Congratulations to Population Health Analytics Lab members, Dr. Laura Rosella, and PhD trainees, Lief Pagalan, Ijeoma Itanyi, Ingrid Giesinger, and Jo-Ann Osei-Twum, who have received outstanding recognitions and awards.
Dr. Laura Rosella, the principal investigator and scientific director of the PHA lab, was promoted to Full Professor and received the DLSPH 2022-2023 Public Health Sciences Award for Excellence in Supervision and Mentorship. Dr. Rosella’s dedication to the success of her students inspires their personal and professional growth.
Under Dr. Rosella’s supervision, two epidemiology doctoral students have received national awards.
Ijeoma Itanyi is a doctoral student in Epidemiology who received a prestigious Vanier Award. Co-supervised by Dr. Karen Tu & Dr. Laura Rosella, her research will use machine learning and causal inference methods to examine the risk of multimorbidity that is attributable to asthma and predict multimorbidity among adults in primary care. Ijeoma’s research will improve our understanding of the excess risk of multimorbidity due to asthma and help identify adults at a higher risk for multimorbidity in primary care. This study will inform clinical practice for the prevention of multimorbidity and could improve patient care and population health outcomes and lower health costs.
Lief Pagalan is a doctoral student in Epidemiology who received the Health Systems Fellowship Award (HSIF). Their research focuses on leveraging new data infrastructures and technologies to predict and prevent health risks, developing population health management solutions, and delivering public health services more efficiently and equitably. As a CIHR Health System Impact Doctoral Fellow, they will partner with Trillium Health Partners, a hospital system in Mississauga, Ontario, to help augment their analytics operations with artificial intelligence capabilities and population health perspectives. Lief will be mentored by Shalu Bains, Trillium Heath Partner’s Vice President of Performance and Business Intelligence and Chief Information and Analytics Officer, and support developing and implementing digital and analytic tools to improve clinical programs and guide Mississauga Ontario Health Team population health initiatives.
And two epidemiology doctoral students from the team received a 2023-24 AI4PH Trainee Award.
Ingrid Giesinger reflected on the impact of the award: “I am delighted to join the 2023/24 cohort of AI4PH scholars as we embark on a year of collaborative learning. The additional training and mentorship provided through the trainee program will expand my capacity to apply machine learning to address population health challenges.”
Jo-Ann Osei-Twum summarized how the award supports her research: “The Artificial Intelligence for Public Health Trainee Award supports my thesis project, which will advance public policy on population health management and the equitable allocation of health care resources. This research project will examine the impact of a machine learning population segmentation model, applied to people living with chronic kidney disease, on health inequities and findings will be contextualized using input from interviews with various stakeholders.”
Read more at AI4PH
Congratulations to Laura and her trainees on these exceptional achievements!