Queen’s researchers receive $1.6 million in funding to train workforce in medical informatics

Health data is paramount to understand diseases, diagnoses, and different health conditions in order to propose changes and improvements in the Public Health and health care systems. It also helps understand why a specific population may have different symptoms or results from disease, while others show entirely different signs. 

A research team led by Dr. Parvin Mousavi has been awarded $1.6 million in funding over six years as part of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council’s (NSERC) Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) program. The grant is allocated to graduate-level students, including post-doctoral fellows, in the Medical Informatics program at Queen’s University. The training program’s objective is to prepare Canada’s future workforce in medical informatics to handle the health data. The grant aims at training and mentoring students in areas such as research, communications, and collaboration. 

“We aim to solidify Canada’s competitive advantage in the global space through concerted efforts to train computer scientists with specialized multidisciplinary experience in medical informatics and digital health, and engage diverse groups and experiences in our training,” says Dr. Mousavi.

Dr. Parvin Mousavi is a Computer Science and Pathology and Molecular Medicine professor at Queen’s University, a member of the Royal Society of Canada, College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists, and a faculty member affiliated Vector Institute. She has a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of British Columbia (UBC). She has received over 30 international and national recognitions for research, and has led numerous multi-national collaborative initiatives in these areas. Recently, she was named the recipient of the IEEE C.C. Gotlieb Computer Medal for her outstanding contributions to Biomedical Computing and Computer-Assisted Medical Interventions.

“Our aim is to not just train students for jobs immediately after graduation, but prepare them for success throughout their careers,” said Dr. Mousavi.

Other leading experts in the CREATE program are experts in computing, machine learning, medical and imaging informatics, data analytics, software systems, and surgery. The team includes Drs Randy Ellis, Gabor Fichtinger, Ting Hu, John Rudan, Amber Simpson, David Pichora, Yuan Tian, Boris Zevin, and investigators at Western University, Drs Aaron Fenster and Sarah Mattonen.

More details about the CREATE program are available on the NSERC website.