'The NIH Precision Medicine Initiative in Arizona'

SPEAKER: Akinlolu O. Ojo, MD, MPH, PhD, MBA, Associate Vice President for Clinical Research and Global Health Initiatives
TOPIC: This presentation will provide an overview of the Presidential Precision Medicine Initiative® (PMI) and the NIH-led component of the PMI (NIH PMI CP). The UA-Banner Health will play a vanguard role as one of eight academic health centers nationwide selected to enroll 1 million participants into the PMI CP.  The transformative aspects of the PMI CP will be discussed including the enrollment of 150,000 or more Arizonians into the Cohort Program and how University of Arizona Health Sciences (UAHS) and Banner diverse stake holders including community partner organizations in the design, implementation and governance of the PMI.  The presentation will describe how the faculty and graduate trainees in the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Heath will have the opportunity for “early access” to the NIH PMI research resources including a local parallel biobank on the 150,000 participants from Arizona.  The implications, opportunities and challenges presented by the implementation of the NIH-PMI CP in Arizona will be discussed.

Dr. Akinlolu (“Lolu”) Ojo is associate vice president for clinical research and global health initiatives at the University of Arizona Health Sciences. Dr. Ojo is the principal investigator of the NIH-funded University of Arizona – Banner Health Precision Medicine Initiative – Cohort Program HPO Enrollment Center – a White House-led transformative precision health research program to deliver personalized care to all Americans.  Prior to January 2016, Dr. Ojo was at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he served as professor of medicine and epidemiology and the Inaugural Florence E. Bingham Research Professor in Nephrology. Dr. Ojo is an internationally recognized physician scientist with expertise in chronic kidney disease, kidney and kidney-pancreas transplantation and global health. He earned a Master of Public Health in Global Health from the University of Alabama in Birmingham and completed a nephrology fellowship, a PhD in epidemiology and a Master of Business Administration at the University of Michigan. Dr. Ojo has more than 180 peer-reviewed publications. He has been elected into several honorific societies including the American Clinical and Climatological Association, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the Association of American Physicians.

For the UAHS Memo on this event, click here.