Creating a space for health care innovations

A new flagship center at Duke seeks to transform health care by advancing the frontiers of technology

A smartwatch that can flag early signs of disease. A virtual reality system that helps surgeons practice complex procedures before the first incision. AI-powered models that suggest personalized treatments.

This is what the future of health care will look like—and researchers at the new Duke Center for Computational and Digital Health Innovation are hard at work creating the enabling technologies to make it possible.

The center focuses on making three technologies useful for health care: wearable devices, high performance computing (HPC), and extended reality (such as virtual reality). These emerging technologies are reshaping our understanding of what is possible in health care.

Once the technology is integrated thoughtfully, the real-world impact will be profound—improving access to care, assisting doctors  and surgeons, and empowering individuals to manage their own health more effectively. 

“We’re bringing together engineers, basic scientists, clinicians to help find, track, and treat human disease,” says Amanda Randles, director of the center and the Alfred Winborne Mordecai and Victoria Stover Mordecai Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Pratt School of Engineering.

Nowhere But Duke

“Duke’s rich history of collaboration makes it the ideal place to bring engineering and medicine together to tackle the biggest problems in health care others simply cannot,” says Jerome Lynch, Vinik Dean of Engineering.

“We’ve created an atmosphere where truly interdisciplinary work can be done to address the toughest health care challenges,” Randles says.

The idea for the center came from a series of workshops and discussions with faculty from all units of the university interested in computational and digital health.

“When the center was formed, it was an exciting moment for the medical community because it meant applying computational methods to all aspects of research,” says Manesh Patel, MD, chief of the Division of Cardiology in the Duke Department of Surgery.

Each One, Teach One
The center will hold monthly virtual seminars, community building events, and training programs for students, postdoctoral fellows and medical professionals. “If you’re a clinician, we want to help you know the nuances of how to deploy AI and the pros and cons of using the tools; engineers need to understand real-world scenarios and where the technology could be applied,” Randles says.

A new certificate program in Computational and Digital Health Innovation for Duke graduate students begins enrollment this year.

As medical treatment and research rely more heavily on prediction and modeling, Randles is thrilled about the potential benefits the new center will offer the health care industry.

“We can actually shift from reactive care to doing something that is proactive. Remote monitoring options for example, can identify a patient’s problem before they have the problem,” Randles said. “This is what the future of health care looks like.”