Richard Bruce Gets a Strong Start as Vice Chair of Informatics

In July 2022, Richard Bruce, MD was appointed as the Vice Chair of Informatics at UW-Madison. Dr. Bruce has been at UW for 19 years, first as a resident and then as a faculty member in 2009. Like his predecessor and mentor Gary Wendt, MD, Dr. Bruce was trained first as an engineer, and worked for Cisco Systems before pursuing medicine.

“I ended up in radiology because part of the field’s ethos is that it embraces technology, new tools, and new ways of doing things,” says Dr. Bruce. UW attracted him because of the Department’s eagerness to innovate and optimize existing workflows with technology.

Dr. Bruce often likens his role to that of a plumber. “It’s all about how you connect systems to each other,” he explains. “That is the role of Informatics: How do we give people the tools, the data, and the workflows that they need to accomplish great things?”

By coordinating industry partnerships with companies like Microsoft, Dr. Bruce ensures that UW researchers have access to cutting-edge technology. Implementation is another challenge. While AI tools develop at a breakneck pace, many innovations fail to cross the “valley of implementation.”

“I want UW to be recognized as a world leader in AI implementation,” explains Dr. Bruce. “We are a site that doesn’t just develop new tools but also puts them into practice.”

He’s already making progress towards the goal. This month, UW will deploy Bone Age, an algorithm for pediatric patients – on the platform AI Doc. “We are the first academic partner to ever use their platform to deploy an internal algorithm,” he says. “It’s an important milestone.”

In leading the Informatics team towards further successes, Dr. Bruce thinks about three “pillars” of Informatics: technology (efficient and accessible tools for data discovery and delivery), process (processes that are innovative and compliant with security and privacy requirements), and people. Innovative technology alone can’t produce meaningful change without the appropriate pathways and personnel support that allow that technology to be integrated into clinical practice.

“The flow of information has dramatic downstream effects on the reach of the Department and by extension, the entire health system,” says Dr. Bruce. “Optimizing workflows and making it easier to information to flow, ultimately results in better patient care.”