Overview

The DS-I Africa State of Data Science Series is a collection of online, interactive panel discussions that took place on a weekly basis in September and October 2020. These sessions featured presentations by experts in their field, a moderated discussion, and opportunities for Q&A. Video recordings of each session are available below.

Click on the links below for information on each session and to watch the recording. 

Sessions

Biomedical Imaging: Acquisition and Analysis   

September 15, 9:00 am EDT | 4:00 pm EAT 

This session focused on opportunities and challenges at the intersection of biomedical imaging (including microscopy, diagnostic and interventional radiology, and digital pathology) and data science.  The session both considered new and emerging imaging modalities as well as computer-aided diagnosis and treatment planning tools and emerging AI/machine learning approaches to image analysis.

Moderator: 
Paul Pearlman, Program Director/Lead, Global Health Technology, Center for Global Health, US National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health

Panelists:

• Dan Milner, Chief Medical Officer, American Society of Clinical Pathology (ASCP) Center for Global Health
• Michael Kawooya, Professor/Director, Ernest Cook Ultrasound Research and Education Institute (ECUREI)
• Celia Cintas, Research Scientist, IBM Research Africa
• Sameer Antani, Chief for the Communications Engineering Branch and the Computer Science Branch, Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications at the US National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health

Click to watch the audio described video

Leveraging Data Science Approaches to Address Environmental Health Challenges in Africa  

September 23, 9:00 am EDT | 4:00 pm EAT 

Environmental Health challenges in Africa are complex, involving a broad range of exposures, including ambient and indoor air pollution, electronic waste, heavy metals, pesticides, vector-borne pathogens, and climate change, and a large proportion of the disease burden in Africa is linked to environmental factors. This session explored unique aspects and analytic challenges of the various types of environmental health data and highlighted recent data science approaches to characterizing hazardous exposures on the African continent, connecting environmental exposures to health outcomes, and reducing the risk of disease connected to the environment. 

Moderator:
Gwen Collman, Acting Deputy Director, Associate Director for Extramural Research, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Panelists:

• Kiros Berhane, Professor and Chair, Department of Biostatistics, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
• Caradee Wright, Senior Specialist Scientist, Environment and Health Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council
• Engineer Bainomugisha, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Computer Science, School of Computing & IT, Makerere University

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Biomedical Informatics and Data Sciences in Africa

September 30, 9:00 am EDT | 4:00 pm EAT

This session addressed emerging opportunities and challenges in the application of Data Science and Informatics technologies in various biomedical domains. It also highlighed some key challenges in the areas of data mining, data quality, standards for various types of data, in addition to addressing how cutting-edge data analytics, predictive modeling and Machine Learning, and methods for simulations can advance human health in Africa.

Moderators:

• Darrell Hurt, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Geetha Senthil, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH 

Panelists:

• Abdoulaye Banire Diallo, University of Quebec-Montreal (UQAM) 
• Elaine Nsoesie, Boston University 
• Geoffrey Siwo, University of Notre Dame 
• Dina Machuve, Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology 
• Moustapha Cisse, Google AI

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Innovative Approaches to Improve Maternal and Child Health

October 7, 9:00 am EDT | 4:00 pm EAT             

Maternal and child health outcomes in Africa still lag behind the rest of the world despite prioritization as a topic of focus within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Partners from  country-level governments, research institutions, private sector program funding agencies and non-governmental organizations are involved in various capacities and across disciplines, implementing activities to reduce the enormous burden of high mortality and morbidity of women and children on the African continent.  Nonetheless, millions of women and children experience death and severe morbidity each year despite these efforts. In this session we 1) addressed the gap in availability of existing databases and collective data focused on pregnancy and the peripartum period; 2) explored emerging use of linked data such as electronic medical records as a tool for conducting research, analyzing data and creating tools for interventions; and 3) developed concrete recommendations for a strategy to utilize data science to improve maternal and child health outcomes from pre-pregnancy to pregnancy and delivery and throughout the mother and child’s life course.

