Justin Aronson is a 10th grade high school student and the founder of variantexplorer.org. This website assists laboratories in determining whether their genetic variant classifications conflict with the assessments of other laboratories. The project takes data that was opened to the public by ClinVar, and presents it in a streamlined manner. As someone who benefitted from data made publicly available by ClinVar, Justin has become interested in ways to promote and leverage data democratization.
For less than $60 in hosting fees (and a great deal of support and advice from many generous people), 16-year-old high school student Justin Aronson used publicly available data to build a website that enables laboratories to determine whether their genetic variant classifications conflict with the assessments of other laboratories. While not yet incorporating machine learning, Justin’s website demonstrates how access to data is fundamental to scientific innovation.
In this session, Justin - the youngest speaker ever at a HIMSS event - hopes to convince HIMSS and attendees that data democratization is critical to enabling future generations to innovate in a more equitable and effective way than currently possible.
Takeaways
- Data democratization will play an essential role in the development of machine learning.
- Data democratization will affect the rate of innovation in the future.
- Data democratization will help ensure that all groups in society have the opportunity to innovate.
