Dalla Lana School of Public Health

The Biostatistics Seminar Series presents:

“Empowering Digital Health with Ubiquitous Technologies” by Dr. Camellia Zakaria, University of Toronto

Abstract: In the last decade, we witnessed progressive expansion in digital technologies, redefining what counts as ‘health.’ Am I experiencing an irregular heartbeat? Am I running out of my prescribed pills? Am I at risk of contagion from being exposed to an infected person? These are basic but essential health questions that commodity smart devices can now promptly answer a user. While the future holds exciting options for deep health personalization services and management – seamlessly integrating the Internet of Things (IoT) across individuals, communities, and the environment – two key challenges exist in Digital Health efforts in practice. First, personalized care and real-time interventions require holistic user models to process data efficiently and predict accurately. Second, model development must comprise heterogeneous data of individuals to comprehensively capture their holistic behavior within the environment. In this talk, I will highlight how ubiquitous sensing can operate actively and passively to overcome these challenges and solve common everyday health interests. That said, the potential for ubiquitous technologies does raise unintended consequences for the user, spanning from behavioral change to privacy and security; thus, it necessitates intellectual merit and synergistic research thrusts of health science with computer and information sciences.

For Dr. Zakaria’s biosketch, please see https://nczakaria.github.io/