The National Institutes for Health (NIH) are on an ambitious effort to harness advances in data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI) to support programs like the Precision Medicine, Cancer Moonshot, and Brain Initiatives. To accelerate progress, the NIH made a call to the public for a Request for Information (RFI)on the proposed Strategic Plan on Data Science. I submitted my letter and a number of people asked me to make my letter public. Since, as soon as it is submitted, it becomes part of the public record and the submission has now closed, I'm put the full text below. While this letter is specific to the NIH, there are many parts that are salient to the broader questions of ethics, security, and how we need to think about data going forward.

In the U.S., cancer will strike two in every five people in their lifetimes. But it affects all of us. That's why, in 2015, the office of the Vice President announced the Cancer Moonshot. It's an audacious effort to make a decade's worth of progress in cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment in just five years. Beginning today, the 2017 Data Science Bowl will pursue one of the Cancer Moonshot's key goals: unleashing the power of data against this deadly disease. Presented by Booz Allen and Kaggle, the competition will convene the data science and medical communities to develop cancer detection algorithms, and help end the disease as we know it.

SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwired - Nov 14, 2016) - NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) today announced that it is teaming up with the National Cancer Institute, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and several national laboratories on an initiative to accelerate cancer research. The initiative -- known as the Cancer Moonshot, announced by President Barack Obama during his 2016 State of the Union Address, and led by Vice President Joseph Biden -- aims to deliver a decade of advances in cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment in just five years. The research efforts include a focus on building an AI framework called CANDLE (Cancer Distributed Learning Environment), which will provide a common discovery platform that brings the power of AI to the fight against cancer. CANDLE will be the first AI framework designed to change the way we understand cancer, providing data scientists around the world with a powerful tool against this disease. Teams collaborating on CANDLE include researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research and DOE, as well as at Argonne, Oak Ridge, Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratories.

Microsoft researchers are doing a bug bash on cancer, complete with software code names like "Project Hanover." Some of them are actually drilling down into our genetic code, looking for ways to reprogram the immune system to combat cancer cells more effectively. "If you can do computing with biological systems, then you can transfer what we've learned in traditional computing into medical or biotechnology applications," Microsoft's Neil Dalchau says in the company's in-depth report about its cancer moonshots. Others are enlisting the power of cloud computing to identify which treatment would work best for a particular cancer patient, based on his or her personalized medical profile. Microsoft and AstraZeneca are already using a software tool known as the Bio Model Analyzer to figure out why leukemia patients respond differently to different treatments.

With the backing of the White House, Seattle cancer researchers are enlisting artificial intelligence experts across the globe to catch the early signs of breast cancer. The Digital Mammography DREAM Challenge – a partnership of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Group Health Research Institute, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Sage Bionetworks and others – was announced at Vice President Joe Biden's Cancer Moonshot Summit that in June brought together health care providers, research institutions and technology experts for a national day of action. For the challenge, more than 300 tech experts at machine and deep learning labs around the world will get data on 86,000 breast cancer patients, including more than 640,000 digital mammography images, and use their expertise to develop data models that can better predict the presence of breast cancer.

A new report outlines a scientific roadmap for the White House's cancer "moonshot" initiative -- urging research to harness the power of immune-based therapy, and to better tailor treatment by helping more patients get their tumors genetically profiled. Those are among a list of recommendations issued Wednesday by a panel of cancer experts and patient advocates advising the moonshot project on ways to speed progress against the nation's No. 2 killer. Also on the list: Learning what drives childhood cancer, finding ways to minimize the side effects of treatment, and making better use of some proven anti-cancer strategies. For example, about 3 percent of colorectal cancers are fueled by certain inherited genetic mutations -- and the report proposes a pilot project to test all newly diagnosed patients so the relatives of those who harbor the defects could learn if they, too, are at risk. The recommendations mark "a bold but feasible scientific proposal," said Dr. Doug Lowy, acting director of the National Cancer Institute, who will send the panel's report to Vice President Joe Biden's cancer moonshot task force.