Duke University’s Health Data Sciences Center has assembled a clinical faculty leadership team and will be renamed Duke Forge.
Led by Dr. Robert M. Califf, who in May became vice chancellor for Health Data Science at Duke Health and part of the senior management team for Verily Health Sciences, an Alphabet company, the center recruited a leadership team made up of Department of Statistical Science Professor Amy H. Herring, Dr. Erich Huang, assistant dean for biomedical informatics and assistant professor in the department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, and Victoria Christian as chief operating officer.
The leadership team issued a call for applications for two clinical associate directors and after a competitive process appointed Dr. Megan Clowse and Dr. Yousuf Zafar to these key leadership positions. Clowse is an associate professor of medicine and a clinical researcher focusing on rheumatologic diseases in pregnancy. Zafar is an associate professor of medicine and policy whose research focuses on improving care for patients with advanced cancer.
With agreement from their mentors and chairs, three other clinicians have been invited to serve in the following focused roles with Duke Forge:
- Dr. Ann Marie Navar will serve as associate director of outcomes research
- Dr. Sreekanth Vemulapalli will serve as associate director of health delivery transformation
- Dr. Nandan Lad will serve as associate director of innovation
“We chose a name that would capture the essence of what we’re working to build at the center: an environment where disparate structures and data streams can be welded together in ways that both motivate and inform efforts to improve health across the biomedical spectrum—from bench science to population health,” said Califf in a blog post.
Duke Forge will seek to advance and create inter-campus collaborations focused on data science research and innovation in health and biomedical sciences, amplify Duke’s role in building a nationally regarded network for clinical evidence generation, and develop a stronger presence and role for Duke in Silicon Valley and other areas known for data science innovation and excellence.
The Forge is a practical laboratory where Duke and partners develop prototypes, test them, improve them, and try again. Through the alchemy of quantitative science, clinical expertise, and data from diverse sources, the center will create breakthroughs in health, systems, behavior, medicine, policy and technology to improve lives.
The Forge is located on the 4th floor (Suite 401) of the Davison Building on West Campus and can be reached at (919) 668-9222 or TheForge@duke.edu. A web site will be launched soon.