Latest Updates
Dharini Raghavan won awards from the MIT Hacking Medicine.
Dharini Raghavan from Dr. Kwon’s lab won three awards from the MIT Hacking Medicine: 1) main MIT hack, 2) a special challenge by Google Health, and 3) a special prize from Niraj Bhatia Foundation from Harvard Medical School. BIG BIG Congratulations on this achievement! We are very proud of you!!
Dr. Matthew Reyna received the annual Dragon Award.
Congratulations to Dr. Matthew Reyna on receiving the annual Dragon Award for Research Excellence and Collaboration, presented by the Office of Research on March 26th. This award recognized Dr. Reyna for his dedication and outstanding contributions by exemplifying excellence in leadership, service, and performance in alignment with Emory’s Mission and the One Emory Strategic Framework. The Research Excellence and Collaboration Award specifically honors faculty investigators who consistently demonstrate exceptional partnership with the Office of Research Administration.
BMI's Funding Achievements in February
February 2025
Congratulations to all BMI members on your achievements! Funding secured includes:
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Drs. Reza Sameni, Abeed Sarker, Matthew Reyna, and Gari Clifford received funding as a part of a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation award to Dr. Cynthia Whiteney in SPH: Global Health. The BMI team will be de-identifying and transforming CHAMPS data into an AI-ML ready format.
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Dr. Tony Pan received additional funding from GA Tech Research Institute for the AI/BioM FITBIT project. Dr. Pan and his team will develop a data management solution for managing experimental parameters, sensor outputs, data analysis results, and other relevant data for real-time and retrospective analysis and model development, archival, and provenance tracking.
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Dr. Selen Bozkurt received a 2-year pilot grant from DOM: Palliative Medicine as a part of their Fraser-Parker Foundation award. Additionally, she received a Sanofi Innovations in Data Exploration & Analytics Award (“iDEA-iTECH Awards”) from Sanofi US Services Inc. The title of her project is “AI-Driven Approaches to Enhance Diversity in Clinical Trial Enrollment Using Real-World Data (RWD)”. This project seeks to develop an AI-driven framework to identify enrollment disparities and systemic barriers using advanced machine learning techniques, including Large Language Models (LLMs), by analyzing structured and unstructured data from electronic health records (EHRs) including clinical notes, and patient portal messages.
Dharini Raghavan is selected for the final round of MIT Hacking Medicine.
February 2025
Dharini Raghavan, GT ECE MS student, from Dr. Kwon’s lab is selected for the final round of MIT Hacking Medicineunder the Assistive Technology track, which was about Ubiquitous Computing and Behavior Sensing for Older Adults. Congratulations!
Xiaofan Mu was selected to participate in the final round of 2025 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition and Master’s Showcase
February 2025
Xiaofan Mu, Emory CS MS student, from Dr. Kwon’s lab was selected to participate in the final round of 2025 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition and Master’s Showcase at Emory University. Nearly 40 students participated this year from Emory, so the competition was fierce!
Emory Researchers Develop AI Model to Improve ICU Blood Transfusion Decisions.
Researchers at the Department of Biomedical Informatics and the Department of Computer Science at Emory University have developed an advanced AI model that accurately predicts blood transfusion needs in non-traumatic ICU patients. Published in Health Data Science, the study addresses the limitations of existing clinical decision support systems, which often focus on specific patient subgroups. By analyzing a comprehensive set of clinical features, including lab results and vital signs, the AI model can predict transfusion requirements within a 24-hour window, aiding timely decision-making in high-pressure ICU environments.
The research team, led by Alireza Rafiei and Rishikesan Kamaleswaran, trained the model on over 72,000 ICU patient records using machine learning and a meta-model ensemble approach. The AI system demonstrated high performance with an AUROC of 0.97, an accuracy of 0.93, and an F1 score of 0.89. In addition to predicting transfusion needs, it identified key biomarkers influencing decisions, improving both patient outcomes and resource allocation. The team plans to integrate the model into clinical workflows, optimizing transfusion strategies and enhancing critical care medicine through data-driven technologies.
BMI's Funding Achievements in January
January 2025
Congratulations to all BMI members on your achievements! Funding secured includes:
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Dr. Nasim Katebi received a CHARTER (Research Innovation Support and Enhancement (RISE) Pilot award for the project titled “Investigating the Epigenetic Links Between Socioeconomic Status, Prenatal Stress, and Fetal Developmental Features”.
OpenBMI hosted a virtual career panel.
January 22nd 2025
OpenBMI, the BMI outreach team, hosted a virtual panel discussion on careers in biomedical informatics. Featured distinguished speakers from industry, government, and academia shared their career journeys, insights, and the challenges they have faced in the field. The panelists included Dr. Ayse Selin Çakmak, an Applied Sensing & Health Scientist at Apple, Dr. Caroline Esnault, a Staff Scientist at the NICHD Bioinformatics and Scientific Programming Core at the NIH, and Dr. Manoj Bhasin, a Professor at Emory University School of Medicine and Director of the Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, and Systems Biology Single Cell Biology Program at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Participants had the opportunity to learn about different career paths, emerging trends in biomedical informatics, and engage the panelists with questions.