Spring 2025

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Using technology to bridge the divide between health care and the human experience

Dear Friends and Supporters,

We are thrilled to have a growing network of partners and collaborators who share our vision for the future of health. Our partnerships and collaborations, both within UC San Diego and with industry leaders, are vital to innovating at scale with impact.

From launching new AI technologies to reimagining care models, these collaborations are fueling exciting projects and initiatives that have the potential to revolutionize health care. Stay tuned for more updates on the transformative work happening here at JCHI!



We are excited to introduce Kei Nakagawa, MD, as our new Director of Strategic Impact & Growth. With his deep expertise in health innovation ventures and strategic growth, Kei is helping lead our efforts to expand our partnerships, accelerate new ventures and create sustainable models that support the future of health innovation. Together, we are poised to drive change that will truly transform health care.

We would also like to congratulate Irwin Jacobs and the late Joan Jacobs on receiving the well-deserved UC Presidential Medal for their outstanding contributions to UC and the community. Read more about the award and their impact below. 

With gratitude,

Christopher Longhurst, MD

Executive Director, Jacobs Center for Health Innovation 

Headline Highlights

• STAT: The ultimate list of leaders in life sciences

• Fast Company: How Apple Vision Pro is finding a home in healthcare

• Microsoft Podcast: The reality of generative AI in the clinic

• HealthcareIT News: Can technology help bring the human touch back to medicine?

• Becker’s Hospital Review: Inside UC San Diego Health’s mission control for patient flow

• Microsoft: Microsoft and NVIDIA accelerate AI development and performance 

• BMJ Journals: Unreasonable effectiveness for training AI models effectively

• University of California Health: Writing the new history for health care”: UC nurses set a vision for the future of AI in nursing

• JCHI: Response to the White House Artificial Intelligence Action Plan



• Peterson Health Technology: Adoption of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Delivery Systems: Early Applications and Impacts

For more JCHI news, visit our website.

JCHI Project Updates

Mission Control

We continue to make great strides for our AI-powered Mission Control prototype center for UC San Diego Health. Our team is currently leveraging cutting-edge AI tools to improve emergency department (ED) operations and hospital flow.

A newly launched generative AI model analyzes where patients arriving at the ED are coming from — whether they were referred by a clinic or arrived independently — providing crucial insights that help ensure our patients get the best care at the right place. 

Over the past year, the Mission Control team has also effectively utilized an Emergency Department Inpatient (EDIP) forecasting model. This AI tool predicts the number of patients expected to be admitted but still waiting in the ED, enabling proactive bed management that reduces bottlenecks and accelerates patient placement. With each iteration, EDIP has delivered increasingly accurate forecasts and is now embedded into daily operational workflows.  

“The AI-driven EDIP prediction model has improved substantially compared to its initial version, which has allowed Mission Control to use the model's forecast to drive multiple operational workflows,” says Brian Clay, MD., Associate Chief Medical Officer, Inpatient Care and Hospital Operations at UC San Diego Health. “These include decisions around when to accept external transfers to the health system or how to evaluate organ transplant offers over the coming days, and the development of data-driven communication strategies to both ambulatory- and hospital-based providers with actionable guidance about ED referrals, discharge and transfer strategies, etc. We have seen the EDIP model become an integral part of Mission Control's work.”

The current Mission Control prototype brings together UC San Diego Health providers and team members with transformational health coaches, human factors designers, and AI innovators. The team is identifying key requirements for building Mission Control by testing and refining existing technologies, processes and workflows.

The EDIP model was originally built by Lily Poursoltan, a data scientist and Ph.D student in Innovation, Technology, and Operations at UC San Diego. She says the most rewarding part has been watching EDIP grow from an analytics project into an essential operational tool.

“Staff now rely on these predictions daily, proactively addressing potential bottlenecks before they affect patient care,” she says. “I'm proud of how our team's persistence has transformed ED patient flow and excited to continue refining this approach as we look toward the future.”

Stay tuned for future updates!

Willo

UC San Diego, in partnership with JCHI, has released version 2.0 of Willo, a mental health and well-being app co-designed by students, for students.

What’s new in V2.0:

• Updated Design: A redesigned interface offers a more user-friendly and modern experience.

• Collections Feature: Willo now organizes resources into themed collections, such as stress management, academic support, or social connection, making it easier to find what you need.

• Wellness Categories / Health Wheel: The app introduces a "Wellness Wheel" that breaks well-being into eight categories (mental, physical, academic, social, etc.). Resources and events on campus are mapped to these areas to help students understand and balance their overall well-being.

• Improved Recommendation Engine: The app better matches students with relevant campus resources and events based on their wellness needs.

Willo continues to be developed with input from students to ensure it remains relevant and useful for supporting student well-being. The ultimate goal of this groundbreaking app is to scale the technology to other universities. 

UC Presidential Medal: Irwin M. Jacobs and the late Joan K. Jacobs

We would like to congratulate Irwin Jacobs and the late Joan Jacobs who were honored with the well-deserved UC Presidential Medal for their exceptional contributions to UC and the community. Their visionary generosity has played a key role in shaping UC San Diego into a world-renowned research university.

