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County committee backs revised IHC contribution after University of Maryland presentation
Summary
The Montgomery County Economic Development Committee reviewed a presentation from the University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing (IHC) and accepted a county executive recommendation to adjust FY26 county support to the $5 million annual level set in an MOU. IHC leaders described staffing growth, industry partnerships and clinical AI projects.
The Montgomery County Economic Development Committee heard a briefing from University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing leaders and agreed to advance the county executive’s revised FY26 contribution, which reflects a $1.3 million reduction tied to an MOU that sets county support at $5 million in the first year.
Brad Marin, senior associate dean for precision medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and IHC codirectors outlined program growth since the committee last met. "We have hired our hundredth member," Marin said, noting about 32% of institute members identify as county residents. He and colleagues said the institute has expanded its business development portfolio, filed three patents and announced a spin‑off company.
Adam Porter, a UMD computer science professor and IHC codirector, described technical investments and industry work that the institute says are supported by county funds. Porter listed infrastructure priorities including a planned high‑performance computing cluster and large disease‑specific datasets to power AI model development and commercialization partnerships. He cited contracts and collaborations with firms such as AstraZeneca on an image‑analysis project for lung‑cancer screening and with local companies on SBIR proposals.
Warren D’Souza of the University of Maryland Medical System described clinical pathways for testing algorithms developed at the IHC, including projects to predict heart‑attack risk from physiologic sensor data and a planned prospective trial embedding an AI‑based sepsis detection alert in the electronic medical record. D’Souza said the Medical System’s 11 hospitals and clinical sites offer a testbed for clinical evaluation of those tools.
Chair Fannie Gonzalez thanked the IHC team and asked that staff follow up on budget and sustainability documentation in the packet, including the FY29 self‑sustainability plan the IHC submitted. The committee recorded no objection to moving the recommended supplemental appropriation forward to full council for consideration.
Next steps: staff will transmit the committee packet and updated budget figures to full council for action; the IHC said it will continue outreach on its K–12 partnerships and business development pipeline.
