Amr Farghali is a registered pharmacist and a PhD student in the School of Health Information Science at the University of Victoria. Amr completed his master’s studies in health informatics where his research focus was about pharmacy informatics and in particular The Impact of Electronic Prescribing on Medication Errors and Productivity in Community Pharmacies”. He has also completed the NSERC-funded Visual and Automated Disease Analytics (VADA) program through a collaboration between the University of Manitoba and the University of Victoria. Amr won the “Student Research Presentation Award” for his master’s research through the VADA. He led the team that won the 2021 Data Science Challenge that developed the “COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake across Regional Health Authorities in Manitoba: A Health Equity Lens Perspective”. Amr and his team created a dynamic, interactive dashboard using Microsoft Power BI that is directly linked to the government of Manitoba geoportal to create real time updates.

Amr’s current research focus is on innovative health informatics applications that could improve workflow and enhance patients’ safety and clinical outcomes in community pharmacies or primary care settings. Amr also has a special interest in analyzing clinical data and applying various visualization techniques that would assist in the decision-making process and optimize the use of data to improve patients’ care.

Dee Dee is an MSc candidate in Health Informatics and plans to transition into being a PhD student in Health Informatics in the Fall of 2024. She has undergraduate degrees in Health Information Science and General Science, specializing in life science and chemistry. Her research interests lie in public health informatics and big data, especially public health surveillance systems. Her current MSc research applies machine learning to predict hospital admissions from climate variables. She has completed the Visual and Automated Disease Analytics (VADA) graduate training program and was given the Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Award (JCURA) during her undergraduate degree.

Dee Dee has worked as a research assistant and teaching assistant for several courses at the School of Health Information Science. She also has prior work experience as a Business Analyst at Health Authorities in Vancouver. Dee Dee has participated in a variety of different positions in student government. In her undergraduate years, She was a member of the Health Information Science Course Union at the University of Victoria. From 2021-2023, She was a Health Information Science Graduate Student Representative for the University of Victoria’s Graduate Representative Council (GRC) with UVic’s Graduate Student Society (GSS). She also contributed as a graduate student representative for multiple committees, including Bylaw and Policy, Appeals, Stipend Review, and Convocation. Currently, she is a graduate student representative in the Appointment Committee for the Dean of the Faculty of Health.

Val is a PhD student at the University of Victoria. She is also a librarian and, in the past, served as a Decision Support Analyst at Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance where her core duty was the submission of data and other reports to external partners and stakeholders, as well as some internal stakeholders. During this period, she transitioned the NRC Patient Surveys to the new format and successfully adjusted submissions.

Val’s role as a Research Scientist at the Global Laboratory for Digital Health Innovation in the School of Health Information Science will allow her to pursue her interests in health information systems implementation, health information technology quality and safety, virtual care, practitioner training in the use of health information systems, knowledge translation and knowledge mobilization, process improvement and project management. She is currently working closely with Dr. Borycki and Dr. Kushniruk on research projects.

Ryan Kletke is a Project Manager in the Global Laboratory for Digital Health Innovation at the University of Victoria. Earning his Bachelor’s degree in Health Informatics in the Fall 2019, Ryan is currently pursing a Master’s degree in Health Information Science where he is studying the use of recommender systems and their application in healthcare. He is also involved in a collaboration project between UVic and TickIt for studying the concept of digital empathy and its application. He has completed the NSERC-funded Visual and Automated Disease Analytics (VADA) program through a collaboration between the University of Manitoba and the University of Victoria. Ryan’s greatest skill is his technical ability to quickly understand and use digital tools and programs. These skills have been demonstrated in his past work experience as a Business Analyst for the pharmacy informatics team of Island Health. As a business analyst, Ryan quickly learned to operate clinical and business tools in Cerner, produce financial statistics, document business processes, and optimize information reporting.

His duties as a project manager involve creating and designing stimulus materials for focus groups, organizing and scheduling meetings, networking and presenting in conferences, and producing academic papers derived from the project. He currently is working closely with professors in the School of Health Information Science and his multi-disciplinary team to successfully design an assistive technology recommender system.

Evangeline Wagner completed the BSc co-op program in Health Information Science in August 2021, and is currently working towards earning her Master’s in health informatics. Her research is focused on the use of smart systems in the home and how they can support dementia patients and their caregivers. Her additional research interests include health information systems safety, robotics, human factors, and assistive technologies.

Evangeline has worked with the Global Laboratory for Digital Health Innovation for the last several years while completing her undergraduate degree and starting her master’s degree. During this time, she has completed the Visual and Automated Disease Analytics (VADA) Graduate Training Program as a trainee and received the Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Award (JCURA). She is also a member of the Graduate Representative Council (GRC) with UVic’s Graduate Student Society (GSS), focused on advocating for health informatics graduate students as they progress through their programs.

Passionate about improving healthcare delivery and the safety of informatics systems, Evangeline is grateful for the opportunity to apply the skills and training she has learned over the years with the School of Health Information Science at the Global Laboratory for Digital Health Innovation.

Eleonora is a third-year undergraduate student pursing a bachelor’s degree in Health Information Science as well as a Certificate in Language and Cultural Proficiency in French at the University of Victoria. She has been supporting Dr. Borycki and other Global Laboratory for Digital Health Innovation team members with research pertaining to the realm of virtual care and technology induced medical errors.  

 Eleonora’s research interests lie in virtual care, consumer health informatics, and usability/user experience. She is excited to be working with the team of talented and inspiring individuals at the Global Laboratory for Digital Health Innovation to continue supporting the vision of improving healthcare through technology and education.