Dr. Muhammad Mamdani
Vice President of Data Science and Advanced Analytics at Unity Health Toronto
Catherine Wang
Vice President of Clinical Operations and Diagnostic Partnerships at the UHN and Administrative Lead for the Joint Department of Medical Imaging
Technology, data, and artificial intelligence are transforming society, and health care is next.
“Health care is one of the most data-rich sectors,” says Dr. Muhammad Mamdani, Vice President of Data Science and Advanced Analytics at Unity Health Toronto. “We’re learning to do some incredible things with that data to drive patient care and to improve the efficiency of our health care system.”
The key to this transformation is a digitally-literate and data-savvy workforce that understands how health care systems work and how health care is now delivered. Starting in September 2021, the Michener Institute of Education at the University Health Network (UHN) will begin to meet this critical health system need through its new Digital Health and Data Analytics Program.
The new program is designed to be pragmatic, practical, and job-oriented — anticipating the needs of the workplace of the future and using the best education science and methodologies to meet those needs. A combination of in-class teaching and hands-on learning at high-profile public institutions and businesses will give graduates the skills and knowledge to care for patients in an increasingly machine- and data-driven health care environment.
Catherine Wang is the Vice President of Clinical Operations and Diagnostic Partnerships at the UHN and Administrative Lead for the Joint Department of Medical Imaging, which encompasses medical imaging across the UHN, Women’s College Hospital, and Sinai Health System. She says that she’s seeing the need for this type of heath professional in her practice daily.
“In the past, it has always been about how to make a better tool, but the conversation is no longer about equipment,” says Wang. “Now the next frontier is taking the imaging and manipulating and extracting better data, taking analytics, and mapping the patient journey in a longitudinal approach, which all requires data science.”
Michener’s program is geared toward health care providers, graduate students, and IT professionals who want to advance their career in health care and work on cutting-edge digital, analytical, and artificial intelligence health care initiatives. Enrolment for the full-time program opens April 1, 2021. Interested candidates can visit michener.ca/choose for more information.
As Canada’s only “school within a hospital” dedicated exclusively to health care education, Michener is uniquely positioned to prepare health care professionals in these emerging fields. Michener’s new program will support health care professionals at every point in their career pathway through virtual learning, workplace learning, data simulation and modelling, micro-credentialling, and collaboration with other institutions.
