Fetal demise and poor pre and post-natal health is a major issue in Indiana. The Indiana State Department of Health has a number of initiatives to improve this situation to improve Hoosier health, especially for our children. The BHIRC has been talking with the Maternal Child Health initiative about how we can harness the power of informatics and make their programs a better tool for addressing this serious health issue. One option is to harness gaming as an educational app for expectant mothers to teach them prenatal care that will make a real difference to this vulnerable part of our society. Another effort is around analyzing their data to understand how to better deliver care to women as they progress through their pregnancies. As these efforts develop, we’ll bring them to you so you can follow along in our efforts to help improve our larger community.
BHIRC – 16Tech Discuss Academic Commons Initiative.
16Tech is building an innovation center in downtown Indianapolis to provide a conducive environment for technology development as well as an enjoyable working and living environment. Bob Coy, the President and CEO of 16Tech, is building an Academic Commons in their center as a place where universities can have space near the heart of this innovation effort and offer their services in support of growing the Indiana tech community. The BHIRC is discussing how to become involved with this initiative as the local coordinator for the Academic Commons as it develops and grows to become a valuable resource to those who are growing the technology industry.
Indiana Bioscience Research Institute Collaborating With BHIR to Improve Health for Hoosiers and Beyond
The Indiana Bioscience Research Institute is a non-profit dedicated to finding cures for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other metabolic diseases to help Hoosiers and people beyond our state. The BHIR has entered into an agreement with the IBRI to collaborate in finding opportunities to bring the expertise of both organizations in solving problems associated with these costly chronic diseases. Dr. Dan Robertson and Stephanie Grinage from the IBRI are working with Dr. Gary Schwebach from the BHIRC to develop and execute a program. The program is intended to identify and reach out to organizations that can use our joint expertise in informatics and data analytics to improve how these diseases are addressed in Indiana. We’ll bring you more news as it happens.
The Power of Industry and Academia Can Result in Better Solutions for Indiana
The BHIRC was honored to be invited to a local company, LifeOmic, to share our ongoing research and explore how we could work together to benefit both of us. Tom Barber, the Chief Scientific Officer, hosted a gathering of academic researchers and company scientists to share our common research objectives. Dr. Sarath Chandra Janga, Dr. Xiaowen Liu and Dr. Saptarshi Purkayastha presented their research initiatives, which led to robust discussions of how our two organizations can work together. As a result, we are currently exploring ways in which the power of industry and academia can result in better solutions for Indiana.
Seeking Real-world Field Opportunities
The BHIRC is looking for opportunities to provide our biohealth informatics students with real-world opportunities in the field. There is a growing need for those who can translate computer science, data analytics, biological/ health science and social science into real-world solutions for companies and organizations. Actual experience is the best way to learn how to put their tremendous education to work. We are currently exploring relationships with the Indiana State Department of Health, the Indiana Primary Health Care Association, and several bioscience companies to put our students to work in moving the state of healthcare and bioscience to new levels in Indiana. If you have any opportunities to provide students for short term research projects, internships, and preceptorships while reaping the benefits of informatics in your organizations, please let us know.
Commercializing Academic Research
The BHIRC hosted a session on commercializing academic research, where faculty from the School of Informatics and Computing, commercialization specialists from the Indiana University Innovation and Commercialization Office, and financial people from the Indiana University Research and Technology Center met to discuss how to take ideas from the laboratory to the marketplace. Dr. Mathew Palakal and Dr. Huanmei Wu emphasized the importance of bringing our academic research to our Indiana community through products that have real world uses. Our ongoing research and development in genomics and proteonomics offers some good potential for creating new opportunities to meet new needs in bioscience. If you are interested in exploring the possibility of getting involved with bringing research to the market, please let us know.
BHIRC Open House a Great Success
Our open house on April 24th was a great success. The open house lasted three hours and was well attended by people from the local business, non-profit, and academic communities. Dr. Gary Schwebach, the BHIRC director, gave a brief introduction to our missions of innovative research and development, active community outreach and collaboration, and practical training and student engagement. The highlight of the evening was the opportunity for attendees from Lilly, LifeOmic, Covance, and the Indiana Bioscience Research Institute to mingle and share their common interests in bioscience and health-related informatics with our faculty. As a result, we are exploring collaborations with businesses and non-profits to bring our informatics expertise to use in serving the Indiana community.
BioHealth Informatics Research Center Officially Recognized
The BioHealth Informatics Research Center was officially recognized by Indiana University as a school center on April 24, 2019. We are excited to begin developing relationships with companies and organizations to help develop new informatics solutions to health the bioscience and healthcare communities. Let us know if you have any needs that could use our help.