Please use this language to describe University of Michigan Precision Health Resources and Environment when applying for grants:

Precision Health at the University of Michigan (PH) is a campus-wide, multidisciplinary presidential initiative funded by the Office of the Provost, Michigan Medicine, the College of Engineering (CoE), and the School of Public Health (SPH). PH involves all 19 schools and colleges at the university, as well as partnering centers and initiatives. PH uses a population-based strategy, targeted to discover and validate genetic, environmental, social, behavioral, and clinical markers that influence disease prevention and health outcomes. These markers can subsequently be used to make actionable decisions to personalize an individual’s pursuit of wellness and to improve the health of communities around the world.

Led by faculty co-directors Brahmajee Nallamothu, MD, MPH (Michigan Medicine), Jenna Wiens, PhD (CoE), and Sebastian Zoellner, PhD (SPH), PH is housed at the North Campus Research Complex at the University of Michigan, near the Institute for Healthcare Policy & Innovation (IHPI), the Data Office for Clinical and Translational Research, the Research Data Warehouse (RDW), and the Central Biorepository (CBR). PH researchers and staff are deeply embedded in these related offices to allow for seamless collaboration and provide staff and administrative support to research projects across the university.

Focused on providing the infrastructure and platform needed to enable science across disciplines, PH comprises five tightly linked infrastructure workgroups. These workgroups provide resources in 1) data analytics and information technology, 2) patient cohort development and datasets, 3) health implementation, 4) education and training programs for professionals in precision health science, and 5) funding and research opportunities. Through our workgroups, investigators have access to research data accessible on HIPAA-compliant servers, genomic data for MGI participants, data sciences platforms, and national networks. Managed by experts in areas such as biostatistics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, genomics, computational science, anesthesiology and pain management, psychiatry, bioinformatics, and pharmacogenomics, PH provides a deeply diverse, intellectual environment that fosters collaboration.

Institutional Investments

The University of Michigan is making significant investments in world-class informatics and data science initiatives, including:

• Clinical Data Access:
  • Researchers have access to a robust Research Data Warehouse (RDW), which contains clinical data on more than 4 million patients spanning 15 years, as well as an investigator-friendly, self-service tool called DataDirect. With more than 700 unique users annually, DataDirect provides researchers real-time access to cohort counts (no IRB approval required) from EHR data, available biospecimens, and genomic data. With IRB approval, research teams can develop custom data extracts to download and analyze. For clinical trial enrollment, DataDirect has functionality to link eligibility criteria with upcoming clinic schedules to optimize recruitment.
  • The Data Office for Clinical and Translational Research manages access to DataDirect and provides datasets for researchers when the request is too complex for self-serve tools like DataDirect.
• Genomic/Genetic Data Access: Genomic variant and biostatistical services allow for genetic-variant checking against a set of more than 15,000 whole genomes. This service drives the selection of more than 2 million exomic single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).
• Data Science Platform: A university-wide Data Science Initiative includes the Michigan Institute for Data Science (MIDAS), and a complementary Data Science Services and Infrastructure Core, which supports statistical consultation, advanced data management, and computational services, as well as a HIPAA-compliant supercomputing platform and data repository.
• Participation in National Networks: Infrastructure to support large-scale distributed network-based research, including a fully PCORNet-compliant data mart and node; and regional and national CTSA consortia.