About Me
I am a professor at the Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, Canada. I am also the Director of the health informatics graduate program.
I lead the NICHE (kNowledge Intensive Computing for Healthcare Enterprises) research group. My research interest span across three areas: (1) Health Informatics, (2) Knowledge Management, and (3) Health Data Analytics.
My research projects have been funded by both government agencies, organizations and industry, such as CANARIE, National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Canadian Foundation of Innovation (CFI), Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR), Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation (NSHRF), Green Shield Foundation Canada and Agfa Healthcare Canada.I teach specialized topics in health informatics such as healthcare knowledge management and healthcare data mining.
Publications
2005
A Knowledge Creation Info-structure to Acquire and Crystallize the Tacit Knowledge of Health-care Experts Journal Article
In: IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine, 9 (2), pp. 193–204, 2005.
An Intelligent Knowledge Sharing Strategy Featuring Item-Based Collaborative Filtering and Case Based Reasoning Inproceedings
In: Fifth International Conference on Intelligent Systems Design and Applications (ISDA 2005), 8-10 September 2005, Wroclaw, Poland, pp. 67–72, 2005.
An Item-Based Collaborative Filtering Framework Featuring Case Based Reasoning Inproceedings
In: Proceedings of the 2005 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, ICAI 2005, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, June 27-30, 2005, Volume 1, pp. 286–292, 2005.
Augmenting GEM-Encoded Clinical Practice Guidelines with Relevant Best Evidence Autonomously Retrieved from MEDLINE Journal Article
In: Health Informatics Journal, 11 (2), pp. 95–110, 2005.
Automated Optic Nerve Analysis for Diagnostic Support in Glaucoma Inproceedings
In: 18th IEEE Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems (CBMS 2005), 23-24 June 2005, Dublin, Ireland, pp. 97–102, 2005.
BiRD: A Strategy to Autonomously Supplement Clinical Practice Guidelines with Related Clinical Studies Inproceedings
In: 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-38 2005), CD-ROM / Abstracts Proceedings, 3-6 January 2005, Big Island, HI, USA, 2005.
From Clusters to Rules: A Hybrid Framework for Generalized Symbolic Rule Induction Inproceedings
In: Advances in Machine Learning and Cybernetics, 4th International Conference, ICMLC 2005, Guangzhou, China, August 18-21, 2005, Revised Selected Papers, pp. 219–228, 2005.
Medical Knowledge Morphing: Towards Case-Specific Integration of Heterogeneous Medical Knowledge Resources Inproceedings
In: 18th IEEE Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems (CBMS 2005), 23-24 June 2005, Dublin, Ireland, pp. 208–213, 2005.
Towards a Collaborative Learning Environment for Children's Pain Management: Leveraging an Online Discussion Forum Journal Article
In: Health Informatics Journal, 11 (1), pp. 19–31, 2005.
A knowledge management framework to morph clinical cases with clinical practice guidelines. Inproceedings
In: Stud Health Technol Inform, pp. 731-6, Institute of Business Administration, Karachi Pakistan. Netherlands, 2005, ISSN: 0926-9630.
2004
Constraint Satisfaction Methods for Information Personalization Inproceedings
In: Advances in Artificial Intelligence, 17th Conference of the Canadian Society for Computational Studies of Intelligence, Canadian AI 2004, London, Ontario, Canada, May 17-19, 2004, Proceedings, pp. 261–276, 2004.
Toward Glaucoma Classification with Moment Methods Inproceedings
In: 1st Canadian Conference on Computer and Robot Vision (CRV 2004) 17-19 May 2004, London, Ontario, Canada, pp. 265–272, 2004.
2003
Adaptive Hypermedia Systems Featuring Information Customization Using Constraint Satisfaction Methods Inproceedings
In: IADIS International Conference WWW/Internet 2003, Algarve, Portugal, November 5-8, 2003, pp. 333–340, 2003.
E-healthcare via Customized Information Services: Addressing the Need for Factually Consistent Information Inproceedings
In: Service-Oriented Computing - ICSOC 2003, First International Conference, Trento, Italy, December 15-18, 2003, Proceedings, pp. 132–148, 2003.
Intelligent Agent Modeling and Generic Architecture Towards a Multi-Agent Healthcare Knowledge Management System Inproceedings
In: Proceedings of the IADIS International Conference WWW/Internet 2003, ICWI 2003, Algarve, Portugal, November 5-8, 2003, pp. 941–944, 2003.
