SUMMARY
Arjun P. Athreya, Ph.D., M.S., is an electrical and computer engineer at Mayo Clinic with a passion for developing engineering ecosystems using artificial intelligence to enable precision care in the era of digital and decentralized health.
These engineering ecosystems identify biomarkers of disease biology (discovery science), drug response (clinical science) and well-being by combining data from a variety of sources, including:
- Omics assays, such as genomics, metabolomics and exposomics.
- Imaging and physiological measures, such as electroencephalograms.
- Wearables, such as smartwatches and smartphones.
- Electronic health records.
Dr. Athreya's goal is to translate his research findings to the bedside. Dr. Athreya designs technologies by envisioning the needs of patients and providers and by collaborating closely with clinicians, bioethicists and basic science faculty members. Dr. Athreya leads these efforts through novel design of decentralized digital health studies. He conducts participatory design studies to gather design and usability perspectives of health care systems and dashboards.
Focus areas
- Artificial intelligence.
- Precision care approaches for chronic conditions, such as major depressive disorder in adolescents and adults.
- Digital health technologies for pediatric mental health, such as disruptive behaviors and suicidality in adolescents.
- Digital health solutions for health care provider well-being and burnout, such as in registered nurses.
- Health engineering systems.
- Pharmacogenomics.
- Integrative multi-omic biomarker paradigms for rare disorders, such as primary sclerosing cholangitis.
Significance to patient care
In many fields of medicine, treatment selection still takes place on a trial-and-error basis, thus relying heavily on the expertise of health care providers. Treatment failures bring added disease burden for patients and increase the cost of care. In addition, medical practice is becoming increasingly data rich, with multiple sources of data, and data-intensive, with complex data presented to providers. There also are streams of real-time data from remote monitoring technologies.
Using artificial intelligence and high volumes of patient data spanning multiple modalities, Dr. Athreya can prioritize treatment selection based on therapeutic success specific to the patient. He also can individualize treatment management based on specific symptom improvement. Dr. Athreya's approach reduces trial and error. In his approach, treatment starts with better optimized therapy and can be switched if early changes in symptom severity suggest a poor outcome in the long term.
Professional highlights
- American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.
- Presidential Trainee Award, 2017-2019.
- Jason Morrow Memorial Award, 2017.
- Mayo Clinic.
- Healthcare Technology Fellow, Center for Individualized Medicine, 2016-2018.
- Early Career Scholar in Precision Medicine, 2016.
- Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE).
- Best Paper Award, CIBCB, 2017.
- Travel Award, Computational Intelligence Society, 2017.
- Best Paper Award, ACM BDCAT, 2016.
- Best Student Paper Award, CCNC, 2014.
- University of Illinois.
- Rambus Computer Engineering Fellowship, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2017.
- Best Student Presentation Award, Coordinated Science Lab Student Conference, 2016.
- Fellow, National Center for Supercomputing Applications and CompGen, 2015-2016.
- Fellow, Carnegie Institute of Technology Dean's Fellowship, Carnegie Mellon University, 2011-2013.