We have profound issues in health care, and the most important considerations now are how we’re interacting with our patients and our communities — especially how we’re leveraging our best technological and social assets to serve every patient equitably and optimally, delivering “tomorrow’s health care today.”

As you’ll see in this issue, we’re addressing health equity and public health, using AI to improve our capabilities, empowering our teams to deliver the best possible patient experiences, and closing up gaps in care for the underserved.

One example is our new BioIntelliSense data-driven clinical intelligence platform, that will create a new standard of remote care delivery that reduces costs, medical staff time, and the burden of traditional methods of vital sign collection. Patients will benefit from lower levels of necessary monitoring and shorter hospital stays. Providers will benefit by immediately being able to note any deviations from expected recovery or treatment. Both will benefit, along with family caregivers and referring providers, by knowing as soon as the always-on monitoring predicts an unexpected turn in health.

UC Davis is also launching an exciting, national-scale center designed to improve real time decision-making support during surgery. Founded with the help of a prestigious $6.3 million NIH P41 grant, our National Center for Interventional Biophotonic Technologies will advance two noninvasive optical imaging technologies — both developed at UC Davis — that measure fluctuations in light from bodily tissues. By adding artificial intelligence capabilities to analyze the data, researchers intend to create new instruments for robust tissue analysis during surgery, and for blood flow monitoring across a variety of conditions.

These and other innovations will change how care is delivered — potentially everywhere. In our facilities, we’re changing care delivery as well. Construction is starting on a new ambulatory surgery center — what we believe is the largest such project in the U.S. — and the first patients will be seen there in spring 2025. The center will include 12 major operating rooms, five minor procedure rooms, 60 recovery bays, diagnostic imaging, lab services, pharmacy services and seven specialty clinics. This new center on the UC Davis Sacramento Campus will ease OR crowding in the UC Davis Medical Center, improve patient experience by reducing wait times, expand surgical service line options and increase the availability of new therapies.

Our researchers continue to do nation-leading work in prevention as well. The Violence Prevention Research Program continues to share its findings with policymakers and community leaders. Recent research showed how valuable “red flag” laws were for California law enforcement officers in preventing 58 possible firearm assaults and homicides.

Belonging is a human value and at the core of the Redwood SEED Scholars program, which is grounded in diversity, equity and inclusion. It helps fulfill the promise that students with intellectual disabilities deserve to be on college campuses and have university-level opportunities available to them. This amazing program was created by the UC Davis MIND Institute and our Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and it’s featured in more detail in this edition.

Finally, I’d like to quote the late Paul Farmer, a physician and anthropologist who provided free health care to people in the world’s poorest communities. He once said, “The only way to do the human rights thing is to do the right thing medically.” I couldn’t agree more and I am proud UC Davis Health is helping to lead the way.

Doing the right thing is reflected in our mission to create a healthier and more equitable world, something we think this issue compellingly demonstrates.