A life sciences hub — featuring the University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing (UM-IHC) — is slated to be part of the North Bethesda Metro station redevelopment proposal announced Monday, July 29, 2024.
“We're here today because metro stations are not just a stop where people get on and off of transit, on buses or trains. They become critical community hubs,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) said at a news conference announcing the request for quote. “They become engines of economic development and opportunity. They become engines of innovation in partnership with the private sector and other parts of the public sector background.”
Launched in November 2022, UM-IHC leverages technological advances to create a premier learning health care system that evaluates both de-identified and secure digitized medical health data to improve outcomes for patients across Maryland. The institute is a partnership between University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), the University of Maryland College Park, and the University of Maryland Medical System.
This institute is harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) and billions of data points from millions of patients in the University of Maryland Medical System, Mark T. Gladwin, MD, the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and UMB vice president for medical affairs, said after the conference. Maryland’s system is uniquely set up to provide the data to train the AI because of its diverse population, which will help prevent biases in the AI system, he added.
“One whole element of this would be to predict disease [and] intervene,” Gladwin said.
There’s no question that data is the driving force for the way medicine will be practiced in the future, said Bradley Maron, MD, senior associate dean for precision medicine at UMSOM and co-director of UM-IHC. “And, it’s already beginning now.”
“What we're trying to accomplish at the institute is using data across all different forms — whether it be information that's captured for the heart in an individual patient, or across an entire medical system based on the kind of a problem that group of patients have — we want to try to understand how different methods can generate new insights that will allow us to diagnose diseases ahead of time, interact with patients in a much more personalized way, and ultimately align treatment with patients using an approach that is much more precise and intends to improve the way health is managed and the outcomes for the patients that we serve,” Maron said.
The UM-IHC will anchor the development of the 13.9-acre site, which is planned also to include housing and retail space. The county has $36.6 million in local, state, and federal funding for the infrastructure.
“These funds are extremely competitive,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Maryland). “They're not easy to come by — and your plan, your partnership, your team set you up for success, and we're glad to be part of that coalition.”
UM-IHC is expected to energize research in the life sciences including applied artificial intelligence, bioinformatics, immersive visualization, real-world evidence and adaptive clinical trials, population health, and therapeutic drug discovery. While driving technological advancement, the goal is to also provide critical mass to Maryland’s technology economy.
And while breaking ground and construction on the new building will take some time, the UM-IHC already has boots on the ground in Montgomery County. The institute has been renting space in the county since January 2024, UMB President President Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS, said during the news conference.
“I want you to know we have been physically present here for six months. We are actively present now and rapidly expanding,” Jarrell said. “And we will be here expanding even further. And when we get a building here … we will really have a significant presence here.”