Name of panelist:Dr. Lin Yang

Comprehension of implementation science

It takes 17-20 years to translate clinical innovations into practice, and fewer than 50% of clinical innovations are ever adopted into general usage. How to accelerate the real-world implementation of evidence-based interventions to improve population health?

DDr. Lin Yang is an epidemiologist in the Department of Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Research, Alberta Health Services. She has obtained training in kinesiology (MSc, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, 2008), statistics (MSc, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, 2007), behavoiural epidemiology (PhD, University of Cambridge, 2012), nutritional epidemiology (Fellowship, Imperial College, 2016), circadian and sleep epidemiology, and transdisciplinary research in cancer (Postdoc, Washington University School of Medicine, 2015). Her research primarily focuses on the role of energy balance in cancer prevention and survivorship by integrating methodologies from clinical research, epidemiology and implementation science.

Name of panelist:Prof. Dr. Simon Bacon

Behaviour change intervention and implementation models and frameworks

The Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) is a great implementation science tool to translate efficacious interventions into practice.

Dr. Bacon's research deals with the impact of health behaviours and lifestyle (e.g., physical activity, diet, weight management, stress) on chronic diseases (e.g., obesity, cardiovascular disease, and chronic lung disease). He utilises multiple methodologies including epidemiological, psychophysiological, systematic review, and behavioural trials designs. Currently, Dr. Bacon is the CIHR SPOR Mentoring Chair in Innovative, Patient-Oriented, Behavioural Clinical Trials and a fellow of the Obesity Society, the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research. Prior to joining Concordia he completed his postdoctoral studies at the Duke University Medical Center, McGill University, Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal, and the Montreal Heart Institute. In addition to Concordia, Dr. Bacon is co-director of the Montreal Behavioural Medicine Centre (www.mbmc-cmcm.ca), a researcher at the Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux du Nord-de-l'Île-de-Montréal (CIUSSS-NIM: ciusss-nordmtl.gouv.qc.ca/votre-ciusss/centres-de-recherche/) and co-leads the International Behavioural Trials Network (www.IBTNetwork.org).

Name of panelist:Dr. Lin Yang

From evidence to implementation of lifestyle behaviour in cancer prevention and control

Preventive interventions targeting tobacco, alcohol, healthy diets and physical activity are key strategies to tackle the most pressing health challenges in modern society. A major gap remains in how to translate research evidence into population-level behaviour change to reduce the disease burden. We use the case for the role of physical activity-related behaviour and cancer to illustrate the iterative, multidirectional, and transdisciplinary nature of translational research. We provide the rationale for combining systems, causal and design thinking to develop interventions that can be implemented for this type of behaviour change. The proposed model is iterative, multidirectional and transdisciplinary.

Dr. Lin Yang is an epidemiologist in the Department of Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Research, Alberta Health Services. Her research primarily focuses on the role of energy balance in cancer prevention and survivorship. She has obtained training in kinesiology, statistics, physical activity promotion, nutritional epidemiology, circadian and sleep epidemiology, and transdisciplinary research in cancer. Using a transdisciplinary approach, her research program integrates methodologies from clinical research, epidemiology, science of behaviour change and implementation science to elucidate the biological mechanisms of energy balance and cancer to inform personalized interventions paving the way towards sustainable scaling-up.

Name of panelist:Dr. Oriane Morriet

How to better communicate your research to your grandma?

Did your grandmother ever yawn at you while you were explaining your research? This is because communication skills are not the same as research skills. Today, universities and research funds ask researchers to conduct ambitious research, but also to communicate it to their pairs, as well as to the general public. Why? Because scientific knowledge should not be kept secret! Your fellow citizens deserve to know why and how their taxes are used for. In this short presentation, I will present tips I learned as a researcher, a screenwriter, and a journalist, to better communicate scientific knowledge to the general public.

Graduated in 2016 from the École normale supérieure de Paris, Oriane Morriet has obtained her PhD in Film studies at the University of Montreal under the supervision of Professor Isabelle Raynauld. She specifically studied the practices of writing for virtual reality. Her field of expertise then relates to the design and scripting of works in virtual reality, but she also has knowledge of the production and distribution of these types of works. She has scripted a VR dance piece: Under Water. She is also a film writer, playwright for the theater and cultural journalist. She founded a communication company named Humaniteq that produces texts, podcasts and videos to communicate scientific knowledge to researchers and the general public.

Name of panelist:Dr. Alison Olechowski

The frontier of collaboration in Computer-Aided Design

Teams are necessary to solve today's complex problem. These teams are increasingly interdisciplinary, which leads to problems and opportunities. I’ll describe lessons learned in team science from studies of collaborative engineering design.

