Carlos Pérez-Aldana, a student at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (休斯顿乌西卫生），正在使用一种新颖的方法来分析社交媒体数据来帮助年轻的癌症幸存者。

“My research is focused on studying these online communities to learn more about how cancer survivors communicate and support each other: the language that they use, what kind of support they are providing, and what topics they are talking about,” said Pérez-Aldana, a PhD student at休斯顿乌西卫生School of Biomedical Informatics. “One of the main aims of my project is to understand the dynamics of these communities to ultimately find ways to improve social support exchange.”

Pérez-Aldana对年轻的癌症幸存者通过诊断，治疗和缓解需要哪种社会支持特别感兴趣。

这个话题对他个人产生了影响。他的妻子克里斯蒂（Kristi）在约会时被诊断出年轻成年，在他们俩一起去欧洲的研究生院之后。这向他展示了癌症如何影响生活的各个方面，尤其是专业和个人目标，以及社会支持的基本支持。

Pérez-Aldana’s current work is a first step in designing and creating interventions to help young people who have gone through cancer get the support they need. Cancer carries a heavy emotional weight. It can affect personal relationships, and cause mental health problems, anxiety, and worry that it could recur.

“I knew cancer in a young adult was very disruptive for life, and that was a personal motivation to work with this population, but when I started researching deeper I realized that there are very few studies targeting this population and informatics has a great potential to contribute,” he said.

Pérez-Aldana使用的信息方法可以应用于其他人群，例如患有糖尿病或其他慢性健康状况的人。他说：“这些方法也可以应用于看护人，以帮助他们支持他们。”

“Given the COVID-19 situation, and how many parts of our lives have transitioned to online, it’s a great time to be researching online communities,” he said. “Our bonds on social media are growing stronger, but it’s not always a good thing. These approaches can also be applied to study how disinformation spreads within communities as well.”

促进哥伦比亚的健康IT技术和扫盲

Prior to joining the School of Biomedical Informatics, Pérez-Aldana helped take early steps to advance the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) among Bogotá’s public hospitals, aiming to connect more than 20 health institutions to serve millions of Colombian patients, and bringing specialists to those in need.

He has facilitated advancements in biomedical informatics, telemedicine, and public health in his native country.

Pérez-Aldana与休斯顿Uthealth的联系始于2014年，是波哥大El Bosque University的教职员工。他正在研究哥伦beplay苹果手机能用吗比亚大学生物医学信息学硕士学位的计划。该计划在2018年获得了国家教育部长的批准，这使其成为哥伦比亚的第一项生物医学信息学计划。

佩雷斯·阿尔达纳（Pérez-Aldanathe 11 million people living in Bogotá’s metro area.

“One of the main challenges was the limited funding to purchase an electronic health record system,” he said. “A lot of the work happened behind the scenes, evaluating what kind of modules were needed most. We were working on an interoperability model for the city’s EHRs, so the system would connect all of the hospitals so that they could talk to each other and share data. It’s not easy, but it’s ideal.”

The work also included implementing telemedicine capability, aiming to greatly expand access to specialists.

“我们试图弄清楚如何通过远程医疗将农村医院连接到城市，以便他们可以分享他们的专家，但不仅仅是农村地区。佩雷斯·阿尔达纳（Pérez-Aldana）说：“该市本身的一些医院没有重要的专家。”放射学是一个例子。某些设施没有24小时的紧急情况进入放射学，我们试图通过远程医疗解决这一问题。”

在从事这些项目的过程中，Pérez-Aldana意识到需要更多的工作来使其成功和自我维持。

“我意识到人们缺乏实施健康状况的技能。这不仅是医生，而且医院中实施这些技术的IT人士需要额外的培训。”他说。“这导致我于2012年回到埃尔博斯克大学，不仅是因为它拥有著名的医学院，而且因为我能够说服我们需要开发生物医学和健康信息学计划的院长。”

It started as an elective course, one of several courses that Pérez-Aldana still teaches remotely while in the United States.

他说：“在2014年，有一个想法是开发生物医学信息学硕士学位。”“鉴于我在医学院宣传了这些主题，并且El Bosque与Uthealth达成了一致，因此我自愿参加了生物医学信息学院学习如何构建我们的课程。”

2015年，Pérez-Aldana与Uthealth Houston SBMI嘉宾组织了一次国际研讨会，2016年，他再次回到德克萨斯州 - 这次是一名学生。

他说：“对于我来说，有必要更多地了解我所教的技术和方法，并能够在信息学领域更好地设计研究。”beplay苹果手机能用吗“在与我的学术同龄人和休斯顿大学的教职员工讨论之后，我认为最好是获得博士学位，以便我可以继续促进哥伦比亚的这一领域的发展。”

“我不必考虑回到休斯顿的Uthealth。我知道教师，学校和研究。beplay苹果手机能用吗我已经被卖了，”他说。“我知道这是一个独特的创新场所。”

下一章

Pérez-Aldana said he is excited to be embarking on the most important and exciting role in his life — being a father to his infant son, Thomas.

“My first occupation is as a father with a baby at home,” he said. “Being a father is a lot of work, but it’s amazing. It will change your life. It’s not just routine, but your perspective on life. It changes everything.”

Professionally, Pérez-Aldana said he is open to opportunities as he graduates. He would love to continue teaching in the U.S. and in Colombia, where there are a growing number of opportunities as the informatics field takes root.

“The field is more developed in the States, but digital technology adoption is rapidly developing in Colombia,” he said. “The context is very different, and resources are limited. We can exchange successful and innovative ways of doing things, and I’m sure we can exchange a lot of information and provide learning opportunities for both students in the United States and in Colombia.”