Clinical Science

Today’s large-scale proliferation of “big data” presents incredible opportunities for public health. Large data collection efforts within health systems promise to advance our understanding of how genetic traits and environmental factors influence common disease and condition status. In addition to the standard collection of the electronic health record and genomic data, many studies now use wearable devices that allow frequent measurement of phenotypic information. These biosensors produce digital data at an unprecedented scale of size and complexity. These data pose a significant big data challenge; developing tools and techniques to access, organize, and glean discoveries from them is an urgent, unmet need.

The UCLA Department of Computational Medicine is an academic home for faculty whose research programs span both computation and biomedical sciences. The department builds upon the rich history of the Biomathematics Ph.D. program.  

There are four major research programs in the department:

AI in Medicine

Partnering with the UCLA Health System and in close collaboration with UCLA’s clinical departments, the Department of Computational Medicine aims to transform patient care at UCLA by leveraging advances in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and by addressing emerging challenges that limit the realization of the full potential of these technologies to benefit human health.

Genomics + Health

Leveraging the deep expertise in computational genomics at UCLA and in collaboration with the UCLA Institute for Precision Health, the Department of Computational Medicine aims to utilize genomic information to improve patient outcomes.

Blockchain and Secure Computation in Medicine

Leveraging combined expertise in cryptography, scalable computing, AI, and medicine, the Department of Computational Medicine is developing technologies for the analysis of genomic and medical data while preserving privacy and data sharing policies.