Center for Biomedical Informatics and Health Artificial Intelligence

The Rutgers Health Center for Biomedical Informatics & Health Artificial Intelligence (BMIHAI), which was backed by funding from the Rutgers Roadmaps for Collective Academic Excellence and with substantial support from the Rutgers Health chancellor's office, is a transformative initiative designed to position Rutgers as a national leader in computational medicine and health AI.


Mini Symposium
Summer Internship
BMIHAI Mini-Symposium

Date: August 1, 2025

Location: ICPH Building | 225 Warren Street, Newark, NJ

2025 Annual Symposium
2025 Annual Symposium

Date: May 13, 2025

Theme: Frontiers in Biomedical and Health AI: Applications, Challenges, and Opportunities

The Rutgers Center for Biomedical Informatics & Health Artificial Intelligence (BMIHAI) is built on three big ideas:
  1. P4 Medicine – healthcare that is Precision-based, Predictive, Preventive, and Participatory. This means care is tailored to each person, aims to predict illness before it happens, works to prevent it, and includes patients as active partners.
  2. Learning Health System (LHS) – a way of improving healthcare by constantly repeating a cycle of watching, testing, learning, and improving.
  3. Living Laboratories (LivingLabs) – real-world testing spaces where doctors, scientists, patients, and engineers work together on tough health problems, trying out new solutions in both labs and real settings.

We also bring in public-private partnerships (working with both government and companies) to help fund and guide our work.

The Rutgers Center for BMIHAI will be a place where:

  • Patients, doctors, and scientists all learn from each other.
  • AI and data science make healthcare safer, faster, and fairer.
  • Real-world problems guide the work of labs.
  • Partnerships with companies and government help keep the research funded and sustainable.

By combining P4 Medicine, Learning Health Systems, and LivingLabs, we aim to transform both science and healthcare – starting in New Jersey, but with impacts that reach far beyond.

Our values are about fairness and opportunity. We want a system where:
  1. Every patient can choose to take part in research.
  2. Every doctor can learn from groups of patients.
  3. Every scientist can access the materials they need for research.
  4. Every research team can study and improve the healthcare system.
  5. Scientists of all levels – even citizen scientists – can test ideas using advanced models and simulations.
  6. Students and teachers can use AI to learn and explore science in new ways.

At Rutgers, we'll create 3–5 LivingLabs. LivingLabs are special programs that bring together people and technology to solve big health problems.

This idea has already worked in other places, like:

  • Rutgers Environmental Sciences – where students learn hands-on by solving real environmental problems.
  • MIT – where the campus is used as a testbed for new ideas.
  • UC San Diego (Qualcomm Institute) – where Dr. Lenert and others helped first responders after 9/11 by creating mobile health apps, disaster-response tools, and wireless medical devices.

LivingLabs usually combine physical labs (where engineers build tools and devices) and virtual labs (data and simulations). They also rely on shared evaluation systems, funding partnerships, and teamwork across many fields.

Leslie A. Lenert

Leslie A. Lenert, MD, MS, FACMI, FACP

Director, Center for Biomedical Informatics and Health Artificial Intelligence
Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Antonina Mitrofanova

Antonina Mitrofanova, PhD

Deputy Director, Center for Biomedical Informatics and Health Artificial Intelligence
Associate Professor, Department of Health Informatics, Rutgers School of Health Professions
W. Evan Johnson

W. Evan Johnson, PhD

Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases & Director, Center for Data Science, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
David J. Foran

David J. Foran, PhD

Professor Pathology, Laboratory Medicine and Radiology;
Chief Informatics Officer & Director of Computational Imaging and Biomedical Informatics,
Rutgers Cancer Institute;
Inaugural Chief Research Informatics Officer, Rutgers Health.