May 19, 2010
Media contact: Kim Lawrence
Office: 604-864-4611
Cell: 604-302-6257
kim.lawrence@ufv.ca
UFV students help local health authority manage data quality
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Back L-R: Yevgeniy Kim, Paul Franklin, Ben Dippenaar, Matthew
Wiersma. Front L-R: Vyacheslav Minin, Matthew Fox, David Chu.
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Ever try to find a needle in a haystack? Even when you’re not sure what it looks like or if it’s even there at all? That’s the closest analogy to what four University of the Fraser Valley computer information systems (CIS) students and one mathematics student were doing onsite with the Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) for the past few months.
The students were involved in applying a data quality framework within the VCH data warehouse, specifically writing computer queries and performing statistical analysis as part of an ongoing process to help the health authority staff maintain the highest quality of data records possible. Their work included identifying trends and isolating common types of errors in existing data sets.
Gordon Hamilton, a Sierra Systems Group data warehouse consultant, was involved from the start with the project at VCH, and his fervent belief in the benefits of high-quality data permeated the project. “The costs of bad data quality ― in terms of inefficiencies and customer service ― are huge,” he says. “We’re continually trying to improve the front-end processes and information scans that the health authority does so that services can be delivered as efficiently as possible.”
Joleen Wright is the director of data release management at VCH and was influenced by Hamilton’s passion and commitment to quality control. “We had some UFV co-op students working with us several years ago,” she recalls, “and we were impressed with the quality of their work. We wanted to build a closer partnership with the university as we built our new data warehouse, so we decided to create and deliver a course on data quality management to keep ourselves on track.”
It’s this course that the students have just completed. The students earned credit for their work, as it was packaged into a fourth-year university course that also involved in-class lectures, individual project assignments, and group exercises.
Patricia Chung, director of data management at VCH, became involved early with the data quality course because her team was responsible for implementing the data warehouse, and she understood the “forcing function” of having her staff develop the materials for the course. “We are building a valuable relationship with UFV’s talented pool of CIS students and faculty. The faculty audited the course in order to develop future curriculum for students at the university,” she says. “Not only is the potential for growth in the data quality management field huge, but the related employment opportunities are as well, and not just in the health informatics area.”
UFV computer information systems student and Abbotsford resident Ben Dippenaar was attracted to the course because it involved hands-on work and connecting directly with local industry. “Our days were focused on running queries on data to try to find interesting patterns or inconsistencies,” he explains. “It was interesting because we were dealing with real data (although personal details were removed for privacy reasons) and learning about different real-life issues involved with these kinds of database environments. We also met some great people!
“I am much better technically at writing queries now,” he continues, “and much more aware of the constraints involved in a database production environment. Most importantly, I have a much better idea of what the world looks like outside the university.” Now that the project is over, Dippenaar is looking forward to graduating with his degree in June and has actually landed a short-term contract with VCH.
UFV computer information systems faculty member Paul Franklin adds that the project has been a valuable connection between university and community. “Not only has it given our students a taste of what the working world is like, but it has also allowed us as faculty to keep our exposure to current business practices up-to-date,” he says. “Our goal is to develop other similar opportunities in the future.”
VCH and UFV hope to continue working together on identifying opportunities for data quality and health informatics courses during the coming months.
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