Michael Becich and the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Spearhead the Expanded Use of Data Sharing and Artificial Intelligence to Improve Patient Care

As a child, Mike Becich had an inquisitive mind and a passion for electron microscopes. That passion led him to become a first-generation college student and a renowned pathologist.

"When I arrived (at Northwestern University), the first thing I did was look for where the microscopes were. They tended to be in two places: research laboratories and in the hospital setting with pathologists. So very early on in my collegiate career I knew that my love of imaging, or microscopy, would best be served in medical research," Dr. Becich said.

He would go on to receive his BA in biology in 1977 and his MD and PhD degrees in 1984, all from Northwestern University. He completed a fellowship in urologic pathology from the University of Nebraska and both a fellowship and residency in anatomic pathology at Washington University in St. Louis. "My training profoundly shaped my career. My early interests led me to pathology, and I found that as a pathologist, I could combine the use of microscopes, both in research and practice," Dr. Becich said.

Beyond the lure of microscopes, Dr. Becich was drawn to cancer and pathology data sharing needs which made it conducive to informatics research. In 1991, he was hired by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where he helped create its division of pathology informatics – only the second of its kind in the country. He founded and served as the inaugural president of the Association for Pathology Informatics, which was established in 2000, as well as supported the Journal of Pathology Informatics in 2010.

"All of that activity in pathology informatics led to the job that I have now, that I love," Dr. Becich said. He is currently the associate vice chancellor for informatics in the health sciences. As chair and distinguished professor of the Department of Biomedical Informatics, he leads the department's efforts to use technologies to advance biomedical research and clinical care. The scope of the department's research ranges from genomic and proteomic data mining to machine learning and AI applications in biomedicine. Additionally, he serves as the associate director for cancer informatics at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and the former associate director of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

Dr. Becich's research focuses on the interface between clinical informatics and bioinformatics. He has studied clinical phenotyping of patients for personalized medicine, tissue banking and pathology informatics, and data sharing's role in clinical informatics and bioinformatics. He is a current fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics.

"What's at the core of my curiosity is that I've always been interested in human disease, and problem solving. That is what pathology and informatics is all about – understanding how data and imaging can contribute to our understanding of the cellular mechanisms that cause a disease," Dr. Becich said.

When he became a pathologist, he came to the realization that there is a gold mine of information produced that we needed to share back to clinicians, however that exchange wasn't as robust with researchers. "I found very early that tissue banking and biomedical informatics, were instrumental to unlocking the data in human disease for precision medicine, and these innovations were really my calling. When I became a pathologist, I realized that informatics and tissue banking would be the keys to unlocking further both patient and research-related data and that would become my major contributions to medicine. Data sharing and fueling open science continues to be key to my success," Becich said.

Dr. Becich continues to work to create pipelines for biomedical big data and to realize the value of sequencing and imaging for cancers. He also said he never thought he would become an entrepreneur and create new industries. "It is critical in medicine that we reuse all of the data that we gather both in critical care and for research – to combat diseases, to create new therapeutics, and to understand how to prevent disease," Dr. Becich said. "I talk about Big "T" Translation in my work because you do things in your laboratory, you publish a paper, you write a grant and that's cool. But what's important is what you do with your research and that it translates into millions of people benefiting (true Big "T" Translation)." This involves entrepreneurship and the creation of new companies and new industries.

Early in his career with tissue analysis he realized the need for automation and AI methods. Dr. Becich was a forerunner in whole slide imagining innovation, which led to his first three startup companies related to whole slide imaging. Now his fourth company, PredxBio, focuses on spatial biology which allows for probes at the single-cell level to integrate protein expression, genomics and imaging to understand the networks of communicating signals between cells. PredxBio provides insight into what is driving disease and what drug will be the best treatment for that individual patient.

Dr. Becich's interests in pathology imaging and microscopy were realized in his first three startup companies in creating digital imaging innovation for the practicing pathologist called whole slide imaging. "Whole slide imaging is now a multi-billion-dollar industry. You go to pathology labs today and one of the most important new innovations there is automating anatomical pathology slides into digital information for analysis," Dr. Becich explained. "I feel very fortunate that my path has been able to carve new turf as an entrepreneur. I believe very strongly that AI and machine learning can transform patient care by making a safer environment for patients but also so that we understand what drug is going to benefit a cancer patient and how we can understand this disease and its host immune response."

The Regional Autonomous Patient Safety (RAPS) Initiative provided an opportunity for Dr. Becich and the Department of Biomedical Informatics to reignite their long-time partnership with the Jewish Healthcare Foundation and Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative. Dr. Becich said serving as co-chair of the RAPS is truly a full-circle moment. The RAPS initiative recognizes Pittsburgh's regional assets and investors as a global hub for developing autonomous patient safety solutions.Becich heads JHF-funded patient safety research at the University of Pittsburgh and will collaborate with JHF-funded patient safety research at Carnegie Mellon University.

"Dr. Feinstein and JHF helped to develop my focus in the automation of patient safety efforts for the pathology laboratory.With the advent of AI and machine learning in medicine, and more importantly the unlocking of electronic health record data and medication safety data, the way RAPS is focused, safety will become a real set of tools in the hands of clinicians and patients," Dr. Becich said.

"Both of us (Pitt and CMU) have considerable machine learning and AI expertise. These tools will ensure our success in RAPS. Since our department was last funded by JHF, we have developed a research data warehouse which has allowed us to use their medical health records for research," Dr. Becich said. "Making patient data more easily accessible in an ultra-secure fashion is what is central to our data sharing passion and now through the RAPS initiative we can collaborate with CMU to develop and test a novel approach to evaluate informatics-supported intervention to reduce adverse drug events."

Planting the flag in Pittsburgh as a regional hub for autonomous patient safety is ideal, Dr. Becich said adding that its academic health system and two research universities, coupled with the data from the health system and JHF's investment of $1.3 in academic research at Pitt and CMU and in seed grant funding through the RAPS initiative has created an ecosystem for innovation andcatalytic progress in patient safety.

"It is really a living laboratory for the patient experience in health care that we can put to use for patient safety initiatives and beyond," said Dr. Becich, adding that JHF's pilot funding provides the potential and momentum for larger federal funding opportunities through ARPA-H, NIH, and more.

Dr. Becich added the Pittsburgh-based work also opens the opportunity for broader discussion about and action on streamlining the electronic medical record system to increase its efficacy and reduce clinician burnout.

"I'm excited for the opportunities to bring more federal funding to bear on these issues, to scale what the Jewish Healthcare Foundation is doing, and then establishing an entrepreneurial ecosystem for companies to bring patient safety to light," Dr. Becich.

A long-time friend of the Foundation, Dr. Becich said he admires JHF and Dr. Feinstein's commitment to creating a culture of putting the patient first in health care. "I love JHF's focus on real problems affecting patients and their families. A key regional (and national) asset is having the multidisciplinary team of academics, entrepreneurs, industry partners, and community leaders involved in RAPS, that Dr. Feinstein, the Foundation, and the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative have created. Having all of that built into RAPS is critical for our success," Dr. Becich said.