55. Alana Esty - Biomedical Engineer; Healthcare Data Analytics

Ordinarily Extraordinary - Conversations with women in STEM

Alana Esty has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Biomedical Engineering. She uses data analytics in the healthcare industry to improve patient care. She is also the host of the podcast “Health Analytic Insights Podcast”.
Episode Notes

Music used in the podcast: Higher Up, Silverman Sound Studio

Acronyms, Definitions, and Fact Check

Alana shares her story of entering the Bioengineering field and some of the challenges she’s faced and how she has navigated them to find a career in data analytics in the healthcare industry that she is passionate about. Alana shares her advice and insights into the healthcare data analytics and how that shapes healthcare for us all. Her particular interest is in women’s healthcare, an area that has traditionally had less funding and research.

Health Informatics – or biomedical informatics is the field of science and engineering that apply informatics fields to medicine. The health domain provides an extremely wide variety of problems that can be tackled using computational techniques. (Wikipedia)

The Health Analytics Insights Podcast – his podcast is ALL about creating a community of like-minded individuals who are passionate about the field of health informatics. I hope to share information and advice in topics such as health analytics, digital health, biomedical engineering and data visualization in healthcare. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/health-analytic-insights-podcast/id1532794445

Biomedical Engineering – is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare purposes. (wikipedia)

“Human: The World Within” – Docuseries on Netflix – Looking at cutting-edge science, this documentary series narrated by Jad Abumrad looks into various aspects of the human body with a diverse range of stories from around the world. Jad Abumrad is a well-known radio host and producer who works alongside Latif Nasser on RadioLab. (whats-on-netflix.com)

Sickle Cell Disease – A group of disorders that cause red blood cells to become misshapen and break down. With sickle cell disease, an inherited group of disorders, red blood cells contort into a sickle shape. The cells die early, leaving a shortage of healthy red blood cells (sickle cell anemia), and can block blood flow causing pain (sickle cell crisis). Infections, pain, and fatigue are symptoms of sickle cell disease. (https://www.scdsilentdamage.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=%7Bcampaign%7D;11261661355;&utm_content=492548503331;109703297999&utm_term=sickle%20cell%20disease&gclid=Cj0KCQjwraqHBhDsARIsAKuGZeESfomf4q2zdaoXXfbgcMHBl30tIR7p0IMozeX03bqYe5g4WkOOECcaAgIlEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds)

Signal processing – An electrical engineering subfield that focuses on analysing, modifying, and synthesizing signals such as sound, images, and scientific measurements. (wikipedia)

A cardiac pacemaker (or artificial pacemaker, so as not to be confused with the natural pacemaker of the heart), is a medical device that generates electrical impulses delivered by electrodes to cause the heart muscle chambers (the upper, or atriaand/or the lower, or <