Intelligent Agents-mediated Approach for Experimental Knowledge of Healthcare Enterprise through CBR-adaptation Technique Inproceedings
In: CITA, pp. 56–60, 2003.
2002
A Case Base Reasoning Framework to Author Personalized Health Maintenance Information Inproceedings
In: 15th IEEE Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems (CBMS 2002), 4-7 June 2002, Maribor, Slovenia, pp. 219–224, 2002.
An Intelligent Agent-based Knowledge Broker for Enterprise-wide Healthcare Knowledge Procurement Inproceedings
In: 15th IEEE Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems (CBMS 2002), 4-7 June 2002, Maribor, Slovenia, pp. 173–178, 2002.
In: Advances in Artificial Intelligence - IBERAMIA 2002, 8th Ibero-American Conference on AI, Seville, Spain, November 12-15, 2002, Proceedings, pp. 60–69, 2002.
Distributed Data Mining From Heterogeneous Healthcare Data Repositories: Towards an Intelligent Agent-Based Framework Inproceedings
In: 15th IEEE Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems (CBMS 2002), 4-7 June 2002, Maribor, Slovenia, pp. 339–342, 2002.
In: International Journal of Medical Informatics, 68 (1-3), pp. 187–203, 2002.
Symbolic Exposition of Medical Data-Sets: A Data Mining Workbench to Inductively Derive Data-Defining Symbolic Rules Inproceedings
In: 15th IEEE Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems (CBMS 2002), 4-7 June 2002, Maribor, Slovenia, pp. 123–128, 2002.
2001
In: 14th IEEE Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems (CBMS 2001), 26-27 July 2001, Bethesda, MD, USA, pp. 5–10, 2001.
A Knowledge Creation Strategy to Enrich Enterprise Information Systems with Enterprise-Specific Tacit Knowledge Inproceedings
In: ICEIS (2), pp. 633–638, 2001.
A Web-Enabled Exam Preparation and Evaluation Service: Providing Real-Time Personalized Tests for Academic Enhancement Inproceedings
In: ICALT, pp. 441–442, 2001.
An Intelligent Info-Structure for Composing and Pushing Personalised Healthcare Information over the Internet Inproceedings
In: 14th IEEE Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems (CBMS 2001), 26-27 July 2001, Bethesda, MD, USA, pp. 225–230, 2001.
Analyzing Data Clusters: A Rough Sets Approach to Extract Cluster-Defining Symbolic Rules Inproceedings
In: Advances in Intelligent Data Analysis, 4th International Conference, IDA 2001, Cascais, Portugal, September 13-15, 2001, Proceedings, pp. 248–257, 2001.
In: 14th IEEE Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems (CBMS 2001), 26-27 July 2001, Bethesda, MD, USA, pp. 264–269, 2001.
Knowledge Management in Healthcare: Towards 'Knowledge-Driven' Decision-Support Services Journal Article
In: International Journal of Medical Informatics, 63 (1-2), pp. 5–18, 2001.
2000
In: PAKM 2000, Third International Conference on Practical Aspects of Knowledge Management, Proceedings of the Third International Conference, Basel, Switzerland, October 30-31, 2000, 2000.
1999
AI Amidst the Healthcare Revolution: Towards an 'Intelligent' Tele-Healthcare Environment Inproceedings
In: International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, IC-AI '99, June 28 - July 1, 1999, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, Volume 1, pp. 172–176, 1999.
Data Mining Using Self-Organizing Kohonen Maps: A Technique for Effective Data Clustering & Visualization Inproceedings
In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, IC-AI '99, June 28 - July 1, 1999, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, Volume 1, pp. 261–264, 1999.
Re-Visiting Backpropagation Network Optimization: Towards Maximally Pruned Networks Inproceedings
In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, IC-AI '99, June 28 - July 1, 1999, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, Volume 2, pp. 565–570, 1999.
1998
Applying Knowledge Discovery to Predict Infectious Disease Epidemics Inproceedings
In: PRICAI'98, Topics in Artificial Intelligence, 5th Pacific Rim International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Singapore, November 22-27, 1998, Proceedings, pp. 170–181, 1998.
1997
Conglomerate'Neural Network Architectures: The Way Ahead for Simulating Early Language Development Journal Article
In: J. Inf. Sci. Eng., 13 (2), pp. 235–266, 1997.
Internet Information Brokering: A Re-Configurable Database Navigation, Data Filter and Export System Journal Article
In: Informatica (Slovenia), 21 (2), 1997.
