Joel Dudley is the director of biomedical informatics and an assistant professor of genetics and genomic sciences at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The document discusses moving from big data to better disease models through integrating diverse data types and building predictive network models. It highlights several projects using this approach, including identifying new drug indications for existing drugs to treat diseases like inflammatory bowel disease. The goal is to leverage "big data" from sources like genomics, clinical data, and electronic health records to generate testable predictions to improve disease diagnosis and treatment through precision medicine approaches.