Mount Sinai Announces Appointment of Joel Dudley, PhD, as Executive Vice President for Precision Health
Joel Dudley, PhD, an internationally recognized investigator in translational bioinformatics and precision medicine, has been named Executive Vice President for Precision Health for the Mount Sinai Health System. In this new role, he will create a Precision Health Enterprise by linking pioneering research conducted in the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) with implementation strategies developed in collaboration with leadership and staff throughout the Health System.
Precision medicine is an innovative model of health care that customizes diagnosis and treatment for an individual patient based not only on genetic data but also on medical history, laboratory tests, health history, lifestyle, and environmental influences. The goal of this major initiative of the National Institutes of Health is a greater understanding of disease that will lead to better treatment and more accurate diagnosis. Mount Sinai’s continued investment will drive further development of individualized and effective treatment plans for diverse patients.
In creating the Precision Health Enterprise at Mount Sinai, Dr. Dudley will work closely with Niyum Gandhi, the Health System’s Executive Vice President and Chief Population Health Officer, and Prabhjot Singh, MD, PhD, Chair, Department of Health Systems Design and Global Health, and Director, The Arnhold Institute of Global Health at ISMMS.
“Mount Sinai is harnessing data from our large and diverse patient population to treat and heal patients, as well as develop a next-generation learning health system,” Dr. Dudley says. “Our goal with the Precision Health Enterprise is to continue to personalize therapies for our patients, including those with conditions such as cancer, chronic diseases such as diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease, or rare genetic conditions. We believe that new product development, prototyping, artificial intelligence, predictive analysis, prevention, and partnerships will help us deliver better care in a rapidly changing health care ecosystem.”
The Precision Health Enterprise will draw on the expertise of both the Health System and the Icahn School of Medicine with a focus on three key strategies:
- Intelligent Health Care – Artificial intelligence and predictive analysis will be applied to improve disease detection, treatment, and prevention. The School’s robust, multidisciplinary Precision Medicine initiative will be central to data collection, generation, analysis, and application.
- Consumer Health and Wellness – Moving beyond the hospital experience to manage the total health of our patients, the Enterprise will develop approaches to improve patient health and avoid hospitalization whenever possible.
- External Partnerships – Recognizing the rapidly changing landscape of health care delivery and insurance, the Enterprise will forge new relationships with industry, particularly technology companies, to optimize quality of care and cost-effectiveness.
These efforts will be closely aligned with Dr. Dudley’s work as the Director of the Institute for Next Generation Healthcare at ISMMS, a role which he will retain. Within the Institute, Dr. Dudley is developing an integrated translational biomedical research model at the nexus of advances in omics, clinical medicine, digital health, and artificial intelligence. Under his leadership, the Institute has established a Next Generation Health Clinic in Manhattan, the first of its kind to translate discoveries from computational data-driven approaches into personalized health care delivery to patients. Additionally, a Health Data and Design Innovation Center created in Silicon Valley expands the Institute’s ability to pursue innovations and develop programs that partner with emerging health technology startups. These initiatives dovetail with the goals of the Precision Health Enterprise.
“Mount Sinai is well positioned to enter a new period of growth, development and integration in precision medicine,” said Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and President for Academic Affairs, Mount Sinai Health System. “With Joel’s leadership and synergistic expertise in population health and system design, we will deliver better, tailored treatments for patients.”
“The Precision Health Enterprise represents a commitment to bring the most groundbreaking research in precision medicine to the operations of the Health System in areas such as population health,” said Mr. Gandhi. “I look forward to working with Joel and his team to deploy next-generation strategies in health engagement, precision wellness, and prevention to empower and care for patients through their health and wellness journey.”
“Joel’s vision of developing a new generation of care that is more intelligent, contextually relevant, and rapidly designed for the people we serve is closely aligned with the mission of the Department of Health Systems Design,” said Dr. Singh. “We look forward to supporting and learning alongside this important effort.”
A member of the ISMMS faculty since 2012, Dr. Dudley is also Director of the Harris Center for Precision Wellness and the Center for Biomedical Informatics. Prior to joining Mount Sinai, he co-founded and served as Director of Informatics at NuMedii, Inc., and was also a Consulting Professor of Systems Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he earned his PhD in Biomedical Informatics.
About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the nation’s leading integrated academic health systems and one of the largest in the New York metropolitan area. Its comprehensive system includes seven hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, over 600 research and clinical laboratories, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and the Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing. Together, the Health System comprises approximately 48,000 employees, more than 9,000 physicians, and 8,600 nurses.
As a leading learning health system, Mount Sinai combines clinical expertise with scientific discovery to improve patient care while training the next generation of health care and biomedical leaders. The Health System provides care across every stage of life, from prenatal care through geriatrics, while advancing personalized medicine through artificial intelligence, data science, and biomedical research.
Mount Sinai is consistently recognized among the nation’s leading academic health systems for patient care, research, and education. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 1 in New York by Newsweek and No. 5 on the magazine’s World’s Best Hospitals list. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai ranks No. 11 among U.S. medical schools and No. 1 among freestanding medical schools for National Institutes of Health funding, reflecting the strength of its scientific enterprise and leadership in biomedical research.