December 4, 2023
Haendel to present 'Interoperability at All Scales: From Data Bits and Bytes to National Public Health Surveillance'
Melissa Haendel, chief research informatics officer at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and co-founder of the Monarch Initiative and the National COVID Cohort Collaborative, will present "Interoperability at All Scales: From Data Bits and Bytes to National Public Health Surveillance" from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 12, in the Carl R. Ice Conference Room, Room 1139, in the Engineering Complex. This presentation is part of the KAWSE ADVANCE Distinguished Lecture Series.
Abstract: Making data reusable for discovery and shared analytics is a laborious, specific skill requiring tasks that most data providers do not have the resources, expertise, or perspective to perform. Equally challenged are the data re-users, who function in a landscape of bespoke schemas, formats and coding — when they can get past understanding the licensing and access control issues. Making the most of our collective data requires partnerships between data providers and data consumers, as well as sophisticated strategies to address this myriad of issues. Furthermore, when transforming data to common models, there are data quality issues, errors and a need to keep the transforms current. Rigor, reproducibility and ethical considerations suggest that full provenance be recorded. All of the above is essentially moving careful manual curation and review to automation at enterprise scale. A robust dynamic relationship between those curating and automated systems and reports is also required. This talk will review different communities' endeavors toward these ends from across biological scales and across the translational spectrum.
Haendel's background is in molecular genetics and developmental biology as well as translational informatics, with a focus over the past decade on open science and semantic engineering. Haendel's vision is to weave together health care systems, basic science research and patient generated data through development of data integration technologies and innovative data capture strategies. Haendel's research has focused on integration of genotype-phenotype data to improve rare disease diagnosis and mechanism discovery. She also leads and participates in international standards organizations to support improved data sharing and utility worldwide.