Dr. Alex Bui is a distinguished leader in biomedical informatics whose career has been defined by transformative applications of computational methods to healthcare challenges. As Director of the Medical & Imaging Informatics (MII) group at UCLA, he maintains a dual focus on advancing artificial intelligence methodologies and translating them into clinical practice. He received his PhD in Computer Science from UCLA in 2000, immediately joining the university faculty where he has steadily built one of the nation's premier biomedical informatics research programs. Currently serving as Senior Associate Dean for Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in the David Geffen School of Medicine, he plays a pivotal leadership role across the UCLA medical campus. His administrative responsibilities also include directing multiple NIH-funded training programs that cultivate the next generation of data scientists and informaticians.
Dr. Bui's pioneering research integrates artificial intelligence with medical imaging and electronic health record data to create sophisticated predictive models for cancer screening, diagnosis, and prognosis. His work on reinforcement learning approaches to cancer screening protocols has established new paradigms for personalized medicine through the generation of patient-specific reward functions as detailed in his influential 2019 publications. The development of contextualized semantic maps for lung cancer study summarization has significantly enhanced clinical decision support systems used by radiologists and oncologists in daily practice. His investigations into multi-state disease progression models have provided crucial mathematical frameworks for understanding cancer trajectories and treatment responses, as demonstrated in his highly cited 2017 Bayesian modeling research. These innovations have helped bridge the gap between computational science and clinical practice, enabling more precise and individualized patient care approaches in oncology.
Beyond his technical contributions, Dr. Bui has been instrumental in shaping the national conversation around biomedical data science through his leadership in multiple NIH training initiatives including TL1, T15, and T32 programs. He mentors numerous graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, many of whom have gone on to establish independent programs at leading institutions across the country. His collaborative approach is evident in his work across multiple cancer centers, where he partners with clinicians to develop practical solutions for complex diagnostic challenges. Current research directions focus on advancing patient engagement through electronic health record portals and developing next-generation AI systems that incorporate both structured and unstructured clinical data. As healthcare increasingly relies on data-driven approaches, Dr. Bui continues to position his research at the critical intersection of computer science, artificial intelligence, and clinical medicine, ensuring that computational advances translate into tangible patient benefits.
