Derek Beaton, PhD 

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When: Friday, December 13th, 2024, 10am-11am EST

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Title: “Applied data science and AI in healthcare at Unity Health Toronto: Lessons learned and a look to the future"

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Abstract: The Data Science and Advanced Analytics (DSAA) team is an applied data science team at Unity Health Toronto. Over the past 7+ years we’ve deployed more than 50 data science tools into practice across our hospitals. These range from staffing solutions (like assignment or scheduling) to operational (like ED department wait times or volume forecasting) through to clinical tools (like CHARTWatch, a deterioration prediction tool, and a suite of real time medical imaging tools). This talk is broken into three parts. Part 1 covers who we are as a team, how we’re structured, and a focus on some of our deployments. Part 2 goes into more details about specific deployments---like our imaging tools---and helps highlight the lessons we’ve learned so far, and the challenges we see for applied data science healthcare in the (near and very near) future. Part 3 will be a (very) fresh reflection on how a team like ours handles massive digital transformation. At the time of this writing, Unity Health is preparing to transition to a new electronic medical record system. A the time of presentation, we will be 2 weeks post go-live. I’ll discuss what we’ve done in preparation (for more than a year) and how we’re managing the redeployment of our tools to bring them back online

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Bio: Derek leads the Advanced Analytics team in Data Science & Advanced Analytics (DSAA) at Unity Health Toronto. The Advanced Analytics team is comprised of data scientists with exceptional breadth and depth in statistics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (e.g., evaluation, forecasting, predictive modelling, imaging, workforce analytics). Derek and his team are responsible for developing statistical and machine learning models that are integrated into clinical and operational workflows at Unity Health Toronto. The advanced analytics team also evaluates and monitors the performance and impact of the tools that DSAA creates. Previously he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Health Sciences (Supervisor: Stephen Strother) and one of the Ontario Neurodegenerative Disease Research Initiative's scholars; his work focused on multivariate methods, multi-modal data, biostatistics, and neuroinformatics. Derek has a MS and PhD in Cognition and Neuroscience from The University of Texas at Dallas (Supervisor: Herve Abdi), where his work was primarily on statistical analyses of big data (e.g., genomics, neuroimaging). He also has a MS and BS in Computer & Information Sciences from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. Derek is the author of multiple widely used R packages (the ExPosition family of packages), has authored or coauthored over 60 journal publications, and is currently the joint world records holder for the fastest 5 person costumed half marathon and fastest 5 person costumed marathon.​​​​​​​​