Sharon Ho is training to be a doctor, but a year taking an MEng at Cambridge gave her a strong interest in health data science. She is hoping that a mentor will help this to develop and grow.
What attracted you to health data research?
In healthcare there is a lot of data, but it’s not always used very well. It’s an area that I am very interested in.
I’m a fourth-year medical student and last year I was intercalating, doing a master’s degree in engineering at Cambridge. There was a dinner at my college and I happened to be sitting across from Andrew Morris, the Director of HDR UK. He directed me towards the HDR UK and the Alumni Network and the things that they were doing.
My master’s was in bio engineering and information engineering but I was very interested in data science, machine learning, and AI, because it is becoming a very big thing. You see it everywhere.
What attracted you to the mentorship scheme?
I want to know more about health data science, but, as a medical student it is pretty difficult to find people on the same boat, or to connect with people that are that are working in this area. By joining this scheme, I’ll be able to like to know more about this area.
Is health data science of interest to you in career terms?
First, I want to qualify as a doctor and then to use data science in healthcare. But I don’t yet know whether I will focus more on one or the other. But I am definitely interested in applying information engineering and medicine.
Would it be useful if the Alumni Network was able to tell more medical students about the opportunities in health data research?
Oh, definitely. I do think that some medical students will be interested. Every year there will be people who choose information engineering at Cambridge for their intercalation. And in other universities there will be people interested in these areas, especially those who are mathematically minded, but without knowing how to get into it.