October Meeting With UPEI's Open Access Week

Hello Open Data Book Club!

For the October MeetUp, we are delighted to partner with UPEI's Robertson Library for an evening, as part of UPEI's participation in International Open Access Week (http://www.openaccessweek.org/).

Note that this is a rare Thursday night, and hosted at Robertson Library on the UPEI campus (http://files.upei.ca/map.pdf). This is a terrific opportunity to visit the UPEI campus and interact with researchers on Open Data. Please join us!

There will be two presentations:

"The Value of Open Data in Climate Research" - Dr. Adam Fenech

Dr. Fenech will discuss his experiences with the value of open data, focusing on the application of open data to an internationally award winning research project visualizing the climate change impacts of sea level rise, coastal erosion and storm surges known as CoastaL Impacts Visualization Environment or CLIVE.

Dr. Fenech has worked in the area of climate change for almost 30 years starting with the IPCC First Assessment Report. He has edited eight books on climate change, and teaches regularly at universities across Canada and around the world. Dr. Fenech has worked for Harvard University researching the history of the science/policy interfaces of climate change. He has represented Canada at international climate negotiating sessions; written climate policy speeches for Canadian Environment Ministers; and authored Canadian reports on climate change to the United Nations. Dr. Fenech is presently the director of the Climate Lab at the University of Prince Edward Island and Associate Professor in the Environmental Studies program.

"Health Data in an Open Data World" - Mary-Ann MacSwain

In the world of open data, the acquisition and usage of health data presents significant challenges due to the extremely sensitive nature of this data, and privacy regulations. Requesting this data from the government can be a challenging and lengthy process. In order to better facilitate access to health data by researchers, the Secure Island Data Repository (SIDR) is being created at UPEI. SIDR will have various levels of security, and will house record level health data from various sources, as well as aggregate data. An example of one project conducted by UPEI's Centre for Health and Community Research which examined high cost health care users in Prince Edward Island will be presented as an example of the possible analysis that can be undertaken with this type of data and the potential it could have to affect change in our health-care system.

Mary-Ann MacSwain joined UPEI's Center for Health and Community Research in 2016 as a Data Analyst. Mary-Ann received her B.A. (Honours) in Psychology from UPEI, where she is currently completing her MSc in Epidemiology. Prior to joining the CHCR, Mary-Ann worked as a Research Officer for the Correctional Service of Canada’s Addictions Research Centre, a Health Information Specialist for Health PEI, and as a Data Analyst and Chronic Disease Epidemiologist within PEI’s Chief Public Health Office. She brings over ten years of experience working in research, and is responsible for statistical analysis, data management, research design and execution.