Chair (2017-2023)
Prof Fernando Martin-Sanchez, PhD, FACHI, FACMI, CHIA, FIAHSI
Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Digital Health
National School of Public Health, Institute of Health Carlos III
Madrid, Spain

Co-Chairs (2017-2023)
Prof Riccardo Bellazzi, PhD, FACMI, MIAHSI
Chair of the Department of Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering, University of Pavia, Italy
Director, LISRC Lab, Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri
Pavia, Italy

Dr Chirag Patel
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics
Harvard Medical School, Department of Biomedical Informatics
Countway Lib CBMI
Boston, MA, USA

Goals and objectives:

Most diseases result from the complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors. The exposome is a new concept that seeks to define biotechnical approaches to systematically measure comprehensively a large subset of environmental exposures of an individual from conception to end of life and associate it with health and disease status. In its broadest sense, the exposome encompasses not only exposures to environmental stressors, but also the physical environment, the built environment, socio-economic factors, access to health care and life habits or behaviors.

While the environment and exposome has impact on health, health informaticians have a limited awareness about the contribution of environmental factors to individual health (environmental epidemiology has focused on the impact of the environment, but at aggregated, population level). There is a need for new digital methods and resources that select, annotate, organize and present reliable and updated information about environmental factors affecting our health on both a population and individual/patient scale. The exposome demands a systematic research effort equivalent to what has been done to characterize the human genome (and also the human phenome).

To address these problems, IMIA has created this Working Group on informatics aspects related to the exposome. Its main aim is to support investigators, clinicians and consumers navigate throughout the entire “data to knowledge” lifecycle: data collection, knowledge representation, annotation, integration with genomic and phenomic data, analytics, and visualization.

The use of digital health technologies, coupled with advances in the characterization of individual exposomes and the development of participatory medicine, converge in Precision Medicine initiatives across the world, with high potential to support truly integrative research approaches (gene, environment, phenotype) to discover underlying mechanisms of disease.

Web site: https://exposomeinformatics.wordpress.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/153308108588844/
Linkedin group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/10353025
Twitter: @exposome_imia
Email: exposomeinformatics@gmail.com

 

Annual Reports

June 2019 – June 2020

June 2017 – June 2018