Moderator:
Syed Ahmad Chan Bukhari, Collins College of Professional Studies, Computer Science, Mathematics and Science
Speaker:
Dr. Naveed Afzal, Lead Data Scientist at Humana

Talk Summary: Data comes in myriad formats, is noisy and rarely labeled. Huge amounts of knowledge are stored in an unstructured textual format. Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a subfield of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that can analyze complex unstructured data. NLP is accelerating innovation in all industries, and healthcare presents one of the biggest opportunities for new solutions. However, the healthcare domain also poses unique challenges. Use cases may require mixing data-driven approaches with those that leverage expert domain knowledge. Few situations directly apply familiar machine learning methods but instead require inventive discriminant analysis and/or ensemble methods. There is also a high bar for evaluating, integrating, and operationalizing AI solutions in clinical settings.  

This talk will begin with a brief overview of the US healthcare landscape, the difference between structured and unstructured data, NLP and various stages of NLP, challenges in healthcare, and how NLP is being leveraged to address multiple use-cases in the healthcare industry. 

Speaker Bio: Dr. Afzal is currently a Lead Data Scientist at Humana – Health, Wellness & Fitness public company in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Natural Language Processing from the University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom and a Master's degree in Advanced Software Engineering from the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom. He is the author of a book along with over 40 academic publications, and have a multiple years of experience in academia (Assistant Professor in King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia), research (Research Fellow in Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN) as well as in the healthcare industry in the field of Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Data Analytics. 

Dr. Afzal has worked extensively on unstructured datasets using various NLP, machine learning, and deep learning approaches to build supervised and unsupervised models that have produced meaningful insights to facilitate the decision-making process for various business use-cases. 

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DSAtQI0AAAAJ&hl=en 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naveed-afzal-phd/ 

Please join us on WebEx: https://sju.webex.com/sju/j.php?MTID=m4e82a7ca7bc053300c2b257a52e8f483

Date: Monday, 7 February 2:00 - 3:00 PM (EST) 

Monday, Feb 7, 2022 2:00 pm | 1 hour | (UTC-04:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Meeting number: 2435 225 3936
Password: TpN6pPCen45
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