0000
Assessing Knee Biomechanical Osteoarthritis Severity and Biomechanical Changes after Total Knee Arthroplasty using Self-Organizing Networks (under review) Journal Article
In: Journal of Biomechanics, 0000.
Nurses and Midwives’ Retention of Maternal and Child Health Knowledge and Skills through an eLearning Programme in Afghanistan and Tajikistan (under review) Journal Article
In: Nurse Education Today, 0000.
Demographic and Gait Phenotypes among Total Knee Arthroplasty Candidates by Machine Learning Cluster Analysis Impacts Gait Improvement after Surgery (under review) Journal Article
In: Journal of Orthopedic Research , 0000.
Predicting Kidney Graft Survival using Machine Learning Methods: Prediction Model Development and Feature Significance Analysis Study (under review) Journal Article
In: Journal of Medical Internet Research, 0000.
Decision Support for Comorbid Conditions via Execution-Time Integration of Clinical Guidelines Using Transaction-based Semantics and Temporal Planning (under review) Journal Article
In: Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, 0000.
Supervision
Current Post Doctoral Fellows
- William Van Woensel. Investigations in mobile Reasoning Frameworks.
- Patrice Roy. Semantic Web based Event Processing for Smart Environments.
Past Post Doctoral Fellows
- Borna Jafarpour. Semantic Web for Clinical Decision Support, Feb. 2014 – Dec. 2014.
- Sangwhan Cha. Big Data Analytics Framework for Health, Jan. 2014 – Nov. 2014.
- Newras Al-Haider. Semantic Integration of Heterogeneous Data, April 2013 – Dec. 2014.
- Greg Lee. Computerizing Behaviour Modelling to Develop Personalized Interventions, June 2013 – Feb. 2014. (Co-Supervision)
- Ashraf Abusharekh. Big Data Management for an E-Science Framework, July 2009 – Dec. 2013.
- Jocelyne Fadoul. Investigations in Clinical Pathways, Sept. 2011 – Aug. 2012
- Andrew McIntyre. Machine Learning Methods for Analyzing Optic Disc Data for Glaucoma Detection, Jan. 2008 – Dec. 2008.
Current PhD (Computer Science and IDPhD)
- Hossein Hassanzadeh. TBD.
- Calvino Cheng. Process Mining to Abstract Clinical Pathways from Laboratory Information Data (IDPhD).
- Ghdeer Tashkandi. Personalized Patient Education Programs Driven by Computerized Health Models (IDPhD).
- Krista Elvidge. A Lifelong Patient Educational Intervention Program: Investigating the Role of Behavioural Models (IDPhD).
- Muzammil Bashir Ahmed. A Semantic Web Framework for Personalized Patient Care Planning in Hospital Settings (IDPhD).
Completed Ph.D. Thesis
- Borna Jafarpour. Ontology Merging Using Semantically-Defined Merge Criteria And Owl Reasoning Services: Towards Execution-Time Merging Of Multiple Clinical Workflows, Dec. 2013.
- Samuel Stewart. Combining Social Network And Semantic Content Analysis To Improve Knowledge Translation In Online Communities Of Practice (IDPhD), Dec. 2013.
- Joyline Makani. Knowledge Management in Knowledge Intensive Organizations: An Investigation of Factors Influencing Choices of Knowledge Management Systems (IDPhD), May 2012 (Co-Supervisor).
- Syed Sajjad Hussain. K-MORPH: Knowledge Morphing via Reconciliation of Contextualized Sub-ontologies, March 2011.
- Cheah Yu-N. A Knowledge Management Info-structure for Knowledge Creation: A Scenario-based Strategy for the Explication and Crystallisation of Tacit Knowledge, Universiti Sains Malaysia, May 2002.
Current Masters Theses (Computer Science & Health Informatics)
- Arun Salunke. Topic in Health Data Mining.
- Ahmad Marwan Ahmad. Topic in Knowledge Translation.
- Wasif Baig. Modeling Behaviour Modification Strategies to Derive Patient Educational Interventions, (Co-Supervisor).
Completed Masters Thesis
- Swapnil Mahajan. A Generic Framework for Providing Psychosocial Support to Patients through an Online Virtual World, Jan. 2015 (Co-Supervisor).
- Hani Mufti. Predictors of Post-operative Neurocognitive Complications in Patients Undergoing Cardiac Operation: A Predictive Analytics Approach, August 2014.
