Generative AI to create private, fair health data for research
Official title: Generative AI for synthetic data: A framework to expand health data reach for research and ensure algorithmic fairness
Funded at Vanderbilt University Medical Center · NIH-11623173 · Data updated 2026-11-12
A researcher at Vanderbilt aims to use Generative AI to create synthetic health data that protects patient privacy while helping AI models be fairer and more accurate.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Vanderbilt University Medical Center NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Nashville, United States) |
| Project start | September 1, 2026 |
| Project end | August 31, 2029 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $249,001 |
| NIH project number | 4R00LM014428-03 |
| Project ID | NIH-11623173 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Not a clinical trial; however, improvements in AI that affects patient care could impact many patient groups.
✕Less likely to help
Direct patient participation in this grant is not required or described as a direct treatment.
What this research studies
This grant focuses on developing synthetic health data generated by AI to expand access to rich patient information while maintaining privacy. The project explores integrating medical knowledge and data from multiple institutions to improve the realism and usefulness of synthetic health records. The goal is to support downstream medical AI tasks with larger, privacy-preserving datasets and to assess how well these synthetic data support fair and reliable decisions. Researchers will test methods that blend AI-generated data with real-world clinical insights to advance biomedical informatics. The work includes evaluating the quality and fairness of models trained on synthetic data and identifying best practices for ethical data use.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, patients could benefit from faster medical AI developments that respect privacy and reduce bias in clinical tools.
How similar studies have gone: Prior efforts show synthetic health data can aid research, but robust, fair integration with real-world data remains challenging and is being actively explored.
Where this research is happening
-
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Nashville, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Yan, Chao — Vanderbilt University Medical Center
- Study coordinator: Yan, Chao
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.