Precision medicine approaches health from a holistic point of view. Advances in digital health and science are revolutionizing precision medicine with the potential to impact the entire spectrum of health care with the ultimate goal of delivering the most effective and efficient, value-based healthcare.

To optimize health and wellness in Alabama and beyond, it is imperative that we facilitate research focused on the prevention, screening, and treatment of disease. This includes accounting for contextual factors encountered by individuals and populations across the lifecourse, and relative to their healthcare needs, preferences, values, and beliefs.

I-4ward focuses on the microbes that promote health and disease, the inflammatory processes, the immune system, and the medicines and therapies used to treat and prevent acute and chronic diseases. I-4ward integrates the expertise and resources at UAB to build unified, interdisciplinary programs in inflammation-based fundamental and clinical research. This area will impact almost all diseases studied and treated at UAB.

Brain health and development is critical for how individuals learn about and interact with the world, and genetic or environmental factors during development can result in profound yet common intellectual disabilities or disorders. Focusing on brain research will help understand brain disease states, identify genetic states, harness advanced neuro-technology, and transform care of brain-related diseases at UAB and across the nation.