About PACAID

PAC-AID — the Pacific Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science in Medicine — applies artificial intelligence and data science to the health challenges of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific.

The Center traces its beginnings to the Artificial Intelligence Pacific Health Institute (AIPHI), formed by Dr. Peter Sadowski of the Department of Information & Computer Sciences and Dr. John Shepherd of Population Sciences at the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center. AIPHI supported students who wanted to apply advanced AI methods to medical and health problems. Though it was never fully funded, AIPHI became the seed of our proposal for PAC-AID. With the addition of Dr. Youping Deng of the John A. Burns School of Medicine, these three faculty built the program structure that was ultimately funded by the NIH.

The PAC-AID COBRE joins three other active COBRE centers and the INBRE program in Hawaiʻi, together building research capacity across a range of topics important to Hawaiʻi and the Pacific.

Mission

To advance the health of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific by making artificial intelligence and data science work for everyone we serve. PAC-AID is building Hawaiʻi’s nucleating hub for biomedical AI — pairing self-sustaining research cores and a first-of-its-kind AI data center with the people, training, and representative data needed to turn complex health information into discoveries, tools, and a new generation of investigators. We are committed to data that reflects the full diversity of our region — including Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and the distinct Asian populations too often grouped together or left out — so that the future of AI in medicine improves health for all.

Leadership

See the People page.