Michael J. Pencina, PhD, is the Chief AI Scientist at UnitedHealth Group. His work bridges the fields of data science, health care, and AI.

He co-founded and co-leads the national Coalition for Health AI (CHAI), a multi-stakeholder effort whose mission is to increase trustworthiness of AI by developing guidelines to drive high-quality health care through the adoption of credible, fair, and transparent health AI systems.

Widely noted as an expert on risk algorithms, Dr. Pencina has authored or co-authored over 400 peer reviewed publications that have been cited more than 100,000 times. Thomson Reuters/Clarivate Analytics has recognized him as a “highly cited researcher” in clinical medicine from 2014-2021 and social sciences from 2014-2022. He serves as a deputy editor for statistics at JAMA-Cardiology.

Dr. Pencina joined the Duke University faculty in 2013, and served as director of biostatistics for the Duke Clinical Research Institute until 2018. Previously, he was an associate professor in the Department of Biostatistics at Boston University and the Framingham Heart Study, and director of statistical consulting at the Harvard Clinical Research Institute. He received his PhD in Mathematics and Statistics from Boston University in 2003 and holds master’s degrees from the University of Warsaw in actuarial mathematics and business culture.