- Ehsan Maghsoudlou. Integrating Protocol-Driven Decision Support Within E-Referral System: Supporting Primary Care Practitioners For Spinal Care Consultation And Triaging, April 2014.
- Nelofar Kureshi. Personalized Medicine: Development of a Predictive Computational Model for Personalized Therapeutic Interventions, August 2013 (Co-Supervisor).
- Ali Haider Zaidi. An OWL Ontology for Modeling HL-7 Compliant Electronic Patient Records for Chronic Disease Management, Dec. 2012.
- Shirin Sharif. Characterization of a Longitudinal Care Plan Model For Managing Chronic Diseases: A Care Plan Ontology to Computerize Paper-Based Care Plans, April 2012.
- Nima Hashemian. Modelling Clinical Pathways as Business Process Models Using Business Process Modelling Notation, March 2012.
- Mostafa Omaish. Ontology-based Knowledge Model for an ACS Management Clinical Guideline: Handling Updates and Institutional Priorities, Dec. 2011.
- Syed Farrukh Mehdi. Exploiting Semantics and Syntax for service Specification and Signature Matching: The S5 Web Service Matchmaker, Dec. 2011.
- Ashraf Mohammed Iqbal. An Ontology-Based Electronic Medical Record for Chronic Disease Management, Feb. 2011 (Co-Supervisor).
- Ryan Druggan. Clinical Knowledge Modelling to Develop E-Clinics for Neuropituary Care, April 2010.
- Brett Taylor. Re-Imaging Surveillance in the Context of Emergency Care, August 2009.
- Muzammil Bashir Ahmad. Ontology Modelling for Nursing Care Plans and Clinical Practice Guidelines, April 2009.
- Shapoor Sheghani. Knowledge Modeling to Develop a Clinical Practice Guideline Ontology: Towards Computerization and Merging of Clinical Practice Guidelines, Sept. 2007.
- Katrina Hurley. Practice-Oriented Knowledge Abstraction in Development of an Ontology to Model Clinical Pathways, May 2007.
- Philip O’Brien. Semantic Web Approach for Context-Aware Knowledge Sharing, March 2007.
- Selana Davis. Personalization of Cardiovascular Risk Management Using Linkages of SCORE and Behaviour Change Readiness to Web-based Education, August 2006.
- Aliko Mwakatobe. Information Personalization on the Semantic Web Using Reasoning, August 2006.
- Yan Zeng. Pursuing Information Personalization as a Constraint Satisfaction Problem, Dec. 2005.
- Zeina Chedrawy. PRECISE: A Hybrid of Item-Based Collaborative Filtering and Case Based Reasoning for Contextual Information Personalization. July 2005.
- Sanjun Yan. Using Unsupervised Learning Methods to Sub-classify Optic Disk Damage Images, April 2005.
- Xuan Hu. Evaluating Discretization Techniques to Discretize Visual Field Data, April 2005.
- Qingshuang Jiang. Discovering Generalized Symbolic Rule from Un-annotated Data: A Hybrid of Rough Sets and Attribute Oriented Induction, April 2005.
- Jin Yu. A Hybrid Feature Selection Method Classifying Optic Nerve Images, April 2005.
- Brent Jones. Leveraging Clinical Practice Guidelines to Develop Objective User Models for Customizing Healthcare Information to Manage High Cholesterol, Sept. 2004.
- Zahid Hasan Zaidi. A Multi-Agent Info-Structure to Provide End-User Data Mining: From Automatic Query Generation to Algorithm Selection to Result Visualization. Universiti Sains Malaysia, August 2004.
- Zafar Iqbal Hashmi. An Intelligent Agent Framework for Context-Sensitive Knowledge Retrieval from an Enterprise Memory. Universiti Sains Malaysia, August 2004.
- Chong Yong Han. Adaptive Hypermedia and Constraint Satisfaction Programming: Towards Automated Generation of Personalized and Factually Consistent Healthcare Information. Universiti Sains Malaysia, Oct. 2003.
- Selvakumar Manickam. Automated Transformation of Generic Electronic-Medical-Records To Specialised Cases: Towards an Internet-Mediated, Multi-Tier Case-Base-Reasoning Info-Structure. Universiti Sains Malaysia, December 2002.
- Hoe Kok Meng. Knowledge Discovery from Unannotated Datasets: A Symbolic Rule Extraction Framework Featuring Neural Network Analysis and Rough Set Decision Synthesis. Universiti Sains Malaysia, July 2002.
