“Access to the instructor’s expertise has made for a very purposeful experience”  Renee Ovando, Student.

“I really love my NEXus course (Data Science)!  I have only positive things to say about the ease and convenience of a synchronous virtual classroom, exposure to a professor who is an expert in the field, and the value of writing NIH style proposals and working though the complexities of big data.  I think it’s important for very focused individuals (doctoral students) to have access to a larger course catalog for meaningful and relevant learning.  This course allowed me to think critically about real-world data collection challenges, approaches, and research design, and to practice data exploration, cleansing and analysis with a large data set that excites me because it is specific to my field of interest.  I look forward to finalizing our study proposal using real claims data from their university’s access to the State Medicaid Data Warehouse and studying the long-term effects of advanced stroke treatments.  My research team is comprised of myself, another NP and a computer science major which offers us the team-based structure of data science in research– we are currently studying the long-term outcomes for low-income individuals who suffered large vessel stroke patients in the era of endovascular therapy.  We expect these data to complement the current wave of recent, shorter-term analyses published on this subject matter and to shed insight on the utilization and resonant effects of acute therapy in this unique population.  Having access to the expertise of the NEXus course instructor and large university resources has made for a very purposeful experience that could possibly lead to publication and more importantly, new knowledge.”

Student: Renee Ovando, PhD Student, Loma Linda University 2018
Course: NGC 602 Data Science Application in Healthcare
Institution: University at Buffalo
Instructor: Sharon Hewner, PhD, RN, FAAN; Department Chair – Family, Community & Health Systems Sciences; Associate Professor

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Photo credit of Dr. Sharon Hewner: University at Buffalo | Douglas Levere