Hosted by MQ and DATAMIND, the October Data Science Meeting and Workshop was an opportunity for researchers at various stages of their careers to meet, talk and network.
An attendee, Sarah Cook, a researcher at Imperial College London within the Faculty of Public Health’s Respiratory Electronic Medical Records Group, kindly shares her experience of attending the event.
Thanks for sharing your experience Sara. Did you enjoy the event?
It was a fantastic day with a wide range of topics.
Tell us about yourself and your current research.
As a researcher myself, I am currently funded by a mental health grant from all three NIHR research schools. This is part of the NIHR Mental Health Research Program to improve mental health and wellbeing in underserved communities through collaborative research. My current research project addresses health inequalities in people with alcohol use disorder and type 2 diabetes using electronic health record data in the UK.
How did you find out about the event?
A co-worker who oversees our team’s Twitter account (X) was the first to inform me of the event and passed the information on to me as something of possible interest.
Why were you attracted to it?
When I looked at the event information I thought it sounded like something really relevant to my research and would be a good way to connect with other people with similar research interests. I also suggested my PhD student sign up and we went together that day.
What happened that same day?
There were people presenting on topics very close to my own area in electronic medical records and it was great to connect with people during the event. I’ve already been in contact via email with a couple of people I met that day.
What were the highlights of the day for you?
It was also a great opportunity to hear about other areas of data research, including the use of social media and app data and the ethics of using games for research with children. I learned a lot about these areas of research, which will likely become increasingly important for future research.
What did you learn about MQ as a result of the event?
Before the event, I knew MQ as a funder of mental health research, but this was the first time I had attended one of their events.
Will you be attending the next MQ and DATAMIND event?
It was a very positive experience and I would definitely attend another event like this in the future.
Find out more about upcoming events we’ll be hosting by joining our network of researchers.
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