Caption: (From left to right) Anantha Shekhar, senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and John and Gertrude Petersen Dean, School of Medicine; Joan Gabel, Pitt Chancellor; and Vizzhy Inc. cofounders Vishnu Vardhan and Harsha Vardhini at Pitt Med + AI: Transforming Global Health Symposium on May 1.
By Kat Procyk
Photography by Rayni Shiring/University of Pittsburgh
A new initiative from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Vizzhy Inc., a global leader in artificial intelligence, aims to transform and revolutionize health care by leveraging AI technology to scale disease management and reduce costs. The partnership was announced May 1 as part of the Pitt Med + AI: Transforming Global Health Symposium at the University Club.
The work will be done through a new AI platform called GAINMED, for generative and agentic intelligence navigated multiomics medicine, designed to advance P5 medicine: predictive, preventive, personalized, precision and participatory care.
“We’re using cutting-edge technology to create not only better understanding of our diseases and health, but we’re also going to be able to provide better care to maintain health,” said Anantha Shekhar, senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and John and Gertrude Petersen Dean, School of Medicine.
A further component of this initiative is the establishment of Pitt-Vizzhy Longevity Labs, in partnership with Illumina, Inc., providing multiomics laboratory services to expand precision medicine across the United States and globally.
The project’s first phase involves recruiting 20,000 participants and 200 to 300 primary care providers worldwide to sequence samples and build the knowledgebase of GAINMED. Pitt-Vizzhy Longevity Labs will expand globally, across Europe and Asia, to support data collection and analysis. The long-term goal is to deliver top-tier health care to underserved populations.
Led by Pitt, the initiative will use its own cloud and data centers to bypass tech giants. Over five years, it aims to sequence 1 million people and establish regional labs.
“We’re using cutting-edge technology to create not only better understanding of our diseases and health, but we’re also going to be able to provide better care to maintain health,” said Anantha Shekhar, senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and John and Gertrude Petersen Dean, School of Medicine.
In Pitt Chancellor Joan Gabel’s remarks, she said the announcement marked an important day not only for Pittsburgh, but also for patients.
"There are challenges that we’re all facing, but no one more so than those who should be given access to the most innovative ways to receive treatment and care,” Gabel said. “This is a problem across the world, and we can center and solve the problem in ways that have real meaning to real people.”
Personalized medicine is evolving rapidly by integrating multiomics, systems biology and AI, enabling a new model of health care that optimizes individual wellness and prevents disease through early detection and reversal. By combining biological and digital insights, clinicians can detect transitions from wellness to illness before symptoms occur and intervene with precision. Central to this approach, multiomics integrates various layers of biological omics information—including genomic, metabolomic, proteomic, lipidomic, transcriptomic, microbiomic, epigenomic, pharmacogenomic and others—to provide a complete and comprehensive picture of a person’s biology.
Participating corporate members in the partnership include L&T-Cloudfiniti, LTIMindtree, Illumina, Inc., AWS, Thermo Fisher Scientific and others.
Why Pittsburgh?
Vishnu Vardhan, Vizzhy Inc. cofounder, chose Pittsburgh to host GAINMED because of Shekhar’s “bold” vision for precision medicine, translational research and real-time clinical implementation.
“We were looking for a partner with not only a vision to transform health care, but with a reach to the top data scientists and doctors in the world to transform health care,” Vardhan said.
GAINMED is more than a scientific initiative—it’s a public health mission. With the University’s nationally ranked School of Medicine, access to leading health care providers, a known hub for technological innovation and a diverse patient population through one of the largest hospital systems in the United States, Pittsburgh offers a uniquely powerful ecosystem to realize this vision.
How Does It Work?
The United States spends more than $3 trillion annually on managing chronic diseases, yet the prevalence and cost of conditions like obesity, diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease continue to rise. Early detection and prevention would not only help mitigate these costs but lead to longer, healthier lives for patients.
By combining data analyzed at Pitt-Vizzhy Longevity Labs with generative AI, GAINMED delivers more comprehensive care plans, empowering physicians and nurse practitioners to make more informed and personalized treatment decisions. These measures also empower patients to make informed decisions about their health.
A patient living with cardiovascular disease and obesity, for example, may be prescribed multiple types of medications and make lifestyle changes like dieting and monitoring their blood pressure—all requiring complete compliance from the patient. A year later and after a series of failed treatments, that same patient may be prescribed a medication like Ozempic, which can cost upwards of $10,000 per treatment and may not result in weight loss for a significant percentage of patients. GAINMED would be able to intervene in the earliest stages of a patient’s care by providing an overall picture of what diets, regimens or medications would best suit this individual patient through known biomarkers.
“There are challenges that we’re all facing, but no one more so than those who should be given access to the most innovative ways to receive treatment and care,” Pitt Chancellor Joan Gabel said. “This is a problem across the world, and we can center and solve the problem in ways that have real meaning to real people.”
Following the announcement, over a dozen thought leaders from technology, medicine, systems biology and related fields came together to discuss recent breakthroughs, share insights and explore collaborative opportunities to advance P5 Medicine. They also addressed critical issues such as data standardization, trust, security and the need for widespread, equitable data sharing.
Nearly 1,000 people attended the symposium, either in person or online. The livestream video from the event is available here.