{"id":477292,"date":"2021-05-06T07:01:36","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T11:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=477292"},"modified":"2024-08-27T12:40:56","modified_gmt":"2024-08-27T16:40:56","slug":"medical-center-physician-among-first-in-data-science-masters-program-477292","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/medical-center-physician-among-first-in-data-science-masters-program-477292\/","title":{"rendered":"Curiosity and a hunch lead a Medical Center physician to data science"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>With a master\u2019s degree in data science, geriatric oncologist Erika Ramsdale brings a new dimension to research at her clinic.<\/h2>\n<p>Since fall 2017, Erika Ramsdale, an associate professor in the division of hematology and oncology at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/\">Ä¢¹½´«Ã½<\/a>\u2019s Medical Center, has balanced clinical practice, research, mentorship, family life\u2014including childbirth\u2014and her studies in the master\u2019s degree program at the University\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sas.rochester.edu\/dsc\/\">Goergen Institute for Data Science<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In May, after eight semesters of one course each, she becomes one of the first part-time students to complete the 30-credit program. She will graduate during this spring\u2019s commencement ceremonies, held over two weekends, May 14 to 16 and May 20 to 23.<\/p>\n<p><!-- begin copying for copy and paste--><\/p>\n<div class=\"side-right\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/class-of-2021\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-477212\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/2021_commencement-rochester-toolkit-selfie-sign-300.jpg\" alt=\"2021 Commencement: Rochester toolkit selfie sign\" width=\"300\" height=\"206\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Celebrate the Class of 2021!<\/h2>\n<p>Visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/class-of-2021\/\">Class of 2021 site<\/a> for details about this year\u2019s Commencement ceremonies and for a downloadable toolkit of materials to share your support on social media.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- stop copying. --><\/p>\n<p>Ramsdale came to Rochester in 2016 to join the Medical Center\u2019s Wilmot Geriatric Oncology Clinic, the largest such clinic in the nation of physicians who, like Ramsdale, are dual trained and certified in geriatrics and oncology. There\u2019s a typical path for physicians like her, but it\u2019s not the one she chose.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was strongly encouraged to follow the path that almost everyone like me does, which is to get a master\u2019s in something like epidemiology or clinical investigations or public health,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>But she wanted to know more about artificial intelligence and machine learning. \u201cI thought, maybe I could use it in my work, but I didn\u2019t have a really good sense of what that meant,\u201d she says. \u201cI just had a hunch that it could be interesting.\u201d Also, \u201csome of my major life decisions have come from chasing my curiosity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ramsdale says she was able to convince her mentors that her time, and resources from an NIH training grant, would be well spent in her pursuit of a graduate degree in data science. As it turned out, her colleagues in the clinic shared in the benefits of her participation, as did some of her classmates.<\/p>\n<p>Since she began her studies, she\u2019s forged collaborations between her classmates in Wegmans Hall, where the Goergen Institute is housed, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.urmc.rochester.edu\/labs\/geriatric-oncology-research.aspx\">Geriatric Oncology Research Program<\/a> across Elmwood Avenue at the Wilmot Cancer Institute. Well before she began her own degree capstone project, she was sponsoring capstone projects for other students in the program, using data from geriatric oncology.<\/p>\n<p>Ramsdale recognized early on that data science students could see problems in entirely different ways than clinicians had. That was a powerful motivator for her to continue with a program that no one\u2014other than perhaps Ramsdale herself\u2014was requiring her to complete.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe last time I had done programming was Fortran in college,\u201d she says. \u201cDid the classes make me cry? Yes, quite regularly. Did I enjoy it nonetheless? Yes, very much. A couple classes into it, it became really obvious to me that this would be a skill set that very few people [in my fields] would have. If I stuck it out, I would have that skill set.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is going to be the future of how we make clinical decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With a master\u2019s degree in data science, geriatric oncologist Erika Ramsdale brings a new dimension of research to her clinic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":742,"featured_media":477312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[26572,33362,4536,37592,14,25592,16072,18432],"class_list":["post-477292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community","tag-arts-sciences-and-engineering","tag-class-of-2021","tag-commencement","tag-covid-19","tag-events","tag-goergen-institute-for-data-science-and-artificial-intelligence","tag-school-of-arts-and-sciences","tag-school-of-medicine-and-dentistry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Curiosity and a hunch lead a Medical Center physician to data science<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With a master&#039;s degree in data science, Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ geriatric oncologist Erika Ramsdale brings a new research to her clinic.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/medical-center-physician-among-first-in-data-science-masters-program-477292\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Curiosity and a hunch lead a Medical Center physician to data science\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With a master&#039;s degree in data science, Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ geriatric oncologist Erika Ramsdale brings a new research to her clinic.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/medical-center-physician-among-first-in-data-science-masters-program-477292\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-06T11:01:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-08-27T16:40:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/2021_commencement-rochester-graduate-erika-ramsdale.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Karen McCally\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Karen McCally\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/medical-center-physician-among-first-in-data-science-masters-program-477292\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/medical-center-physician-among-first-in-data-science-masters-program-477292\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Karen McCally\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1df9e59ebbd6547cef98b1dd01c04c08\"},\"headline\":\"Curiosity and a hunch lead a Medical Center physician to data science\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-06T11:01:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-27T16:40:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/medical-center-physician-among-first-in-data-science-masters-program-477292\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":539,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/medical-center-physician-among-first-in-data-science-masters-program-477292\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/05\\\/2021_commencement-rochester-graduate-erika-ramsdale.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Arts Sciences and Engineering\",\"Class of 2021\",\"commencement\",\"COVID-19\",\"events\",\"Goergen Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence\",\"School of Arts and Sciences\",\"School of Medicine and Dentistry\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Campus &amp; 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