About the Institute for Population and Precision Health (IPPH)

Precision health considers a patient’s unique characteristics and biology to develop personalized approaches to disease prevention and treatment. Recent advances in the biomedical sciences, data science, and information technology have shifted the traditional one-size-fits all approach to medicine toward an individualized approach with an improved ability to prevent disease, promote health, and reduce health disparities in populations.

Led by Dr. Habibul Ahsan, the IPPH at the University of Chicago integrates developments in genomics, bioinformatics, information technologies, and data science within the context of a broader population health research perspective to improve disease prevention and health promotion while addressing health disparities in Chicago and beyond. In applying emerging precision medicine technologies and methods at a population level, the IPPH brings together approaches from a variety of disciplines to consider the impact of genomics, the microbiome, the environment, societal factors, and the implications of preventive and population health policies.

The IPPH supports multidisciplinary research designs and activities, and its research teams consists of faculty and staff skilled in the basic sciences, informatics, biostatistics, traditional and modern epidemiologic methods, as well as clinical practitioners and clinical scientists, interventionists, and behavioral experts. The IPPH research portfolio includes multiple cohorts and epidemiologic studies such as the Chicago Multiethnic Prevention and Surveillance Study (COMPASS), the All of Us Research Program at UChicago, the Chicago Center for Health and Environment (CACHET), and ongoing clinical studies in the Epidemiology Research and Recruitment Core (ERRC). The IPPH also supports educational and training programs in population health across the University of Chicago, such as Up on EHS.