This really should be called the "Chen Lab" or research group, but... there are lot of Chen labs out there so we tried to come up with a more unique branding. Before the HealthRex group was established, the early prototype of our recommender system for clinical orders was published as OrderRex. Rex is an abbreviation for “recommendations,” but also means "king” (such as used in Tyrannosaurus rex), as we aspire to be a leader in clinical recommendation (decision support) tools. Dr. Chen also co-founded a company Reaction Explorer (REx) for organic chemistry expert systems. HealthRex reflects our mission to improve people’s health broadly, not necessarily based on medical interventions alone.

Either you don't know medicine or you don't know AI. In many cases, both.

My calendar is complete pandemonium, and I'm overwhelmed with work threads already, so I will not be able to schedule individual meetings or impromptu calls. The better ways to connect are through our existing programs. Our Stanford Computational Medicine colloquia run during the academic year (Thursdays at noon), and I regularly host/moderate these sessions over a lunch seminar. They are largely open to drop in on, so you could try to catch me or others around there, and likely catch many more relevant topics for discussion. The link below also gets you on the mailing list when sessions are announced, along with other ways to get connected to our programs. https://arise-ai.org/get-involved Our more dedicated Healthcare AI Leadership and Strategy (HAILS) courses allow for focused engagement, where other faculty and I can spend more in-depth time reviewing your work. Other industry affiliates programs offer additional avenues to connect with university faculty and community. https://computationalmedicine.stanford.edu/seminars-and-training/stanford-ai-in-healthcare/ If you're looking for a real collaboration or engagement beyond that, program gifts and sponsored research awards in the six-to-seven-figure range are what make it possible. See our intake forms above for making such connections possible. If hourly technical consulting is what you actually need, it may make more sense to connect with my fellows and trainees, who are more hands-on with the technical work and would mutually benefit from the experience. https://www.healthrexlab.com/team

Feel free to drop in on our weekly group meetings where we regularly review topics and practice skills in those areas. You’re welcome to see if there’s an existing project you might want to jump into. Please refer to the Group Meeting Calendar for times. From there, the process will largely be up to you, as I expect your time will be very limited due to your primary training responsibilities. I expect most people are just browsing around and won't commit to real work. If you keep showing up and have your own insights and demonstrated preliminary work, reading, or other exploration, then it's more likely we'll recognize a good opportunity to plug you into a project.

If you’re interested in volunteer work or attending group meetings, just let me know. Your productivity determines how much time and attention we can provide you with. If you connect with our lab, you will be expected to regularly attend weekly group meetings and spend 10-20 hours per week on lab related work. If you'd like to sign up for course credit for research work, you can sign up for BIOMEDIN 299 for credit/no credit, but you must confirm that with me first so that I know what to expect of you. Note that I do NOT sponsor RAships for Masters students. If that is what you're looking for, don't bother sending a message. It will waste both our time. I would effectively have to pay over $100 per hour of your time through that mechanism, which generally does not make sense.

Take a look at the Open Positions page to see if there is a position that fits your skills and interests. Follow the process listed on the page to apply, and be sure to provide the materials requested. We expect that before you submit your application, you will have looked through some of the lab's prior publications and will be able to articulate why this is a match for your interests and skills, and better yet, propose what you'd like to work on together.

Click here to schedule an appointment with me so that we can chat about your interests and goals. I regularly work with graduate students in the Biomedical Informatics PhD training program as well as Computer Science, Management Science and Engineering, Statistics, and others.

Go ahead and apply for the PhD program and you can request me as one of your interviewers in the application to talk more. I regularly work with graduate students in the Biomedical Data Science, Computer Science, and other programs. Review our group website, recent papers, and presentations for ideas on what we're working on. Please contact the graduate programs directly for questions about the application process.

I am happy to discuss being a committee member for Ph.D. candidates if there is enough mutual interest and benefit for the student. However, candidates should be aware that I am considered University Medical Line faculty, and NOT a member of the “Academic Council/Senate.” Please visit this page to double-check whether I will be able to fulfill your committee requirements beforehand. Typically you can have one Non-Academic Committee Member faculty on your committee (such as myself), but not more than one (unless you expand the total size of the committee). If you need a petition for a Non-Academic Committee Member or a similar document, it can be found here.

Yes. Most of my time is currently allocated to research and development, but I continue to practice as an attending physician on the Stanford Wards General Medicine service. This means I don’t perform surgery (other than minor procedures) and I don’t treat children, but otherwise I could be your doctor for any other reason in the hospital. I work with fantastic resident and student physicians, as well as clinical support staff (nurses, case managers, social workers, and more) who do most of the work while I largely provide motivational cheerleading in the background (with correction, guidance, and mentorship as needed). If you are already working with me and would like to do some clinical shadowing, I will be happy to have you along. This requires some paperwork (and verification of several vaccinations and TB testing by Occupational Health) to get a hospital ID badge.

Please apply to one of the Stanford graduate programs. I'll be able to consider working with you after acceptance. We otherwise have no structure for directly working with students outside of the institution.

You can try applying to one of our graduate or fellowship programs, or find an advisor in your own institution who may be able to facilitate a cross-institution collaboration. We don't have a proper mechanism to work directly with students from other institutions or to facilitate visiting students/researchers who would be with us for less than a year. Check out our ARISE network "Getting Involved" pages for ways to possibly connect informally to other programs and projects.

We don't have a direct mechanism to work with high school students, but you can apply for programs such as Stanford SIMR, AIMI, CARE, or CSI, and more, which are all reasonable options. Examples of such programs can be found here: https://med.stanford.edu/cvi/education/high-school-premed-programs.html

I'm overwhelmed with work threads already and will not be able to schedule additional impromptu calls or meeting times. Much of what I'd say can be found in our writings, presentations, interviews, and podcasts. Ironically, if you just ask an AI chatbot what I would say (or what a good answer would be), it would probably give a reasonable response. Our Stanford Computational Medicine colloquia (Thursdays at noon during the academic year) are largely open to drop in on to be part of the community conversation. The people there working on related problems can often engage in more specific discussion. You can sign up here for the free colloquia schedule and mailing list, or for the more in-depth Healthcare AI Leadership and Strategy courses we host, where other faculty and I can spend more focused time discussing your work. https://arise-ai.org/get-involved

I'm not able to support invitation or host letters for limited visiting engagements (under 1 year). At just a few months, it's too short for either party to engage in a meaningfully productive experience. If you're looking for a 1 year or more engagement and have funding support, this would be more viable to create a space for us to work together.