Our Strategy

The Office of Data Sciences has defined four strategic priorities that together form a coherent vision for data-driven research at Nationwide Children’s:

1. Data Lake: Healthcare organizations possess a wealth of data that has the potential to drive organizational impact. However, these data are often siloed across organizations, and their extractable value is limited by the tools that are available. Our Data Lake initiative breaks down these barriers by unifying diverse clinical, genomic, and imaging data within a centralized, secure research environment equipped with cutting-edge data processing workflows and downstream analysis capabilities. By leveraging the power, flexibility and sophistication of cloud computing, we provide researchers with governed access to Nationwide Children’s rich data ecosystem coupled with advanced analytics and AI platforms, paving the way for discovery at unprecedented scale and speed.
2. Data Intelligence: We advance child health by building intuitive applications that allow researchers to execute complex analytical workflows using natural language prompts, lowering hurdles to accessing and applying these tools. This empowers our entire research community, regardless of technical expertise, to utilize generative and agentic AI to create rigorous machine learning pipelines while ensuring reproducibility, governance, and auditability. Our efforts have advanced Data Intelligence through the Data Review & Evaluation Assistant for Mental Health (DREAM) platform, which allows researchers to unlock insights from the nation’s largest Pediatric Behavioral Health program by enabling plain-language data querying, reducing data complexity through streamlined retrieval and curation and supporting AI-powered data analysis. Moving forward, this platform provides a foundation for enabling AI-driven data insights across clinical disciplines, and we are actively working to explore its use with other data assets.
3. Data Translation: Our Data Translation pillar accelerates the journey from discovery to real-world impact. We deploy advanced data analytics and AI to transform research findings into actionable applications for patient care, creating a learning healthcare system where clinical data continuously fuels the next wave of discovery. Together with the Institute for Genomic Medicine, ODS has constructed the backbone for molecular and genetic diagnosis at Nationwide Children’s. This ecosystem brings together end-to-end workflow orchestration, a comprehensive suite of bioinformatics tools, and a cloud-native genomic data warehouse equipped with advanced AI capabilities that bolster clinical decision-making, all operating under a robust security architecture that ensures adherence to HIPAA and NIST standards. This CAP/CLIA- and CLEP-certified system is used for all patients undergoing genetic testing and tumor molecular characterization at Nationwide Children’s. Building on this foundation, ODS is working to move beyond diagnosis to prediction with the Genomic Analysis with Enhanced AI for Understanding and Swift Diagnosis (GENIUS) platform, an AI-powered engine that extracts clinical information from electronic health records (EHR) of patients in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to rapidly and continuously screen for those who could benefit from genome sequencing.
4. Data Mastery: We champion Data Mastery by expanding the data science and AI talent pool and making knowledge universally accessible. Through cross-cutting educational initiatives and innovative AI tools, we democratize data science and AI, ensuring these critical capabilities are at every researcher’s fingertips. In collaboration with the Office of Clinical Research, we identify and design resources through a bench-to-bedside lens that translates fundamental data science and AI literacy to patient-centered research in operational settings, maximizing real-world impact.