through a combination of new technology development and shifts in culture and policy surrounding health care. Complex disease begins with deviations from a healthy, baseline state. Human health is a state that exists as a result of a combination of factors. These include intrinsic factors that we are born with, like our genome, as well as extrinsic factors like our environment and lifestyle. We now have the capacity to measure the vast majority of these factors continuously over the lifetime of an individual. The challenge has become how we can use this data to deliver actionable health insights to individuals and to health care professionals. Our lab’s overarching goal is to develop and test tools and infrastructure using biomedical and health data for early detection, intervention, and prevention of disease. Our projects include improving health monitoring through personalized, real-time risk classification and tailored, remote intervention strategies. As a result of our work, we are arming healthcare professionals with tools and information to detect illness and intervene early and to deliver the right treatment at the right time to the right person. We are also empowering individuals to take agency over their own health with technology-based assistance and support. Our team combines expertise in data science, engineering, informatics, medicine, biological sciences, and population health. Please see our Alumni Group "Duke BIG IDEAs Lab Alumni" for networking opportunities and a place to share updates on projects, publications, accomplishments, and interests: