Clinical Informatics Fellows Presented AI/ML-Driven Research at NIH Bridge2AI Meeting

Held April 28–29, 2026, in the National Institutes of Health Neuroscience Building in North Bethesda, Maryland, the NIH Bridge to Artificial Intelligence (Bridge2AI) Spring All-Hands Meeting, brought together national leaders, researchers, clinicians and trainees to advance the development of ethically sourced, AI-ready biomedical datasets and promote responsible innovation in artificial intelligence for health care. 

Several members of the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix attended the meeting. This included the department’s research team and fellows from its affiliated Clinical Informatics Fellowship Program. Chaired by Monica Muñoz Torres, MD, and Yulia A. Levites Strekalova, PhD, MBA, this hybrid in-person/virtual event highlighted progress across the NIH Common Fund’s Bridge2AI initiative, which seeks to transform biomedical and behavioral research through collaborative AI infrastructure, workforce development and data science innovation.

These emerging scholars actively contributed to the meeting’s oral presentation sessions, including the Lightning Pitches, the poster session — Evergreen Poster Gallery — and scientific discussion panels. They also guided attendees through some of the celebrated work featured during the poster gallery, highlighting potential for cross-disciplinary collaborations across consortium projects and networking to cultivate a growing culture of consortium feedback, appreciation and innovation. “Their participation underscored the institution’s growing national presence in biomedical artificial intelligence, translational data science and physician informatics leadership,” said Peipei Ping, PhD, FAHA, FISHR, chair of Biomedical Informatics and chief AI and Data Science Officer at the College of Medicine – Phoenix.

Since its launch in July 2015, College of Medicine – Phoenix’s Clinical Informatics Fellowship Program, housed within the Department of Biomedical Informatics, has evolved into a premier physician informatics training program dedicated to preparing future leaders at the intersection of clinical care, health care systems and digital transformation. Beginning with its inaugural cohort of two physician fellows, the program has grown into a robust multidisciplinary fellowship offering rotations across multiple health care systems, including Dignity Health, Valleywise Health, Phoenix Children’s, Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, HonorHealth, the Phoenix VA Health Care System and Onvida Health.

This broad clinical and operational exposure provides fellows with hands-on experience across diverse health care delivery environments, leading electronic health record platforms and practical informatics applications. In the course of their studies, fellows also complete formal online biomedical informatics training through Arizona State University’s College of Health Solutions and become eligible for the Clinical Informatics subspecialty board examination upon graduation.

From 2016 through 2025, the program successfully graduated 17 fellows across nine cohorts, many of whom have advanced into leadership roles in health care innovation, translational medicine and digital health transformation. The program currently supports four fellows in its 2024–2026 and 2025–2027 cohorts, continuing its mission to train the next generation of physician informaticists.

Two members of the Clinical Informatics Fellowship 2025–2027 cohort attended the 2026 Bridge2AI Spring All-Hands Meeting and presented key projects under the AIM-AHEAD Bridge2AI AI-READI initiative, one of the four national Bridge2AI grand challenges:

• Jennifer Fernandez, MD: “Multimodal Machine Learning to Predict Diabetic Nephropathy Using Retinal Imaging and Clinical Data.”
• Timothy Shimon, MD: “Unsupervised Machine Learning Clustering Approach to Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.”

These research efforts demonstrate the application of advanced machine learning and multimodal data integration to improve disease prediction, patient stratification, and precision medicine strategies for diabetes and its related complications.

In parallel, four members from Dr. Ping’s research group presented a total of six posters at the Evergreen Poster Gallery, further highlighting the department’s strong engagement in national AI, biomedical informatics and translational science initiatives. Since joining the college in March 2026, Dr. Ping has focused on the department’s development of a robust research ecosystem integrating artificial intelligence, machine learning, clinical data science, systems medicine and translational informatics. Faculty, trainees and interdisciplinary collaborators collectively contribute to the department’s mission of advancing biomedical discovery while preparing future leaders in data-driven health care transformation.

Together, the achievements of department’s research team and Clinical Informatics fellows underscore the College of Medicine – Phoenix’s expanding influence in biomedical informatics education, physician training and AI-enabled health care research. Through strategic fellowship development, cutting-edge scientific inquiry and national collaboration, the college continues to help shape the future workforce driving innovation across medicine and health systems.