Dr. Claudia Prieto, faculty member at Ingeniería UC and Director of iHEALTH, nominated for the 2025 Innovators in Health Award

Dr. Claudia Prieto, Full Professor at the School of Engineering at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and Director of the Millennium Institute iHEALTH, has been selected as one of the 15 finalists for the 2025 Innovators in Health Award, an honor presented by the Chamber of Pharmaceutical Innovation (CIF) and Mujeres Empresarias, with the support of La Tercera. Her nomination is part of the "Research" category, alongside Dr. Alejandra Chaparro (Universidad de los Andes) and Dr. Pamela Ehrenfeld (Universidad Austral de Chile).

In its second edition, the award aims to highlight and recognize female leadership in the health sector, an area where women make up 70% of the workforce yet still face significant barriers to leadership and decision-making roles. This year’s award features five categories — Research, Regulation and Integrity, Public Commitment, Executives, and Entrepreneurs — and received more than 1,100 applications from across the country.

The selection process was carried out by a multidisciplinary jury composed of prominent figures from the academic, scientific, institutional, and business sectors, including Paula Daza (former Undersecretary of Public Health), Silvia Díaz (President of the National Council for Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation for Development), Sergio Lavandero (Director of the Advanced Center for Chronic Diseases and 2022 National Prize for Natural Sciences), Alexis Kalergis (Director of the Millennium Institute on Immunology and Immunotherapy), and Carolina Abbott (General Manager of Mujeres Empresarias), among others. The winners in each category will be announced at a ceremony in September 2025.

Dr. Claudia Prieto holds a degree in Industrial Civil Engineering and a Ph.D. in Medical Imaging from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at King’s College London, where she currently serves as a Reader in the School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences. Her academic work focuses on the development of advanced cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques and the design of image reconstruction and analysis algorithms incorporating artificial intelligence. She has led over a dozen research projects in Chile and abroad, and her work has been internationally recognized for its clinical and scientific impact, with nearly 7,000 citations and multiple awards from prestigious organizations such as the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) and the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR).

In addition to her scientific achievements, Dr. Prieto has been a strong advocate for innovation with social impact, translating her research from the lab into real-world applications in hospitals and clinical centers. As Director of iHEALTH — an institute funded by the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) — she promotes an interdisciplinary approach to research, integrating engineering, clinical data, and medical knowledge to tackle pressing challenges in medical imaging, sensing technologies, and artificial intelligence tools.

The Millennium Institute iHEALTH congratulates Dr. Claudia Prieto on this important recognition and celebrates her as a role model for transformative science led by women.