Eric J. Topol, MD, is professor of molecular medicine and executive vice president of Scripps Research, and founder and director of its Scripps Research Translational Institute, in La Jolla, California. He has published over 1300 peer-reviewed articles, with more than 300,000 citations; been elected to the National Academy of Medicine; and is one of the top 10 most cited researchers in medicine. His principal scientific focus has been on the use of genomic and digital data, along with artificial intelligence, to individualize medicine. He is a practicing cardiologist.
In 2016, Topol was awarded a $207 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to lead a significant part of the Precision Medicine Initiative (All of Us), a prospective research program enrolling 1 million diverse participants in the United States. This is in addition to his role as principal investigator for a flagship $35 million NIH Clinical and Translational Science Awards grant to promote innovation in medicine.
Before coming to Scripps in 2007, he led Cleveland Clinic to become the nation's top center for heart care and founded a new medical school there. He has published three best-selling books on the future of medicine: The Creative Destruction of Medicine, The Patient Will See You Now, and most recently, Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again.
Topol completed medical school at the University of Rochester, did his residency in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and his fellowship in cardiovascular medicine at Johns Hopkins University.