The Sharpest Scalpel Interview with
The Sharpest Scalpel Interview with
Dr. Lola Ogunyemi
What initially drew you to study computer science and informatics?
In my junior year of high school, I took a computer programming class and fell in love with coding. I decided that I would major in computer science in college. My path to biomedical informatics was more serendipitous. I enjoyed computer science in college and decided that I wanted to study it further in graduate school, but I didn’ t have a clear vision of what I wanted to do with the degree. I wasn’ t planning on being a professor, but I liked 3D graphics and animation so I thought maybe I’ d study 3D graphics and work in the animation industry after graduating.
My first year in graduate school, I found out that my department had a radiologist and a trauma surgeon as adjunct faculty members. I was really curious about why they were in the computer science department, so I went to a seminar that featured them and learned about the field of biomedical informatics for the first time. The idea of using computational methods to help clinicians and patients really appealed to me and the trauma surgeon ended up becoming my thesis co-advisor.
How does your work support the University mission and vision?
I lead the Center for Biomedical Informatics at CDU and my work focuses on ways to use informatics to address the needs of medically underserved and underresourced communities. The kind of work I’ ve done at CDU ranges from an early project examining telehealth as a means of connecting patients with specialists to my current NIH-funded research on using machine learning to identify diabetic patients at high risk for the sight-threatening complication known as diabetic retinopathy. I’ m also working with Dr. Sheba George on a project to identify safety net patients who may be hesitant to receive COVID-19 tests or vaccinations and to use a community health worker led intervention to address their testing and / or vaccination hesitancy.
In addition to original research, my center also provides CDU faculty members and staff with electronic resources for securely storing research data( REDCap) and for research networking( Profiles). I co-teach a course at CDU introducing master’ s students in the College of Science and Health’ s Biomedical Sciences program to topics in biomedical informatics. A two-year master’ s degree program in Health Informatics is also in the works for the College of Medicine, with the first students anticipated to start the program in the fall of 2023.
How do the tools of computer science and informatics help researchers find solutions to health care problems that impact underserved communities particularly hard?
Computing and informatics methods provide unique ways to support healthcare providers in medically underserved areas and to directly engage community members in improving their health outcomes through mobile health technology. See above for examples.
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 14