- Wai Han Soo. A CBR Framework for Personalizing Healthcare Information. Universiti Sains Malaysia, August 2002.
- Jason Ong Hing Soon. Exploratory Data Mining Using Self-Organising Maps: An Info-Structure for Data Clustering. Universiti Sains Malaysia, 2000.
Current Masters Projects
- Perez Whitfield. Development of a Web-based Provincial NOAC Authorization System.
Completed Masters Projects
- Hari Gudigundla. Semantic Web Query Engine For Ocean Data, June 2014.
- Jagjit Sandhu. Ocean data browser: An Online Tool to Cluster and Analyze Multidimensional Ocean Data, Dec. 2011.
- Xin Sheng. Developing Social Networks from On-Line Discussions Between Emergency Care Health Professionals, Dec. 2004.
- Winston Ying. A Generic Framework to Incorporate Clinical Practice Guidelines for Information Personalization, Oct. 2004.
- Muqueem Lodhi. A Web Services Framework for Document Retrieval, Oct. 2004
- Fuhai Li. A Distributed Clinical Information System for Managing Breast Cancer Surgery, July 2004.
- Zhenming Hu. A Case-Based Reasoning Framework for Information Personalization, March 2004.
- Zhilun Gao. Applying Data Mining and Statistical Techniques to Create a Frailty Index from Geriatrics Data, Dec. 2003.
- Zarmina Nadeem. Using Decision Trees to Develop Predictive Models for Improved Product Sales Campaigns, Sept. 2003.
- Teh Kia Hock. Data-Mining for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in an E-Commerce Environment, Universiti Sains Malaysia, May 2001.
- Lecthumanwan Balasubramaniam. A Generic Web-Mining Framework for Analysing Web Usage Patterns at Web-Portals, Universiti Sains Malaysia, May 2001.
- Chuah JuJu. Prediction and Sensitivity Analysis of General Data Using Neural Networks, Universiti Sains Malaysia, February 2000.
- Teh Woan Yong. Trend Analysis and Forecasting of Computer Network Traffic Using Neural Networks, Universiti Sains Malaysia, May 2000.
- Thiang Bee Nee. Using Neural Networks for DNA Sequence Analysis: Splice Site Prediction, Universiti Sains Malaysia, May 2000.
- Ng Sim Yam. Anatomy Advisor on the World Wide Web, Universiti Sains Malaysia, September 1999.
- Lee Gim Hoo. A System for Electronic Health Survey over the World Wide Web, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Sept. 1999.
Brief Bio
Academic Qualifications
- Ph.D. University of Surrey, Guildford, UK: 1994
Specialization: Computer Sciences (Neural Networks & AI) - M.S. University of Miami, Miami, USA: 1989
Specialization: Computer Engineering - B.Engg. N.E.D. University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi, Pakistan: 1986
Specialization: Electronic Engineering
Academic Honours
- Best paper award at 16th International Symposium on Health Information Management Research (iSHIMR), Halifax, June 2013.
- Best paper award at 2nd Advances in Health Informatics Conference, Toronto, April 2012.
- Research Excellence Award, Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, 2011.
- Best paper award at 11th International Symposium on Health Information Management Research (iSHIMR), Halifax, July 2006
- Best paper award at 39th IEEE Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (IT in healthcare track), Hawaii, January 2006.
- Best paper award at 38th IEEE Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (IT in healthcare track), Hawaii, January 2005.
- Best paper award at 16th International Congress of the European Federation for Medical Informatics (MIE’2000), Hannover, 2000.
- VHK International Award for Innovation in Medical Informatics, Hannover, August 2000. The award was adjudged based on my R&D work presented at the International Congress of Medical Informatics in Europe (MIE’2000) in Hannover, Germany.
Employment Record
- Professor (July 2007 – To date), Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
- Professor (April 2013 – To date) [Cross-Appointment], Department of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.
- Director of Health Informatics (July 2005 – To date), Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.
- Adjunct Professor (March 2008 – 2012), Multimedia University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
- Associate Professor (Jan 2002 – June 2007), Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.
- Associate Professor (May 1999 – Dec 2001), School of Computer Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia.
- Lecturer (Oct. 1995 – April 1999), School of Computer Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia.
- Research Officer (March 1993 – Dec 1994), AI Group, Dept. of Computing Sciences, Univ. of Surrey, Guildford, England.