Park Lab: Program for Hospital and Intensive Care Informatics

Daniel Nametz earned his Bachelors of Science in Computer Science in 2021 from Fordham University. As a Research Assistant in Park Lab, he focused on recruitment for studies, data collection and analysis. He now manages two NIH funded grants, including a multicenter effort utilizing a Federated Learning framework. 

Giselle Grassi (She/Her) earned her Bachelors in Neuroscience from Princeton University in 2024 where she first became passionate about conducting research on the applications of Artificial Intelligence in clinical neuroscience. Giselle is motivated to explore the growing roles of brain computer interfaces in disease pathology as well as AI alignment and ethics in the healthcare industry. Her position as a research assistant in The Park Lab allows her to develop her computational understanding of neuroscience and machine learning techniques as well as provides an engaging hands-on clinical environment. Giselle is looking to continue her studies and envisions pursuing an MD/PhD in her future.

Jiayu Yao obtained her PhD in Computer Science at Harvard University. She previously worked as a joint postdoc at Gladstone Institutes and Stanford University and is currently a Columbia University Data Science Institute postdoc advised by Soojin Park and Shalmali Joshi. Her research focuses on identifying and tackling challenges along the machine learning for healthcare pipeline, with the goal of bridging the gap between machine learning methodology and clinical applications. Specifically, her current research includes developing pipelines for data processing and exploration, developing models that are robust under real-life limitations (e.g. data heterogeneity, data scarcity and domain knowledge constraints), as well as developing quantitative and qualitative assessments of models for specific downstream desiderata (e.g. statistical power, human-interpretability). 

Vivian Li is a first-year Biomedical Informatics PhD student rotating in Park Lab. She graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2023 majoring in computer science and math. She is interested in the application of machine learning for healthcare settings and is currently exploring methods for real-time monitoring of intracranial pressure.

Zoe Zhou earned her Master of Science in Business Analytics from Columbia University. As a data analyst in Dr. Park's lab, she manages a multicenter federated learning project, develops and maintains data pipelines, workflows, technical documentation, and provides technical support. She supports data acquisition, storage, and analysis of critical care data types. Looking ahead, Zoe commits to further supporting the development of cross-site disease prediction models.

Dr. Ranard is an intensivist specializing in the care of patients in the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) and a physician-scientist. He earned both his medical degree and a Master of Science in Health Policy Research from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. He then completed his internal medicine residency at Duke University, where he participated in the Learning Health System Training Program and chaired the Graduate Medical Education Patient Safety and Quality Council. In 2022, Dr. Ranard completed his Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine fellowship at Columbia University where he also served as Chief Fellow and a Patient Safety Research Fellow. During his fellowship he joined Dr. Park’s Program for Hospital and Intensive Care Informatics (PHICI), where he contributed to phenotyping and modeling patients with COVID-19. He is now working with PHICI to apply machine learning to other patient care issues such as predicting patient deterioration. His interests include informatics, learning health systems, and machine learning, and he is committed to creating, implementing, and evaluating clinical decision support systems to improve patient care. His current work focuses on developing machine learning-based predictive models and exploring their potential applications in patient care. 

Dr. McLaren is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (in Emergency Medicine) at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. She is a graduate of the Weill Cornell Medical College and earned a Master of Science degree from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. She completed her residency in pediatrics at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital / Weill Cornell Medicine and fellowship training in pediatric emergency medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital / Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Dr. McLaren’s primary research focuses on respiratory viral infections and the use of novel diagnostic tests to improve clinical outcomes in young infants and vulnerable children. She is also interested in the use of bedside physiologic monitors to improve clinical decision making in the emergency department.