Hitachi and IEEE recognize innovation in privacy-preserving health data infrastructure with 2027 IEEE Technical Field Award

16 October 2026
Hitachi, Ltd.
IEEE

Tokyo, 16 October 2026 ― Hitachi, Ltd. ("Hitachi") today announced that Jaideep Vaidya of Rutgers University, Lucila Ohno-Machado of Yale School of Medicine, and Xiaoqian Jiang of UTHealth Houston have been named co-recipients of the 2027 IEEE Innovation in Societal Infrastructure Award, co-sponsored by Hitachi and the IEEE Computer Society.

The award, administered by IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization and public charity advancing technology for humanity, recognizes their leadership in designing and deploying privacy-preserving distributed clinical research infrastructures that enable secure, large-scale health data collaboration across health systems worldwide, advancing privacy-preserving distributed computing and secure data infrastructures that empower modern clinical research.

"Some of the most important technological advances are those that enable organizations to work together while protecting the people they serve," said Michael Peter Kennedy, IEEE Awards Board Chair. "Professor Vaidya, Dr. Ohno-Machado, and Dr. Jiang have pioneered technologies that make secure, privacy-preserving health data collaboration possible at scale. Their work exemplifies the innovation and real-world impact recognized by this award."

Vaidya is a Distinguished Professor and Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs and Research at Rutgers Business School, Rutgers University, where he also directs the Rutgers Institute for Data Science, Learning, and Applications. He earned his B.E. in Computer Engineering from the University of Mumbai and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Purdue University.

He is an IEEE Fellow, a Fellow of AAAS and IFIP, and an ACM Distinguished Scientist. His research spans data mining, security, privacy, and trustworthy data sharing, advancing privacy-preserving technologies that enable healthcare providers and researchers to collaborate securely while protecting sensitive patient information.

Ohno-Machado is the Waldemar von Zedtwitz Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Informatics and Data Science and Deputy Dean for Biomedical Informatics at Yale School of Medicine, where she chairs the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science. She earned her medical degree from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, an MBA from Fundação Getúlio Vargas, and a Ph.D. in medical information sciences and computer science from Stanford University.

Before joining Yale, she was founding chief of the Division of Biomedical Informatics at the University of California San Diego, where she led one of the first large-scale initiatives to share clinical data across multiple health systems. She is an IEEE Senior Member and an elected member of both the National Academy of Medicine and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).

Jiang is Associate Vice President for Medical AI, Chair of the Department of Health Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, and the Christopher Sarofim Professor at McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth Houston, where he directs the Center for Secure Artificial Intelligence for Healthcare (SAFE). He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University and completed postdoctoral training in biomedical informatics at the University of California San Diego.

He is an IEEE Senior Member whose research focuses on privacy-preserving data mining, federated learning, and explainable machine learning for healthcare. Before joining UTHealth Houston in 2018, he was a tenured associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the University of California San Diego. His work has advanced secure artificial intelligence and privacy-preserving technologies that enable collaborative health research while protecting patient data.

The IEEE Innovation in Societal Infrastructure Award recognizes significant technological achievements and contributions to the establishment, development, and proliferation of innovative societal infrastructure systems through the application of information technology, with an emphasis on distributed computing systems. It recognizes technical achievement and leadership that have advanced the systems and technologies society depends on. 

"At Hitachi, we believe that safe and highly reliable digital infrastructure is essential to solving society's most complex challenges," said Shigetoshi Sameshima, Vice President & CTO of Hitachi, Ltd. "We are proud to sponsor the IEEE Innovation in Societal Infrastructure Award, alongside the IEEE Computer Society, to recognize innovators whose work enables secure and privacy-preserving collaboration at scale. Congratulations to Professor Vaidya, Dr. Ohno-Machado, and Dr. Jiang on this well-deserved recognition and their extraordinary contributions to healthcare innovation."

For more information on IEEE Awards and to view the complete list of the 2027 IEEE Technical Field Award recipients, visit https://corporate-awards.ieee.org/recipients/current-recipients/. 

Through its Social Innovation Business (SIB) that brings together IT, OT (Operational Technology) and products, Hitachi aims to be a global leader in continuously transforming social infrastructure through digital, contributing to a harmonized society where the environment, wellbeing, and economic growth are in balance. Hitachi operates worldwide across four sectors – Digital Systems & Services, Energy, Mobility, and Connective Industries – as well as a Strategic SIB Business Unit focused on new growth areas. With Lumada at its core, Hitachi creates value by combining data, technology and domain knowledge to solve customer and social challenges. Revenues for FY2025 (ended March 31, 2026) totaled 10,586.7 billion yen, with 606 consolidated subsidiaries and approximately 290,000 employees worldwide. Visit us at https://www.hitachi.com/.