Omolola Ogunyemi, PhD, FACMI

Omolola Ogunyemi, PhD, FACMI

Director, Center for Biomedical Informatics
Professor, Dept. of Preventive and Social Medicine
Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science

 

Dr. Ogunyemi is a computer scientist, biomedical informatics researcher, and author. She is Professor and Chair of the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science (CDU) in Los Angeles. She is also Director of the University’s Center for Biomedical Informatics, which focuses on providing biomedical informatics solutions that benefit medically underserved communities. Her research interests include computerized medical decision support, machine learning, and telehealth. Her recent work includes a National Library of Medicine-funded R01 grant to explore diabetic retinopathy prediction from safety net healthcare system clinical data, using different machine learning strategies. She’s currently working on a multi-PI RADx-UP study to address COVID-19 vaccine and testing hesitancy in South Los Angeles. Dr. Ogunyemi is an elected fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics. She holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Barnard College, New York, and an M.S.E, and Ph.D. in Computer and Information Science from the University of Pennsylvania.

The Importance of Storytelling in Biomedical Informatics and Beyond

A focus of my research career has been tackling health problems that disproportionally affect people who live in medically underserved areas by creating and using biomedical informatics tools and techniques. I’ve found that storytelling is an important aspect of my work: stories personalize the disparities that exist in underserved US communities. I will talk about the power of stories to move research that addresses health disparities forward and the important role that storytelling has played in both my academic and non-academic life.