Subbian Manages Informatics for $9.2M Project Studying Long-Term Complications of COVID-19

BME associate professor and BIO5 member Vignesh Subbian is informatics lead on a new statewide project studying the long-term effects of COVID-19. With a projected $9.2 million in first-year funding from the National Institutes of Health, the University of Arizona is one of more than 30 research teams across the country participating in the NIH Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) initiative, which seeks to understand, treat and prevent post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC). 

Subbian, who holds a dual appointment in the Department of Systems and Industrial Engineering, will provide oversight and coordination for the Arizona site to manage and streamline study data and workflows.

“The depth, scope, and pathway of data collection will be different for different study participants, which makes the informatics infrastructure very complex,” said Subbian, who is also the associate director for health data science and informatics at the Center for Biomedical Informatics and Statistics. “I want to ensure that the research coordinators and staff who are going to be on the front line working with participants have all the necessary tools and technology to efficiently and meaningfully engage with the Arizonans who are interested in participating in this study.”

In addition to managing the data gathered from study participants, Subbian is also in charge of data about the program itself, studying patterns to determine what’s working and what strategies could enhance the project’s community and research impact.

“Projects like this one really do require a village, with researchers contributing expertise in not only areas like infectious diseases, immunology, and pulmonary medicine, but also data science and engineering,” said David W. Hahn, Craig M. Berge Dean of the College of Engineering. “Vignesh’s expertise in applying systems and software engineering methods to health care applications makes him an excellent choice to lead the informatics portion of this project, and we are proud to count him as an engineering faculty member.”

Read the full version of this release at University of Arizona Health Sciences.