Reflecting on PHDS Events
Since our launch in Spring 2023, the Population Health Data Science program has been busy coordinating and hosting events to contribute to the goals of the program. The objectives of this program are to: 1) Generate research synergies by fostering collaborations across the multiple disciplines engaged in health data science; 2) Provide training and continuing education opportunities in population health data science; 3) Stimulate and support the development of novel health data science research.
Our inaugural event took place on June 1, 2023, with the first installment of the Health Data Science Distinguished Speaker Series. Dr. Rafael Irizarry (Professor and Chair, Department of Data Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health) presented a seminar, entitled “What is Data Science?”, giving attendees an overview of the field of data science and what it encompasses. The speaker series is co-sponsored by the Hariri Institute for Computing, the Department of Biostatistics, and the Providence/Boston Center for AIDS Research.
The first ever Population Health Data Science Poster Session and Reception took place on September 7, 2023 and brought together health data science scholars, trainees, and industry leaders from various disciplines across BU and beyond. Over 40 presenters showcased their work to nearly 100 attendees! We plan to make this an annual event that highlights health data science research at BU, fosters new collaborations, and creates opportunities for networking.
Our next event on September 21, 2023 marked the second installment of the Health Data Science Distinguished Speaker Seminar Series. Dr. Roger Peng (Professor of Statistics and Data Sciences, University of Texas, Austin) delivered a presentation entitled, “Principles for Designing Complex Data Analyses.” Dr. Peng discussed the need to specify the craft of data analysis in more formal terms now that the data science revolution has touched all areas of society. He proposed a theoretical framework for the analytic process and described its potential for improving the quality of data analysis.
On October 17, our Health Data Science Distinguished Speaker Seminar featured Dr. Zak Kohane (Professor and Chair, Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School), whose presentation “Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Medicine: Population Health” focused on the challenges and important next steps in AI, particularly after the emergence of Large Language Models.
In November, our Health Data Science Distinguished Speaker was Dr. Rumi Chunara (Associate Professor of Biostatistics, Computer Science and Engineering, New York University), who presented a seminar entitled “Machine Learning in Population Health: Challenges & Opportunities.” This talk focused on the development of machine learning methods to quantify complex concepts in population health and discussed the importance of using approaches grounded in theoretical and qualitative knowledge.
The Health Data Science Research on Tap event on November 29 was an exciting event that brought together approximately 75 health data scientists across Boston University. Faculty from a range of departments and schools at BU delivered lightning talks of their research: Dr. Neha Gondal, Dr. Jonathan Huggins, Dr. Heather Hsu, Dr. Vijaya Kolachalama, Dr. Kevin Lane, Dr. Judith Lok, Dr. Diane Joseph-McCarthy, Dr. Shariq Mohammed, Dr. Pawel Przytycki, Dr. Kayoko Shioda, and Dr. Archana Venkataraman. Attendees of this event were invited to apply for seed funding awards with the goal of advancing data-driven, interdisciplinary science in health or biomedicine. Congratulations to the eight PIs who were selected to receive the seed funding awards: Jonathan Jay, Kevin Lane, Nicole McCann, Shariq Mohammed, Katie Parodi, Ashwini Ranade, Kayoko Shioda, and Jiujia Zhang!
In December, we held an Introduction to Machine Learning Workshop, led by Dr. Evan Johnson (Professor of Biostatistics and Medicine, Rutgers University) and Dr. Vijaya Kolachalama (Associate Professor of Medicine and Computer Science, Boston University). The workshop provided attendees with an overview of machine learning methods, including kernel-based methods, tree-based learning, and neural networks.
We hope you will join us for PHDS events this spring. Please visit the 2023-2024 events page on our website to learn more about upcoming events!