We extend a heartfelt tribute to their lasting impact, especially through their support in establishing the Jacobs Center for Health Innovation!

Watch the video below.

Innovator Showcase

Partner Spotlight

Leaders from the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering and JCHI joined other global academic and industry leaders during the recent LINK-J & UC San Diego Life Science Symposium in Japan.

Home to world-renowned researchers in various engineering disciplines, the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering ranks #10 in the nation in the U.S. News & World Report Rankings of Best Engineering Schools. The Jacobs School of Engineering is making waves across a variety of exciting fields, from wearable sensors and cybersecurity to fusion energy, AI and machine learning.

Known for its groundbreaking work in bioengineering, robotics, nanoengineering and structural engineering, the school continues to lead the way in global innovation and impact. 

JCHI is proud to partner with the Jacobs School of Engineering to advance innovations in health. Through this collaboration, we are combining expertise in engineering, medicine and technology to accelerate research, develop transformative solutions and improve health care outcomes, including our P10000 project. 

As part of our partnership, JCHI and Jacobs School of Engineering leaders recently traveled to Tokyo to co-host the 7th LINK-J & UC San Diego Life Science Symposium, continuing the long-standing partnership with the Life Science Innovation Network Japan (LINK-J).

This year’s symposium, titled “Healthcare Engineering – Advanced Technology Development Aimed at Solving Issues in a Super-Aging Society,” highlighted UC San Diego’s leadership in wearable sensors, AI for health care and nanotechnology.

Nearly 300 people registered for the hybrid event, which featured Jacobs School of Engineering Dean and Special Adviser to the Chancellor Albert Pisano delivering opening remarks and moderating a panel, and research presentations by UC San Diego Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Patrick Mercier and Karandeep Singh, Joan and Irwin Jacobs Chancellor’s Endowed Chair, Associate Professor of Medicine in Biomedical Informatics, and UC San Diego’s Chief Health AI Officer. 

“I'm so enthusiastic about the collaboration between JCHI and Engineering,” Pisano says. “By working together we can develop the technology needed to collect clinically relevant data from the ambulatory population. And by doing so, we will be able to improve human health and patient outcomes, all at lower cost and greater efficacy. I was pleased to invite Karandeep Singh and (JCHI Executive Director) Chris Longhurst to Japan, and share the excitement about our partnership with Japanese industry, academia and government. And I envision a day when we are working with Japanese partners on this grand project, having an impact all around the world.”

The trip also focused on expanding collaborations with Japanese partners in academia, industry and government. Building on last year’s joint visit to Tohoku University, which led to a campuswide MOU emphasizing health sciences and engineering, the team continues to explore new avenues for innovation and research exchange.

UC San Diego's office in Tokyo's Nihonbashi Life Science Building — sponsored by the Jacobs School of Engineering— offers a valuable base for advancing these global partnerships, with access to premier conference and meeting facilities.

Together, JCHI and the Jacobs School of Engineering are fostering an international innovation ecosystem dedicated to advancing health care engineering. Another key collaboration involves the Center for Wearable Sensors at the Jacobs School of Engineering, which develops world-class, ultra-small, low-power sensors for monitoring the human body.

While the Jacobs School of Engineering focuses on building the tech, JCHI helps test it in real health care settings. With digital health as one of the Jacobs School of Engineering’s top priorities, this collaboration highlights how we help transfer innovation from lab to bedside.

For Mercier, Co-Director, Center for Wearable Sensors, this partnership opens new frontiers in real-time health monitoring and data-driven care.

 “The Center for Wearable Sensors builds exciting new sensing capabilities, including the ability to measure physiological, metabolic function, and more - all in real time on human subjects, and is excited to form new partnerships with JCHI to improve health care outcomes both locally and globally,” he says.

At JCHI, we believe collaboration and strategic partnerships are essential for driving pioneering advancements in health care.

Publications

• NEJM AI: A Call for Disclosure When Using AI for Patient Communications 

• NEJM AI: Will AI Make the Electronic Health Record More Efficient for Clinicians? 

• NEJM AI: Challenges in the Postmarket Surveillance of Clinical Prediction Models

• BMJ: PROBAST+AI: an updated quality, risk of bias, and applicability assessment tool for prediction models using regression or artificial intelligence methods

• NEJM AI: Not all clinical AI monitoring systems are created equal: Review and recommendations

• Nature Medicine: CANAIRI: The collaboration for translational artificial intelligence trials in healthcare

Fun Fact: JCHI’s Executive Director Christopher Longhurst, MD,  and his wife Emily have a furry family member, Bob Barker, who doubles as a therapy dog at UC San Diego Health.

Happenings

We are still buzzing from our AI to Advance Patient Safety Summit, which brought together top voices in patient safety, academic research, industry innovation, patient advocacy and regulatory oversight.

Watch our exclusive series of interviews with health care thought leaders who shared their insights on the future of AI in health care.