Metadata
Title
Areas of Focus
Category
scholarships
UUID
cee326641d8947eda70ff1c4844160ae
Source URL
https://cumming.ucalgary.ca/centres/centre-health-informatics/research-innovatio...
Parent URL
https://cumming.ucalgary.ca/centres/centre-health-informatics
Crawl Time
2026-03-24T03:46:16+00:00
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# Areas of Focus

**Source**: https://cumming.ucalgary.ca/centres/centre-health-informatics/research-innovation/areas-focus
**Parent**: https://cumming.ucalgary.ca/centres/centre-health-informatics

The main research areas we focus on are Electronic Medical Record (EMR) tools, machine learning and data mining, data visualization, data quality, and administrative data.

As one of the World Health Organization's Collaborating Centres (WHO-CC), our research efforts support WHO's programmes to reinforce the global health network. Additionally, we are the lead for Alberta’s Strategy for Patient Oriented Research (SPOR) SUPPORT Unit Methods Support & Development Platform. As such, we support researchers in developing innovative tools and methodologies to support patient-oriented research.

## 

CHI aims to be the leading experts in electronic medical record (EMR) analytics and data science methodologies, for the development of efficient and accurate handling of digital health data for precision medicine. Our cutting-edge data science methods can identify comorbidities in EMR data for purposes such as risk adjustment and cohort identification.

#### [Team Leads](#collapse169741707)

Danielle Southern and Tyler Williamson

#### [Team Members](#collapse1457614892)

Cathy Eastwood, Adam D'Souza, Elliot Martin, Frank Lee, Todd Zhang, Oscar Chen, Alex Krusina, Shawn Xu, Natalie Wiebe, Alexis Guigue, Tannistha Nandi, Guosong Wu, and Hude Quan.

#### [Learn More](#collapse1026793761)

Watch our episode from Population Data BC's webinar series!

[Unlocking the Potential of Electronic Health Records for Health Research](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcECecZMUMk&t=1s)

## 

One of our main goals is to work with a team of diverse experts to tackle real-world problems. In Canada, nearly one quarter of patients with heart failure are readmitted to hospitals within a 30-day period. However, readmissions are often preventable. One of our cornerstone projects is to use linked data to predict readmission for heart failure patients and adapt care pathways according to risk.

#### [Team Lead](#collapse445895008)

Cathy Eastwood

#### [Team Members](#collapse550114543)

Camilia Thieba, Natalie Wiebe, Alexis Guigue, Elliot Martin, Frank Lee, Melanie Rosario, Shawn Xu, and  Hude Quan.

## 

We are proud of our extensive expertise in the handling of various health databases. We are building on this passion by creating our own databases that can advance research quality, and provide immense opportunities to answer imperative questions critical for optimal health system functioning.

#### [Team Lead](#collapse1059848408)

Cathy Eastwood

#### [Team Members](#collapse1026527641)

Adam D'Souza, Tannistha Nandi, Todd Zhang, Jeff Bakal, Rachel Eastwood, Mike Alcaz, and Guosong Wu.

## 

Our team consists of experts who are specialized in qualitative data analysis as well as natural language processing, a form of machine learning that automates the analysis of free text. As researchers are faced with large amounts of free text data in various forms (e.g. patient interviews), we are currently devising a unique method to automate the qualitative analytic process.

#### [Team Lead](#collapse601375163)

Shaminder Singh and Lin Yang

#### [Team Members](#collapse1585241049)

Chelsea Doktorchik, Tannistha Nandi, Lin Yang, Todd Zhang, and Hude Quan.

## 

The CHI is a designated World Health Organization Family of International Classification (WHO-FIC) Collaborating Centre. As part of a larger field trial, we have conducted important work in developing training materials for ICD-11, improving its content, and providing knowledge and tools for Canadian decision-makers to facilitate a seamless transition from ICD-10-CA to ICD-11.

#### [Team Lead](#collapse591920995)

Danielle Southern

#### [Team Members](#collapse821920147)

Cathy Eastwood, Chelsea Doktorchik, Lucia Varela Otero, Natalie Wiebe, Shahreen Khair, and Hude Quan.

#### [Featured Research](#collapse1711270236)

[Training and Experience of Coding with WHO's International Classification of Disease 11th Version (ICD-11)](https://cumming.ucalgary.ca/node/409627)

[The ICD-11 Field Trial: Creating a Large Dually Coded Database](https://cumming.ucalgary.ca/centres/centre-for-health-informatics/research/the-ICD-11-field-trial)

[The ICD-11 Cost Estimate and a Benefit Discussion](https://cumming.ucalgary.ca/centres/centre-health-informatics/research/our-research/key-areas-research/featured-research/centres/centre-health-informatics/research/our-research/key-areas-research/featured-research/icd11-cost-estimate)

## 

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Calgary and CSM called upon CHI’s experts to create a surveillance dashboard. Our team sprung into action and created a COVID-19 “Tracker” that displays data from Alberta, Canada, and international countries. This Tracker was intended to keep the public up to date using comprehensive data, as well as inform policies made by the city and the province.

#### [Team Lead](#collapse2072383565)

Tyler Williamson

#### [Team Members](#collapse1406442368)

Alex Krusina, Oscar Chen, Cathy Eastwood, Danielle Southern, Lucia Otero Varela, Chelsea Doktochik, Frank Lee, Alexis Guigue, and Tannistha Nandi.

Want to learn more? See our
[Notable Projects](https://cumming.ucalgary.ca/centres/centre-health-informatics/research-innovation/notable-projects)