What differentiates the Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale is the opportunity to work with consultants to further develop and promote Yale faculty-led projects. This year’s awardees include Rohan Khera, MD, MS, an assistant professor of medicine (cardiovascular medicine) and biostatistics (health informatics) at the Yale School of Medicine. The project, ENSIGHT-AI, focuses on enhancing the detection capabilities of electrocardiograms (ECGs), by identifying signatures of structural heart diseases, which currently require advanced cardiac imaging.
The work has been pioneered at the Cardiovascular Data Science (CarDS) Lab, which Khera leads, and is designed to address the challenge of missed and delayed diagnosis of cardiovascular disorders through artificial intelligence.
The innovative work of the CarDS Lab has received significant recognition. The $300,000 from the Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale awarded to Khera, alongside the prestigious Wilson Prize by Yale awarded to lab member, Veer Sangha, will propel the translation of the Lab's research, guiding its implementation through regulatory pathways and software development.
ENSIGHT-AI is the broad concept that encapsulates these innovations, signifying a bold step in the detection of cardiovascular disorders, translating the CarDS Lab's scientific discoveries into practical applications, and bridging the gap between advanced medical research and its healthcare implementation.
Past recipients of the Blavatnik Fund for Innovation from the Section of Cardiovascular Medicine include:
- Anne Eichmann, PhD, Ensign Professor of Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine) and professor of Cellular And Molecular Physiology: “Monoclonal Antibody mediated Blood-Brain Barrier opening”
- Jeffrey Bender, MD, Robert I. Levy Professor of Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine) and professor of immunobiology: “Target Site Blocker (TSB) of the IL-17A-miR466l-3p Interaction Prevents Progressive and Relapsing Remitting EAE.”