YP Symposium on the Impact of Data Science in Healthcare, Dublin – July 2019
The IEEE Young Professionals UK & Ireland organised a symposium on July 15, 2019, titled IEEE YP Symposium on Impact of Data Science in Healthcare , at NDRC, The Digital Hub in the heart of the Liberties in Dublin, Ireland.
We were very fortunate to have support from Think Biosolution, NDRC 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The entire discussion could be summed by Friedrich Wetterling’s statement that
“Data science in Healthcare is a white space in between medical devices, fitness monitoring platforms, and the pharmaceutical industry”