11 Sep Leveraging past data for future health
Health care providers have long maintained meticulous records of patients’ medical history to ensure a holistic picture of their specific care needs.
The personalized record obviously works to a patient’s benefit, but when viewed in the context of a large database of patient records, researchers and clinicians can observe different types of health trends. This information can have significant implications for new research and clinical care.
That’s why several initiatives within the UW Carbone Cancer Center plan to better harness the troves of existing health data, as well as find new opportunities to expand and explore specific health needs and disparities.
“Informatics, to me, is a branch of science that enables the collection and integration of various kinds of data to generate actionable insights that can be used to improve human health and healthcare,” said Jomol Mathew, Associate Director of Informatics for UW Carbone and Associate Dean for Informatics and Information Technology for the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
These initiatives are supported in part by funds raised by Garding Against Cancer, founded in 2016 by University of Wisconsin men’s basketball head coach Greg Gard and his wife, Michelle. Garding Against Cancer is a significant partner for UW Carbone and has raised more than $6.5 million for cancer research and cancer-related services across Wisconsin. Read more …