UCI PHIT Summit 2026: Digital & Public Health Informatics & Technology: Workforce of the Future

---

---

The UCI PHIT Summit 2026: Digital & Public Health Informatics & Technology – Workforce of the Future is a two-day interdisciplinary summit bringing together leaders from academia, industry, government, standards organizations, healthcare, public health, and technology to explore the rapidly evolving landscape of digital health and public health informatics.

Hosted at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) College of Health Sciences on September 10–11, 2026, the Summit will focus on the technologies, standards, workforce capabilities, and interdisciplinary collaboration required to build the next generation of healthcare and public health systems.

The program combines keynote presentations, moderated expert panels, student poster presentations, technical training, professional-development activities, industry roundtables, and networking opportunities. Sessions will examine how emerging technologies—including Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Large Language Models, Generative AI, Agentic AI, wearable and medical devices, cloud technologies, interoperability standards, FHIR, and digital health platforms—are transforming healthcare delivery, public health, research, and the future health technology workforce.

Each major 90-minute technical session will follow a 30/30/30 format, consisting of a session keynote, an industry-focused discussion, and an academic/government perspective. This structure is designed to connect technological innovation with real-world deployment, research, policy, standards, and workforce development.

Key areas of discussion include Emerging Technologies; Devices & Apps; Aging, Longevity & Lifestyle; Healthcare & Public Health Systems; Standards and Interoperability; Informatics, Technology & Standards; Society & Mental Health; and Disease Informatics.

A strong emphasis will also be placed on student and early-career workforce development. Participants will have opportunities to engage in hands-on technical learning, including cloud architecture, DevOps/CI-CD, integration using sandbox environments and Postman, FHIR, notebooks, LLMs, GenAI, Agent-to-Agent technologies, and Model Context Protocol (MCP). Professional-development activities will include industry roundtables, resume and LinkedIn guidance, AI-assisted job-search strategies, soft-skills development, and direct interaction with employers.

The Summit will also feature the PHIT Student Poster Program, allowing students to showcase their projects and research while engaging with professionals, researchers, technology leaders, and prospective employers.

Supported by UCI PHIT and academic partners, HL7, IEEE, ISO TC215, and industry partners, the Summit seeks to strengthen collaboration across the health technology ecosystem while preparing students and professionals for the emerging workforce needs of Digital Health, Public Health Informatics, Healthcare AI, Interoperability, and Health Information Technology.

---

---

---

---

INDUSTRY/ACADEMIA EXPERTS TALK/PANEL @ UCI COHS Sue Gross Auditorium

Agenda

Day 1 — September 10, 2026

8:00 AM – 9:00 AM
Registration, Breakfast & Networking

9:00 AM – 9:30 AM
Day 1 Opening Keynote
Dean Dr. Bernadette Boden-Albala
Founding Dean, Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health, UC Irvine

9:30 AM – 11:00 AM
Session 1: Emerging Technologies
Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, Large Language Models, Generative AI, Agentic AI, and emerging technologies in healthcare and public health.
Speakers: Dan Desmond, Anupam Thakur, Gora Datta

11:00 AM – 11:15 AM
Break

11:15 AM – 12:45 PM
PHIT Student Poster Session
Student research, innovation, and projects in digital health and public health informatics.

12:45 PM – 2:00 PM
Lunch & Networking

2:00 PM – 3:30 PM
Session 2: Devices & Apps
Wearables, home-care devices, hospital and laboratory technologies, SaMD, SiMD, and connected health applications.
Speakers: Dr. Susan L. Ivey, Dr. Mohammad Usman, Marc Mar-Yohana

3:30 PM – 3:45 PM
Break

3:45 PM – 5:15 PM
Session 3: Aging, Longevity & Lifestyle (A2L)
Nutrition, physical activity, preventive care, precision healthcare, healthy aging, and longevity.
Speakers: Dr. Ramesh Jain, Dr. Amir Rahmani, Dr. Stavroula Mougiakakou

3:45 PM – 5:15 PM — Parallel Training (Room#1020 @ COHS)
PHIT Technical Training: LLMs & Emerging AI Technologies

5:30 PM – 6:30 PM
Industry Roundtables / Meet-the-Employers

6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Day 1 Closing Keynote, Dinner & Networking

Day 2 — September 11, 2026

8:00 AM – 9:00 AM
Registration, Breakfast & Networking

9:00 AM – 9:30 AM
Day 2 Opening Keynote

9:30 AM – 11:00 AM
Session 4: Healthcare & Public Health Systems
Electronic Health Records, Practice Management, patient portals, laboratory systems, and modern digital health infrastructure.
Speakers: Nadine Afari, Dr. Heather Readhead, Sameer Halai, Dr. Kamiar Alaei

9:30 AM – 11:30 AM — Parallel Training (Room#1020 @ COHS)
PHIT Technical Training: FHIR & Healthcare Interoperability
Hands-on FHIR, healthcare APIs, sandbox environments, and Postman.

11:00 AM – 11:15 AM
Break

11:15 AM – 12:45 PM
Session 5: Standards Interoperability at Work
HL7, ISO, IEEE-SA, FHIR, terminology, healthcare APIs, cloud technologies, and interoperability standards.
Speakers: Todd Cooper, Rachel Dunscombe, Maria Palombini

12:45 PM – 2:00 PM
Lunch & Networking

2:00 PM – 3:30 PM
Session 6: Society & Mental Health
Public policy, mental health, social and environmental determinants of health, resilient healthcare, and community health.
Speakers: Dr. Orlando Lopez, Dr. Yuri Quintana, Dr. Saugat Karki

2:00 PM – 3:30 PM — Parallel Professional Development (Room#1020 @ COHS)
Building the Future PHIT Workforce
Resume and LinkedIn development, AI-assisted job search, Prompt Engineering, soft skills, and career readiness.

3:30 PM – 3:45 PM
Break

3:45 PM – 5:15 PM
Session 7: Disease Informatics
Remote Patient Monitoring, chronic care, transitional care, disease surveillance, communicable and non-communicable diseases, epidemics, and pandemics.
Speakers: Dr. Manijeh Berenji, Dr. Angel Desai, Dr. Bryant T. Karras

5:30 PM – 6:30 PM
Awards, Certificates & Meet-the-Employers

6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Day 2 Closing Keynote, Dinner & Networking

Throughout Both Days

 

Program and speaker lineup are subject to change. Awaiting confirmation from some invited speakers.

---

UCI PHIT Summit 2026 | September 10–11, 2026 | UC Irvine College of Health Sciences, Irvine, CA.

Advancing Digital Health, Public Health Informatics, Interoperability, Emerging Technologies, and the Workforce of the Future.

Supported by UCI PHIT and academic partners, HL7, IEEE, ISO/TC215, and industry partners.

---