• Chief Analytics Officer
Operations Director, Krembil Centre for Neuroinformatics
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) • Infrastructure Co-Lead, T-CAIREM
We are delighted to welcome David Rotenberg to T-CAIREM this month. As the new Infrastructure Co-Lead, he'll help guide the future development of the Health Data Nexus. We recently caught up with him by email to learn more about his work in health analytics and why it's like being a detective.
What inspired you to pursue a career in health analytics?
The inspiration came from a deep interest in how technology can be harnessed to make significant improvements in people's lives, particularly in crucial areas like health. Health analytics stands at the confluence of data science, healthcare, and policy, offering unique opportunities to impact patient care, improve health outcomes, and make healthcare systems more efficient. The potential to use data to save lives, whether through early diagnosis, personalized medicine, or predicting outbreaks, is incredibly motivating.
How would you explain your job to a smart 12-year-old?
Imagine you're playing a detective game, but instead of solving mysteries, you're trying to find out how to keep people healthy or make them feel better when they're sick. You use a supercomputer to look for clues in huge piles of health information—like what medicines work best, how diseases spread, or what habits keep us healthy. My job is to make sure this supercomputer is smart enough to find these clues quickly and accurately so doctors and nurses can use this information to help everyone stay healthy.
What sparked your initial interest in AI?
It was the realization that AI has the potential to be a super-tool in understanding the complex patterns of the world around us, including human behavior, biology, and diseases. The idea that a machine could learn from vast amounts of data and start making predictions or assist in solving problems that are too complex for humans to tackle alone was both fascinating and promising. The blend of creativity, science, and technology in AI was irresistible.
What excites you most about the future of AI in healthcare?
The most exciting aspect is the potential for AI to democratize healthcare, making diagnosis and treatment accessible to parts of the world that are currently underserved. Innovations like AI-powered diagnostics that can run on smartphones, wearable devices that monitor health in real-time, and personalized treatment plans based on genetic information are game-changers. The possibility of predicting diseases before they manifest and preventing them altogether offers a future where healthcare is more about maintaining wellness than treating illness.
Are there any current projects you’re working on that you’re really excited about?
We are working on a series of AI models to support clinician and physician decision-making, from patterns in medical records data. We are also integrating signals from wearable technologies that can provide a scalable means for physiological measurement. Our teams are also developing large-scale data platforms at the national level to bring together datasets to advance our understanding of mental health and service delivery.
What advice do you have for aspiring Chief Analytics Officers?
Start with a strong foundation in mathematics, statistics, and programming, but don't stop there. Learn as much as you can about different industries, especially healthcare, and understand the challenges and opportunities within. Develop your communication skills because a big part of your job will be explaining complex data insights in a way that everyone, from CEOs to patients, can understand. Be curious, never stop learning, and remember that at the end of every data point is a human being. Your work has the power to change lives.
