Director's Message
A Message from Director Stephen Boppart
This is an exciting and opportunistic time to be joining the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute as director. Over the past eight years, under the leadership of Prof. Neal Cohen and an outstanding team, IHSI has grown tremendously and positioned itself as a resource, a connector, and an enabler for the health sciences across campus. I am committed to continued development of IHSI’s current and successful cores, projects, and efforts, while also seeking new directions and impact in health innovation and technology-inspired health.
During my first all-staff meeting with IHSI, we discussed some ideas and a preliminary vision for Illinois Health Innovation. To further establish this vision, we’ll be collecting collaborative input from IHSI staff, campus faculty and leadership, campus units, and external partners, and build upon the incredible breadth of expertise, infrastructure, and resources at UIUC in the health science, technology, and innovation space. IHSI is also well-positioned to lead some emerging initiatives, including
- the integration of campus input from the Chancellor’s Health Innovation Visioning Committee (that I chair and IHSI supports),
- the implementation for new technology-inspired health research and educational programs and projects across campus, and
- the development of a translational research facility and its human subjects research capabilities for campus.
As a nation and a world, we are facing complex health challenges related to our environment, aging, health care shortages, health disparities, and more. The future of technology-inspired health innovation is multifaceted, inclusive of all aspects of health, and driven by our land-grant mission to improve the human condition and humanity. Both IHSI and the Health Innovation Visioning Committee – along with clinical, community, industry, and campus partners – will continue developing and driving new strategies to envision and realize this future.
Stephen Boppart, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute