Health
Health is one of the most consequential and complex challenges society faces, and computer science has a growing role in addressing it. Researchers in the health cross-cutting theme work across the full spectrum of computing, design, and data-driven health research: from decoding the molecular mechanisms of disease with machine learning, to designing electronic health services people can actually use, to understanding how digital technology shapes our mental well-being. What unites this work is a shared goal of turning computational advances into tools that genuinely improve health outcomes and quality of life, in close collaboration with clinicians, patients, health IT companies, and public health researchers.
Our research spans the molecular to the societal. On the biomedical side, we develop machine learning methods for metabolomics, pharmacology, medical imaging, and epidemiology, including causal inference for treatment effects and models of infectious disease dynamics, increasingly incorporating large language models into clinical prediction tasks. On the human side, we study how people interact with health technology, from the usability of electronic health records to the design of eHealth services for patients and clinicians, and how digital traces from wearables and online platforms reveal patterns in mental health and well-being. We also bring critical and design-led perspectives to areas often overlooked in mainstream health tech, such as women's health and embodied experiences of illness, ensuring our technologies serve those whose needs are too often left out.
Tangible Societal Challenges We Address:
- Understanding disease at the molecular level to enable earlier diagnosis and treatment
- Making eHealth services usable and accessible for patients and professionals alike
- Tackling mental health through digital phenotyping
- Responsible use of AI and large language models in clinical care
- Improving electronic health record systems and health IT procurement
- Addressing inequities and blind spots in women's health research
- Understanding how engagement with different online technologies affects long-term well-being
