Mission
The mission of Medical Education in Data and Technology (MedTech) is to equip medical students at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM) with a practical and accessible education in the fundamentals of data science, coding, and engineering. After discovering the desire students have for acquiring technical skills, our team recognized the need for providing future physicians with an analytical skillset that allows them to remain at the cusp of innovative research and technology development throughout their careers. As a student organization at DGSOM, we aim to:
- Equip students with the necessary technical and analytical skills for medical research and innovation.
- Host workshops and accelerated courses to teach students how to code, design devices, and perform statistical operations.
- Connect students with opportunities and classes hosted by the UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) Biostatistics and Informatics Programs, the Institute for Quantitative and Computational Biosciences, and other related programs across the medical school and UCLA.
- Invite researchers and clinicians performing technical research to share their work and career path with medical students.
Team
Persiana Saffari
Year: MS2
Background: Electrical Engineering
MedTech was born out of the burgeoning need for medical students and trainees to learn the technical skills critical for performing breakthrough research and developing novel medical technologies. As an electrical engineer-turned-medical student during the COVID-19 pandemic, I became acutely aware of the disparities and barriers that often made a technical education inaccessible to medical trainees. The MedTech founding team became driven to bridge that disparity by offering practical and accessible courses and workshops in programming and engineering. Our team of engineers feels empowered by equipping our peers and colleagues with the tools that will allow them to become active leaders in modernizing patient care models and contributing to innovations in healthcare.
Cindy Liu
Year: MS2
Background: Computational Biology
I’m deeply interested in the intersection of biomedicine and computational sciences, especially the potential to use medical data to better understand disease processes. I hope MedTech will help future clinician-innovators by introducing the fundamentals of coding as well as adding to their computational toolkit!
Benjamin Yeh
Year: MS2
Background: Bioengineering, Computer Science
Starting medical school in the middle of a national racial reckoning and global pandemic challenged me to find ways to actively create a more equitable community and to think even more critically about data-driven scientific and medical practices (especially biases in such data and practices). As part of MedTech, I'm excited to help my peers in medical school learn the fundamentals of data science to help them better interpret real world data and empower themselves in their own diverse research endeavors.