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"IEEE YP Symposium on Impact of Data Science in Healthcare" - Event Report

I had the good fortune of organising a symposium on July 15, 2019, titled "IEEE YP Symposium on Impact of Data Science in Healthcare", as part of my work with the IEEE Young Professionals UK & Ireland, at NDRC, The Digital Hub in the heart of the Liberties in Dublin, Ireland.



We were very fortunate to have support from Think BiosolutionNDRC and The Digital Hub, which was very helpful in organising and executing the event.

The primary audience consisted of Young professionals (IEEE members/non-members) who want to use IEEE as a channel for employment in data science in the Healthcare space.

This event was of particular interest to
early-career professionals in the data science space
healthcare professionals
graduate students
undergraduate seniors
IT professionals looking to upskill or diversify
Wannapreneurs in the healthcare space
Researchers in health, data science, AI, ML, etc

The evening was opened with tea/coffee and networking, following which the event was MC'd by Koushik Kumar Nundy, CTO of Think Biosolution, and Dublin Representative of IEEE UK & Ireland Young Professionals.

Opening remarks were presented by the Hon. Ambassador of India to Ireland, Mr Sandeep Kumar.

This was followed by talks from an eclectic mix of academics, researchers, clinicians and administrators.

Eimear Galvin spoke about how data plays an important part in these healthcare startups and for HSE.

Eimear manages Health Innovation Hub Ireland (HIHI) in Dublin, based in St James hospital. HIHI is a joint government initiative of both the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation (DBEI) and the Department of Health (DoH), funded through Enterprise Ireland and supported by HSE. Part of Eimear’s role is to establish Ireland, through HIHI, as a leading location for start-ups and expanding healthcare companies, by allowing easy interaction with hospitals and primary care centres.

Eimear Galvin

Dr Friedrich Wetterling discussed how data is important for connected medical device solutions, what are the risks and opportunities, and how his employer Fire1 is working towards tackling them.

Friedrich is the Senior Data Scientist at FIRE1 Foundry. FIRE1 has raised more than €57 Million till date, and some of its investors include global healthcare leaders like Medtronic. FIRE1 is a connected medical device solutions company dedicated to improving outcomes for people suffering from chronic diseases.

Fredrich Wetterling

Dr Chandana Fitzgerald brought to the table the tech opportunities of data in healthcare, clinician's perceptions about data, and regulatory challenges of handling medical data.

Chandana is the Chief Medical Officer at HealthXL. As a CMO Chandana leads thought leadership, research, content, operations and strategic growth for a global digital health platform, HealthXL. Chandana is a medical doctor with work, research and educational experience across European, American and Asian markets. She has recently launched her Digital Health Podcast and also writes thought leadership pieces regularly.

Chandana Fitzgerald
Dr Soumyabrata Dev introduced us to his recent work where they have developed a stroke predictor for EHR data.

Soumyabrata is a Machine Learning Researcher at ADAPT Cente, Trinity College Dublin and will be joining as an Assistant Professor at University College Dublin from Fall 2019. Soumyabrata obtained his PhD from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore, in 2017. From Aug-Dec 2015, he was a visiting student at Audiovisual Communication Laboratory (LCAV), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland.
Soumyabrata Dev

Following the talks, Eimear, Friedrich, Chandana and Soumyabrata were joined by Dr Shourjya Sanyal, CEO of Think Biosolution in a panel discussion about the role and significance of data in healthcare, especially clinical pathways and decision-making.

Panel Discussion
Each talk lasted 15 minutes, and the panel discussion was about 30 minutes long.

This was followed by a networking session with snacks. The event had over 110 registrations and we received a lot of positive feedback from the attendees.




Scare Quotes


Some statements simply are better if a certain famous person said them. ~ Gary Saul Morson

I have always been intrigued by quotes, despite their often half-baked oversimplifications of concepts, usually of life and love. The part that fascinates me most is the multitude of contradictions offered, usually by people on opposite sides of an argument, but not too rarely by comrades, or even occasionally by the same people.

Those that quote those that are quoted refer to such quotes that echo within their own thought chambers as a vindication of their already held opinion, where the quote's original intent may have been no more than a witty comeback.

Sometimes, more scarily, the quotee was trying to make quite the opposite point from the quoter.

Nowhere are these contradictions more on the nose than with famous quotations about quotations. Except for politics, maybe, but who wants to ramble about political wordplay!

Exhibit 1
(A) quotation is a handy thing to have about, saving one the trouble of thinking for oneself, always a laborious business. ~ A.A. Milne

Exhibit 2

I like a writer who is original enough to water his garden with quotations, without fear of being drowned out. ~ Henry Van Dyke

In retrospect, perhaps, this blog post was unnecessary, as the point has somewhat been made by a great author of our times.
Maybe our favorite quotations say more about us than about the stories and people we're quoting. ~ John Green
But then again, anything worth doing might just be worth overdoing!
Be careful--with quotations, you can damn anything. ~ Andre Malraux