Research summary
In Canada, a person’s health information can be distributed to many different providers—yet at the same time, data-sharing and communication are often poor to non-existent. This makes it challenging for doctors to provide optimal care, for experts to handle health emergencies, and for researchers to study health outcomes.
As Canada Research Chair in Health Informatics and Precision Public Health, Dr. Zahra Shakeri Hossein Abad plans to create a new framework that will allow experts to easily pull together health information from different providers. This will offer a more comprehensive view of patients’ health histories and results. In addition, by using machine learning and natural language processing methods, she and her research team aim to provide details about lifestyle and social factors that can affect patients’ health. Ultimately, this will reduce health disparities and help ensure that every Canadian gets the care they need.