Exploring the Possibilities of Data Analytics with Sambasiva Rao Gangineni (MET’19)
Sambasiva Rao Gangineni (MET’19)Graduate Research Assistant, MET’s Health Informatics Lab
MS, Computer Information Systems, concentration in Data Analytics
This interview was originally published in 2019. Sambasiva now holds the position of Senior Software Engineer at Availity Clinical Solutions.
What is your background, what program are you enrolled in and why did you choose to enroll in this program?
I graduated in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, and currently I am enrolled in the Master of Science in Computer Information Systems with a concentration in Data Analytics.
Data analysis erases the boundaries between various disciplines. My case is a good example of this: Even though I hold a degree in civil engineering, I am currently able to work as a graduate research assistant under Professor Guanglan Zhang in MET’s Health Informatics Lab. This is all possible because of data analysis. If you can learn how to analyze data, you can analyze the data of any area, be it finance, health care, geo-spatial, traffic—the list goes on. This is one of the main reasons for enrolling in this program.
What are some of the biggest challenges that health care professionals face in terms of technology?
Health care data growth is exponential, and its collection, processing, storage, security, and analysis are some of the challenges that are involved. Health care professionals have less exposure to these stages of data management and analysis, and not knowing how the infrastructure works in these stages hinders them from adding value to health care by using the data they have. Also, health care professionals have less exposure to programming, which is an important tool to manage the data.
What are the three most important skills that professionals and students will emerge with after participating in one of these programs?
Three important skills students can learn from this program are programming, which is a way to communicate with the machines; analytical thinking, which yields valuable insights from the data; and data management, which is important in efficiently storing, processing, and retrieving the data.
What do you think the future of health informatics/health information management looks like?
Health informatics will reach a stage in the future when each and every individual will be able to track the status of their health from a mobile app or a website. This is possible by personalizing the health data of an individual and running automated analysis on the data with the help of machine learning and artificial intelligence. The individual—as well as health care professionals—will be alerted about an imminent precarious situation, and care will come on time.
Published February 2025