Case Summary:

Some of the major factors that played a role in the success of a National Interest Waiver case of a Chinese expert in bioinformatics are:

• He was a data science and advanced analytics manager in bioinformatics with a Ph.D. in mathematics and statistics.
• As an expert in the field, his proposed endeavor is to continue his development of novel deep-learning algorithms and program packages for accurate predictions in big-data-related healthcare applications, such as survival risk analysis, disease detection and treatment prediction, and medical cost inferences for clinical trial experiments and pharmaceutical development.
• His work advancing his proposed endeavor was of great importance because it provided a tool for evaluating global medical data for useful applications, particularly as it pertains to pervasive cancers and rare diseases, for which limited data is available.
• His proposed endeavor involved leveraging the data generated using advanced statistical and artificial intelligence techniques to accurately evaluate and predict meaningful events, such as the patient traits associated with disease, requirements for treatment, and standardized characterizations of rare diseases.
• His endeavor thus directly improves the information available to medical researchers, clinicians, and health policymakers.
• His research endeavor also has broad implications for the United States, where cancer is the second leading cause of death behind heart disease.
• Due to its clear national importance, his work has, in fact, been supported by funding from the National Cancer Institute.
• He has completed at least 2 reviews to date and his work has resulted in nine peer-reviewed journal articles (two of them first-authored) which have been cited a total of 45 times, according to Google Scholar, thereby demonstrating that these publications are widely recognized and relied upon in the field of bioinformatics.
• His six years of expertise in the area were also supported by other experts and researchers who understood the value of his work. Four known experts in the area wrote letters supporting his claim to the NIW category. Two of them said:

“[The client’s] novel formula for determining a CA score gives clinicians and researchers a useful reference tool for assessing cancer disease treatment strategies at different stages. Furthermore, his tool is easily modifiable for oncologic diseases, which reinforces the importance of his continued work for global public health.”

“[The client’s] research is highly useful for informing policymakers, healthcare providers, and other stakeholders who aim to improve patient survival rates, mitigate negative financial impacts associated with medical treatments, and reduce overall healthcare costs in the United States. [The client’s] innovative work aims to improve the methodological approaches used to conduct medical cost data analysis. His ongoing work, therefore, provides an important advantage for those working to reduce the gap between healthcare spending and health outcomes while improving the balance between expenditures and revenue at the budgetary level.”

These factors are all very important when it comes to an NIW approval. As is evident from the success of his case in just 1 month and 8 days, our client’s work was indeed considered important for the U.S. by the USCIS. We are proud to have worked with him and we wish him all the best in his future endeavors.