Introductions:

• Vesna Kutlesic, Ph.D., Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Naveen Rao, M.D., Senior Vice President & Senior Advisor to the President, Health Initiative, The Rockefeller Foundation
• Diana Bianchi, M.D., Director, NICHD, NIH

Moderators:

• Denise Russo, Ph.D., NICHD, NIH
• Marion koso-Thomas, M.D., MPH, NICHD, NIH

Panelists:

• Andre van der Kouwe, Ph.D., Associate Professor in Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Assistant in Physics, Massachusetts General Hospital 
• Lilla Zöllei, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Radiology, Harvard Medical School
• Moses Alobo, M.D., Program Manager, Grand Challenges Africa Programme at African Academy of Sciences
• Alash’le Abimiku, Ph.D., Professor in Epidemiology & Public Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine; Executive Director, International Research Center of Excellence at the Institute of Human Virology-Nigeria
• Amel Ghouila, Ph.D., Vice President, African Society of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (ASBCB); Founder, Technovation Tuni

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Using Data Science to Fight COVID-19 Session

October 14, 9:00 am EDT | 4:00 pm EAT       

This webinar discussed the COVID-19 situation in Africa and presented application examples of Data Science for disease management. A panel of experts touched on topics such as disease surveillance, generating dashboards with the latest statistics, and mining of text or social media to discover trends. Other topics included data-interoperability, publication tracking, disease burden and mortality, and the effect of COVID-19 on diseases like HIV and malaria.

Moderators:

• Stefan Jaeger, Ph.D., National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health
• Cecile Viboud, Ph.D., Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health

Panelists:

• Agnes Kiragga, Ph.D., Head of Statistics and Data Management Unit and Senior Research Scientist, Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI), Makerere University College of Health Sciences
• Nirmal Ravi, M.D., Ph.D., Director for Medical and Scientific Affairs, E-Health Africa, and Chief Innovation Officer, EHA Clinics
• Ali H. Mokdad, Ph.D., Professor of Health Metrics Sciences, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation; Chief Strategy Officer, Population Health at the University of Washington
• Elaine Nsoesie, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Global Health, Boston University School of Public Health
• Frank Kagoro, M.D., MSc, Research Physician, MORU Tropical Health Network and WorldWide Antimalarial Resistance Network; PhD Candidate, University of Cape Town 

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Innovations in Health Metrics Sciences: Measuring, Mapping, and Monitoring Morbidity and Mortality at the Regional, National, and Local Levels in Africa

October 21, 9:00 am EDT | 4:00 pm EAT

This session highlighted the emerging field of health metrics sciences and its role in measuring and monitoring summary measures of health in Africa to better develop and implement measures to reduce the burden of disease. It identified challenges and opportunities relevant to the DS-I Africa initiatives; addressed the increasing role that health metrics is playing in informing and prioritizing systems-level health interventions and broad public health-related decision making; discussed how health metrics and data science can inform and evaluate more effective integrated care efforts at the intersection of infectious diseases and the rapidly growing burden of chronic, non-communicable diseases.

Moderators:

• George A. Mensah, MD, FACC, Director, Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science, NHLBI, NIH
• Makeda Williams, PhD, MPH, Global Health Program Director, Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science, NHLBI, NIH 

Panelists:

• Mayowa Owolabi, MBBS, MSc, DrM, Professor of Neurology and Director, Center for Genomic and Precision Medicine; Dean, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, University of Ibadan
• Laura Dwyer-Lindgren, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Health Metrics Sciences, School of Medicine, and Institute for Health Metrics, University of Washington
• Ana H Mocumbi, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Researcher and Head, Chronic & Non-Communicable Diseases Division, Ministry of Health, National Health Institute & Eduardo  Mondlane University 
• Ali H. Mokdad, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Health Metrics Sciences, School of Medicine, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation; Chief Strategy Officer, Population Health, University of Washington

Click to watch the audio described video