Toronto children’s hospital names first chair of AI, biomedical informatics

The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto has named Anna Goldenberg, PhD, as its first chair of biomedical informatics and artificial intelligence, the University of Toronto recently announced.

“I feel like right now as a computer scientist, as a researcher in machine learning and AI, I can actually make a big difference in healthcare,” Goldenberg said in a report by The Globe and Mail. “It will take time, but I think we are getting closer and closer to seeing it happen.”

Goldenberg currently serves as an associate professor of computer science at the University of Toronto and a senior scientist at the hospital. Her research at both facilities focuses on using machine learning to map human disease heterogeneity and using patient data and AI to predict cardiac arrest before the heart stops beating. The new role allows Goldenberg and colleagues to expand their AI research.

Her new position with the children’s hospital will be funded in part by a $1.75 million donation from Toronto engineer and entrepreneur Amar Varma, according to the report. The hospital’s fundraising foundation will also match Varma’s, brining the total funding to $3.5 million.

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Danielle covers Clinical Innovation & Technology as a senior news writer for TriMed Media. Previously, she worked as a news reporter in northeast Missouri and earned a journalism degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She's also a huge fan of the Chicago Cubs, Bears and Bulls. 

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