2014 Tillman Scholar

David Odgers

Army
Stanford University
Ph.D., Medicine, Biomedical Informatics

“I am focusing on combining artificial intelligence with medical decision making to extend healthcare to underserved people.”

David chose to serve in the military because of a personal need to do something for America, the country that he loves, following 9/11. David was heavily influenced by his father who retired from the Army after Vietnam and Germany as a Special Forces soldier. His deep sense of duty to his country assured him that his service would be the most important thing he would ever do.

After graduating with Highest Distinction from the Army Intelligence School, he was immediately deployed to Baghdad, Iraq where he was responsible for tracking down and removing the most dangerous insurgents from the battlefield. He was quickly recruited to work with the Missing and Captured Intelligence Cell to help find seven missing soldiers and contractors in Southern Iraq. He finished up his deployments with a Special Operations Group in Kandahar Afghanistan, which fulfilled a childhood dream of working alongside some of America’s best soldiers, like his father before him.

Returning back to school, David wanted to use his background in Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Intelligence Analysis, and Medicine to advance the paradigm of a Global Learning Health System that could revolutionize how military and civilian populations received care. He has completed Master’s degrees at Johns Hopkins in Biotechnology, Stanford University in Biomedical Informatics and is working on an Engineering Management degree from Stanford to lead this exciting transformation of the medical field. In particular, David wants to work to advance antiquated systems in the VA, to provide Military Personnel the care they deserve.