Speaker Profile
PMWC LUMINARY AWARD
Pioneered autonomous AI diagnostics, bringing the first FDA-authorized autonomous AI system into clinical care
M.D., Ph.D., Robert C. Watzke, MD Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, U. of Iowa / Digital Diagnostics
Biography
Computer engineer, fellowship-trained retina specialist, and neuroscientist. A Fellow of IEEE, and ARVO Gold Fellow, he is the Robert C. Watzke, Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Iowa, with a joint appointment in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He's the Founder of Digital Diagnostics, the first in any field of medicine to get FDA authorization for an autonomous AI, as well as sustainable nationwide reimbursement, where AI makes a medical decision without human oversight. He's past editor of the journals IOVS and IEEE Transactions in Medical Imaging, and editor of AAO’s Basic and Clinical Science Course on AI, Nature Scientific Reports, past Program Chair for ARVO, co-founder & Treasurer of FDA’s Collaborative Community of Ophthalmic Innovation, founder of the Healthcare AI Coalition, and member of AMA’s Digital Medicine Payment Advisory Group. He developed an ethical foundation for medical AI instrumental to the design, validation, regulatory and reimbursement pathways for autonomous AI.
Talk
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Session Abstract – PMWC 2027 Silicon Valley
Track Chair:
Okan Ekinci, Roche / Navify
PMWC Award Ceremony
• Fei-Fei Li, Stanford (Pioneer)
• Andrew Ng, Stanford / DeepLearning.AI (Luminary)
• Daphne Koller, insitro (Luminary)
Featured Speakers
• Fei-Fei Li, Stanford
• Andrew Ng, Stanford / DeepLearning.AI
• Daphne Koller, insitro
• Andy Beck, PathAI
• Germán Corredor Prada, Emory / Georgia Tech
• Drew Williamson, Emory
• Marina Sirota, UCSF
• Pranav Rajpurkar, Harvard
• Okan Ekinci, Roche / Navify
• Janusz Dutkowski, Data4Cure
• Alex Moreau, Champions Oncology
• Jadwiga Bienkowska, Pfizer
• Sharat Israni, UCSF
Beyond the Glass Slide
What computational pathology sees that humans cannot.
AI-Enabled Companion Diagnostics
From biomarker discovery to patient selection.
The Precision Oncology Operating System
Wiring multimodal AI into the oncology workflow.
AI and Omics Foundation Models
Modeling translational biology across omics, pathology, and clinical data.
From Pilot to Standard of Care
Scaling AI diagnostics in real clinical practice.
PMWC Hall of Impact
Previous Speakers Include
Nobel laureates, technology founders, regulators, CEOs and scientific pioneers who have taken the PMWC stage.
