Teaching

2022 – Developing Digital Health Innovations for Impact: EXMD 630

This course aims to offer an introduction to innovative thinking and the development of innovative digital health solutions. It integrates mind mapping strategies, design thinking, and usability evaluation that form the core of developing and refining an innovative health solution designed to solve a well defined clinical/public health problem.
The course showcases product and process innovations from across the spectrum of health care (i.e., from preventative to curative). Product innovations include smart diagnostic devices, wearables or bots. Process innovations include applications (apps), web platform or portal-based services, or machine learning-based solutions (algorithms, bots, gamification strategies, chatbots) or digital diagnostic or screening strategies. The health outcomes targeted by the innovations could vary from an improved clinical care service, to efficient supply chain, optimized screening or rapid disease detection strategies, or an improved patient care experience.

The development of the above course included revamping the syllabus, introducing new elements of core epidemiologic methods interspersed with innovative interactive sessions on study critique, debates, and e-learning sessions such as Skype sessions. Use of a state of the art classroom with tablet pc, several laptop monitors facilitated interactive PowerPoint presentations. Intermittent quiz sessions were also conducted followed by showcasing clinician scientists in the Department of Medicine on the penultimate day. Students learnt to develop their own research proposals.
For ten years, I have successfully taught this course to 450 doctors at McGill University

This seminar on global health diagnostics focuses on cross-cutting issues affecting the Infectious Diseases Diagnostics space, including sexually transmitted and blood borne infections (STBBIs), acute febrile illnesses, selected neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), in addition to HIV, TB, Malaria and COVID-19. Participants learn from an array of stakeholders including product manufacturers, donors, product development partnerships, policy makers, academics, clinicians, researchers, community advocates, program managers, public health implementers and health leaders from high-burden countries.
Presented to over 120 participants from more than 30 countries worldwide that participated in the course (2021).

The healthcare industry is at the threshold of a massive disruption that is increasingly catalyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The scope of change and transformation brought about by innovations is unprecedented. Wearables and Internet of Things (IoT) enabled platforms have improved remote patient monitoring and monitoring for wellness. Smart Applications (Apps) have demonstrated evidence of improved linkages and retention of patients in care, expanded access to unreached populations, improved documentation of health-related metrics and overall engagement in health care. Machine learning has improved prediction. 3D modeling and 3D printing have generated a blueprint for changes in drugs, devices, prosthetics, and hearing aids. High-value care (convenient, targeted, personalized, efficient, and cost-saving) is available for the billions with access to the internet. Convergence of sorts of many exciting innovative developments in parallel is being accelerated by the prolongation of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This course introduces the up-to-date key concepts and methodologies that are currently being implemented in the efforts to halt and end the HIV epidemic. Students learn about the HIV care cascade that forms the basis of the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) 90-90-90 targets to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. Topics revolve around understanding and responding to HIV epidemics using biobehavioural surveillance, HIV phylogenetics, targeted population research, HIV eradication, and HIV testing, treatment, and prevention interventions.