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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Speaker:
Nate Heintzman, Assistant Professor in the Division of Biomedical Informatics
University of California at San Diego
Title:
The DMITRI Study: Informatics Approaches to Personalizing Diabetes Therapies
Abstract:
Diabetes affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide and is acknowledged to present and progress heterogeneously among diverse individuals, yet most clinical guidelines are very general and thus are of limited real-world use to most patients and caretakers. Toward gaining a more personalized understanding of living with this chronic disease, we launched the Diabetes Management Integrated Technology Research Initiative (DMITRI). The DMITRI pilot study collected large multidimensional datasets from a small cohort of physically active patients with diabetes outside of the traditional clinical setting, including data from many continuous body-worn sensors and medical devices, photographic nutrition journals, lifestyle and cognitive evaluations, medical histories, clinical lab results, and SNP genotypes. Integration and analyses of these diverse datasets is ongoing. Here, we introduce the idea of physical activity as a paradigm for disease heterogeneity, discuss new analyses and visualizations made possible with these data, identify opportunities for collaborations with diverse stakeholders in the R&D community, and share our perspectives on how such multidimensional information is critical for understanding human disease at the level of the individual and for achieving truly personalized health.
Bio:
Nate Heintzman is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Biomedical Informatics in UC San Diego’s Department of Medicine, where he directs the Diabetes Management Integrative Technology Research Initiative (DMITRI) and participates in the Division’s ongoing iDASH program (Integrating Data for Analysis, Anonymization, and Sharing). A long-time diabetes advocate, Heintzman combines his research experience in genomics and device technologies to explore quantitative aspects of glycemic control and means by which technology and other interventions can improve health outcomes in the diabetes community. In 2008, Heintzman was named a prestigious UC Discovery Fellow with the San Diego division of the California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), and his research in recent years has been published in Nature. In addition to his academic contributions, Heintzman serves as Chair of the Board for Insulindependence, a San Diego-based national non-profit organization that he co-founded to provide fitness and recreation programs for people with diabetes. Heintzman received his PhD in Biomedical Sciences from UCSD and his BA in Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn.
