HP has introduced the Institute of Biomedical Informatics (IBI), a joint collaboration with the Government of Ireland and several academic institutions to conduct research and develop international standards in biomedical informatics. The institute will also develop state-of-the-art educational and training material to further knowledge on biomedical informatics in both the commercial and public sectors as well as help create a commercial suite of services for the health industry. Total investment in the institute is expected to reach €30 million over the next five years. In science and technology over the past few decades, two fields have stood out for their speed of progress and their effect on society: biotechnology, and information and communications technology. Separately, they are already having a significant impact on the healthcare system. Together they will revolutionize it - reducing disease, promoting health, and improving quality of life. IBI’s objective is to develop the software tools that are necessary to realize the ultimate goal of the “post-genome” era – to use genetic information to develop truly personalized life-long healthcare, to deliver “my healthcare my way”. An important aspect of this will be the development of innovative software approaches to assist in understanding the link between genes and disease, how genetic variation manifests as both susceptibility to disease and response to therapy, and the influence of the environment. For example, we need to understand why a particular drug has a beneficial effect on one patient, invokes a toxic response in a second, and has no effect on a third. “The formation of IBI complements our vision that Ireland will be internationally renowned for the excellence of its research and be at the forefront in generating and using new knowledge for economic and social progress within an innovation-driven culture”, said Micheál Martin TD, Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment. “The institute is important for the Health, Life Sciences and ICT industries.” IBI is an all-Ireland institute. The foundation partners led by University College Dublin include the National University of Ireland Galway, Trinity College Dublin and Queen’s University Belfast along with HP as the first industrial partner. It is overseen by a board comprised of representatives from the foundation partners. The institute will collaborate with other academic and industrial partners to perform substantial research in health informatics, bioinformatics, image analysis, and systems modeling – disciplines central to biomedical informatics. IBI will be funded through a collaboration of public funding agencies and industrial partners. A foundation scholars program has already been established with initial funding provided by HP and the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology to the value of $1 million. “This is a very exciting development for HP and for Ireland. IBI will tackle some of the most important and difficult problems in biomedical informatics,” said Jeff Miller, vice president, Health and Life Sciences, HP. “It represents one of HP’s key international innovation hubs in Health and Life Sciences, alongside Harvard Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics in Boston and Vital-IT in Switzerland. We look forward to working with our academic and industrial partners to ensure IBI’s success.” IBI will focus on driving new biomedical informatics research around breast cancer, prostate cancer, cardio-vascular disease, diabetes, and reproductive biology. There will be strong emphasis on systems research and service provision through large-scale computing, data management and mining, and visualization. The institute will also develop and drive international standards for biomedical informatics and provide input on national and international policy. “There is a pressing need for biomedical informatics in Ireland, both for evolving biomedical research and for the development of the health service. UCD is delighted to work with each of IBI’s founding partners to create a programme of research, postgraduate education, innovation and enterprise”, said Dr Hugh Brady, President, University College Dublin. “The Institute of Biomedical Informatics builds an interdisciplinary initiative that will further research and innovation in the field of bioinformatics and health informatics, enabling new work in healthcare to enhance the delivery of a first class health service. Additionally, it will train a future generation of graduates who will in turn continue to revolutionize the way science is performed.” "NUI Galway is very enthusiastic about its involvement in this innovative collaborative IBI programme”, said Dr Iognáid Ó Muircheartaigh, President of NUI Galway. In addition to new discoveries, advances in knowledge, and intellectual property that will emerge from the research, we see huge potential from the initiative to train the next generation of highly qualified practitioners, to bridge the fields of biomedical science and medical informatics, in the development of the next wave of biomedical informatics solutions." “Trinity College welcomes this collaboration between universities, the public sector and industry. Informatics, particularly health informatics, is an area of great importance to Trinity, and formalizing this initiative can only lead to increased success in this domain”, said Dr John Hegarty, Trinity College Provost. “IBI provides an opportunity for leading academics and experts in this field to work together, providing world leading research and pioneering best practice internationally.” Professor Peter Gregson, President and Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast said: "Queen's welcomes the establishment of this important all-island consortium. This is the first major step in the development of Queen's strategic programme of North/South research collaboration. In addition, it reflects the priority to collaborate on an all-island basis contained within the Irish National Development Plan announced by the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern on 23 January 2007."