Alison Olechowski, PhD, PEng, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. She completed her PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) studying engineering technology management. Dr. Olechowski completed her BSc (Engineering) at Queen’s University and her MS at MIT, both in Mechanical Engineering. Her current research focuses on engineering design; in particular, her group investigates how new technologies can best be used to improve the process and outputs of engineering design and new product development. Her lab is supported by grants from Canada’s national funding agencies, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and industry partners including CAD users and providers.

Name of panelist:Dr. Oeter Aiken

A Foundation for AI Data

Whether digitizing or modernizing, garbage in–garbage out is constant. It seems such an easy concept. Yet, repeatedly we discover concerning aspects of production systems. Poor results include:
． Presenting with COVID and ASTHMA at an emergency
department and receiving an evaluation of no-big-deal.
． Facial recognition systems that cannot ‘see’ certain individuals.
． Sentencing algorithms with obvious discriminatory biases in
production throughout the judicial system.
． Self-driving car systems that cannot tell the difference between
a semi-truck and horse-drawn carriage
Obviously, no hope exists for stamping these out individually. Instead, development practices must be revamped and roles re-conceptualized. This includes a healthy dose of data literacy and addressing the challenges remaining to fully realize potentials in this area.
． As much attention must be devoted to reverse
engineering as forward engineering
． Reducing the influence of various biases via checklist-based
gateway development of ethical data architectures
． Adopting value or economically focused strategies for
data munging into project planning
Successfully incorporating AI into society must extend far beyond attempting to
identify and categorize animals in your photo library while your phone is
charging. Instead a foundation for AI data must be established.

Dr Mey GoProf. Tekinerdogan is a full professor and chair of the Information Technology group at Wageningen University, The Netherlands. He has more than 25 years of experience in software and systems engineering, and is the author of more than 400 peer-reviewed scientific papers in these domains. He has been active in dozens of national and international research and consultancy projects with various large software companies, whereby he has worked as a principal researcher, consultant and leading software/system architect. He has got broad experience in software and systems engineering in different domains such as consumer electronics, enterprise systems, automotive systems, critical infrastructures, cyber-physical systems, precision farming, etc. He has taken a holistic, systemic, and interdisciplinary approach to solving real industrial problems. With this, he has ample experience in software and systems architecting, software and systems product line engineering, cyber-physical systems, model-driven software engineering, aspect-oriented software engineering, global software development, systems engineering, system of systems engineering, data science, and artificial intelligence. He has developed and taught around 20 different academic courses and has provided many software/systems engineering courses to more than 50 companies in The Netherlands, Germany, India, and Turkey.

Name of panelist:Dr. Sarah Matthews

An Epidemiological Perspective on Outcome Measurements, Assessments and Evaluation

This segment of the workshop will introduce epidemiology principles in determining outcome measurements and applying them to assessments and evaluations. Health Communications Consultants Inc.’s developed an Evaluation Plan Template based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC’s) TB Program Evaluation Guide (CDC, 2013) and Developing an Effective Evaluation Plan: Setting the Course for Effective Program Evaluation (CDC, 2011). Using the template as a scaffold, Dr. Matthews will walk participants through the thought process of applying an evidence-based systems approach to evaluation. At the end of the segment, participants will: (1) Recognize how to initiate an evidence-based approach to evaluation, (2) Understand how to apply logic models to visualize and guide the methodology of the evaluation project, (3) Recognize how to determine the scope and depth of the evaluation in terms of stakeholder priorities, available resources, financial resources, staff availability and amount of time to commit to the evaluation, (4) Understand how to gather credible evidence in data collection, (5) Recognize how to analyze and interpret the data, and (6) Understand how to report and dissemination findings.

Dr. Sarah Matthews is a research scientist and consultant in public health, healthcare and modeling and simulation. With a B.S. in Chemistry, a Master of Public Health, a Master of Modeling and Simulation, and a PhD in Modeling and Simulation, Sarah’s career spans the gambit of research scientist in private industry to public servant as an applied epidemiologist in governmental public health. Among her accolades, Sarah has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals and has been the recipient of several prestigious awards. Her research is in technology acceptance in AI research and development within the public health domain. Sarah Matthews established her consulting business, Health Communications Consultants, Inc. in 2009 in central Florida and has expanded it to serve global clientele with a focus on delivering customer-centered service with brilliant interdisciplinary talent. The company’s mission is to collaborate across disciplines to find innovative solutions to complex problems, share our knowledge to improve lives and influence change and advocate for equity.