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UCI and Syntropy Announce Five-Year Strategic Partnership to Improve Patient Care Through Unprecedented Data Integration

UCI and Syntropy Announce Five-Year Strategic Partnership to Improve Patient Care Through Unprecedented Data Integration

by | Oct 6, 2021 | Technology Stories

The University of California, Irvine, (UCI) home to the Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences and Orange County’s only academic health system, today announced a new, five-year strategic partnership with Syntropy, a technology company specializing in healthcare data governance, harmonization, and collaboration solutions aimed at creating an industry-leading resource to transform how UCI Health Affairs and other health research and care organizations are able to integrate and contextualize health data. This strategic collaboration evolves from a natural synergy between both organizations in their mission to improve the delivery of patient care through better utilization of data.

The partnership brings to life the UCI Health Affairs vision of seamlessly connecting clinical-, research- and patient-reported data across the entire research enterprise. Syntropy, powered by Foundry, is enabling campus-wide initiatives as a central resource to more efficiently arm researchers with access to the essential data they need to ultimately pave the way for better insight generation and more personalized patient care. Sharing data in this trusted and secure environment can lead to a “network effect” that creates augmented insights derived from real-world data. This effect paves the way for opportunities to partner with external organizations to drive scientific innovation.

“We are excited to be forging strategic partnerships in support of the future of personal and public health discovery, learning and healing,” said Dr. Steve Goldstein, UCI’s Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs. “Data-driven health intelligence is central to the future of good health and optimized care. Indeed, precision health initiatives are at the leading-edge of our work – which encompasses cross-disciplinary research and teaching in the College of Health Sciences and the interprofessional, integrated, patient-centered care we provide at UCI Health.”

“Recent studies show healthcare data is growing 36 percent annually, and yet we estimate that roughly six to eight percent of that data is used by providers to make healthcare decisions, and less than one percent of it is used by patients to guide their own health decision making,” said Tom Andriola, UCI’s Vice Chancellor of Information Technology and Data and Chief Digital Officer. “Our vision is to unlock that data securely, curate it to be more accessible and usable, and really move the needle on health outcomes – for all populations. At UCI, the Collaboratory for Health and Wellness will bring together health data, patient-reported data and basic science research integrated with deep subject matter expertise for an intelligence-driven approach to understanding disease and creating solutions for patients and clinicians that truly embody precision healthcare. Syntropy came in as we were ready to bring this vision to life.”

“When we met with the UCI Health Affairs team, it was clear that their commitment to collaboration in the name of scientific innovation and improving patient outcomes aligned with the future we hope to enable in the healthcare industry,” said James Kugler, Director of Syntropy. “Syntropy represents a data integration and analytics environment that enables UCI (and others) to contextualize and analyze infinitely diverse data types securely across their entire ecosystem. This not only supports their work with patients but empowers their research enterprise and positions their data to be valuable for collaborations with external partners to advance the science and practice of healthcare.”

UCI and Syntropy are creating an innovative model for how health organizations approach collecting and transforming insights from health data. The collaboration will also support the work done by leading physicians and scientists within the enterprise by enabling better population health management and advancing care to underrepresented populations.

“As we explore data more globally at UCI, having a partner and technology solution to support our efforts is critical in driving innovative changes in how we treat each patient from the moment they set foot on our campus,” said Dr. Daniel Chow, co-director of the Center for AI in Diagnostic Medicine.

Kian Colestock Named Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Information Officer

Kian Colestock Named Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Information Officer

by | Apr 23, 2021 | Technology Stories

Kian Colestock was named associate vice chancellor and chief information officer, effective May 1, 2021. He will report to Vice Chancellor Tom Andriola.

Having served in this role on an interim basis since April 2019, Colestock will continue his work as CIO providing strategic vision and operational leadership for the Office of Information Technology (OIT) at UCI, which includes over 350 employees in 7 divisions. He is responsible for overseeing enterprise technology systems and solutions for the campus.

Over the past 13 months, he has led OIT in supporting the unprecedented transition to virtual work, teaching, and learning due to COVID-19, by delivering information technology services and support that allowed the campus to function as smoothly as possible during a pandemic.

“I am very excited for Kian to continue to bring his energy and leadership to this role,” said Tom Andriola, vice chancellor for information, technology & data. ”Since stepping into the interim role, he has made significant progress to elevate the visibility and accomplishments of OIT. Over the past year, he has played a vital role in helping to lead UCI through the COVID-19 rapid transition to remote operations and will continue to serve the whole campus by developing OIT into a true enterprise-level IT service provider.”

Colestock has over two decades of experience as an enterprise information technology leader in both higher education and business. Since arriving at UCI in 2014, he has served as associate chief information officer overseeing a broad scope of services and systems and has been a champion for IT efficiency and effectiveness.

“I came to UC Irvine because I knew that I could make a difference here, and there is still much work to do,” said Colestock. “The University’s plans around future growth and academic excellence make it an exciting time to be in the CIO role. I look forward to building the future of technology at UCI together with our campus partners, and to continuing to strategically align IT with the needs of the campus.”

Prior to UCI, he spent five years at UC San Diego as the director of enterprise business systems and acting executive director in central campus IT. In this role, he developed and expanded new IT services into enterprise class offerings for the campus community and his leadership on several projects has been recognized UC-wide with Sautter Awards for innovation in technology.

Before joining higher education, Colestock spent more than a decade working in information technology and management consulting across multiple industries including banking and finance, manufacturing, and insurance. He earned an MBA in information systems management & ecommerce from the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University and is a certified business architect and a certified project management professional.