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08/17/2022 08:30 AMOne of the fastest growing, and certainly one of the more misunderstood emerging technologies, is artificial intelligence (AI). If Hollywood is the arbiter of what AI is, then AI is mankind’s extinction, as robots join together to overthrow their flesh and blood masters and unleash a Sky Net doomsday on humanity.
In reality, AI is already integral in our everyday lives, being is as ubiquitous as electricity. And this technology holds increasingly positive promise in regard to human health.
Rachida Parks of Madison, associate professor of computer information systems at Quinnipiac University, is a pioneer on the cutting edge of this developing field of science and the potential it may hold for human health and well-being.
“I am excited and humbled to have this once-in-a lifetime opportunity for a researcher,” Parks says. “I hope I will do justice to the research itself and make my university and my country proud.”
Rachida has had a long career in this field, beginning her education in the 1990s, long before AI or its implications were known to the general public. Rachida has an impressive resume; she joined Quinnipiac in 2016, has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the Higher Institute of International Tourism of Tangier in Morocco, a master’s degree in management information systems from the University of Central Florida and a Ph.D. in management information systems from Pennsylvania State University.
Rachida’s accomplishments certainly inspire respect, but do not necessarily reflect the years of hard work and effort it took to get there. Immigrating from Morocco, she came to the States in 1996 and enrolled into University in Florida.
“I was born in Casablanca, Morocco and moved to the United States in 1996 to pursue higher education. I joined the University of Central Florida and Orlando became my U.S. home for 13 years. After a couple moves to Pennsylvania and Arkansas, my family and I settled in beautiful Madison in 2016,” says Rachida.
Surprisingly, AI has been studied and researched for decades and actually isn’t as new as most of us might believe. Rachida says her interest in analytics and AI began in school back when smart phones were equal to magic.
“I was introduced to analytics, called Decision Support Systems back in the late 90s, at the University of Central Florida and then at Penn State University during my PhD in Information Sciences and Technology. I got the opportunity to apply my knowledge and hone my analytics skills for many years in industry, as a contractor with the department of defense, NBC Universal studios, my own consulting firm, and others,” says Rachida. “As a professor, I am continuously developing, expanding, and sharing this interest with my students and other researchers.”
In addition to her faculty duties at Quinnipiac, Rachida has held several prestigious posts in academia and has also been recognized with numerous awards, including a Fulbright scholarship.
“I met my late department chair, Bruce Saulnier, during a conference after which the University extended an offer to join the department of Computer Information Systems (and Business Analytics). A decision I welcomed as I have the opportunity to work with esteemed colleagues, very driven students as well as a leadership that values innovative, interdisciplinary and high quality and research,” Rachida says. “I recently received a joint appointment offer as an Associate Professor at the Frank M. Netter School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University. This opportunity aligns very well with my interdisciplinary goals and especially with my current Fulbright US scholar award in Morocco.’
Rachida says that one of the most critical utilizations of AI, and where her research is focused, will be in health care.
“The more I delve, the more I discover different possibilities where technology and analytics can provide more clinical and operational support to the healthcare field. These possibilities include, but are not limited to the early detection of diseases, automation of hospital administrative processes, reduction of healthcare costs, and more personalized patient care, says Rachida.
In her study, Rachida says she hopes to gain an interdisciplinary understanding of the challenges to business analytics operations; perform deep assessments of the key challenges; compare her findings to what has already been reported by researchers in the United States; and build the foundation for an ongoing institutional relationships.
According to Rachida, she is incredibly grateful to be recognized with a recent Fulbright award, but also feels a tremendous obligation to live up to the expectations that award instills in recipients.
“I feel privileged and at the same time humbled to be able to receive one of the most prestigious scholarships in the world. Only five other faculty from Quinnipiac School of Business ever received this honor, with a total of 17 faculty from the entire Quinnipiac University since 1994,” Rachida says. “I also feel the responsibility to lay the path for every other researcher who wants to make a mark in data analytics, local and international.”
The Fulbright U.S. Scholarship Award program was founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946 and is considered to be one of the most widely recognized and prestigious scholarships in the world. Fulbright recipients engage in cutting-edge research and expand their professional networks.
The title of Rachida’s current research is “An Investigation into Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence Operationalization in Healthcare: A Socio-Technical, Interdisciplinary and Multi-Method Approach”, which sounds imposing, but is really just a science-y way of saying how AI can be used to save lives and money when integrated with healthcare.
According to Rachida, “With healthcare organizations becoming more data-driven, business analytics and artificial intelligence have become a catalyst to create business value by processing the massive amount of organizational data generated daily. Analytics provides stakeholders the ability to go beyond improving profits to enabling predictive modeling of disease, reducing preventable deaths, and improving quality of life. As such, healthcare organizations feel the urgency to embrace digital transformation that relies on…analytics.”
“The healthcare business analytics market is forecasted to grow to US$ 50.5 billion by 2024 from US$ 14.0 billion today,” says Rachida. “As countries continuously improve their healthcare digitalization and processes, policy makers will need to understand how big data analytics (BDA) and AI can most effectively be implemented and operationalized. For my Fulbright Scholars project, I will investigate how Moroccan healthcare organizations operationalize BDA and AI beyond just adoption of tools such as machine learning, data mining, and predictive analytics. Findings from this research will provide design and implementation recommendations to develop more effective mechanisms, which will forge a path forward in integrated and interconnected BDA reform. The broader impacts of this work include strategic and practical guidelines for industry and best practices for practitioners, as well as scholarly contributions. Consequently, it will allow to bridge the digital and analytic gap between developing and developed countries.”
Rachida says she plans on returning to the States in December, with some follow up research back in Morocco next summer. As far as what her future study will focus on, healthcare applications via a multi-pronged approach, according to Rachida.
“Upon my return, I am hoping to design and implement an interdisciplinary center for analytics/data science within Quinnipiac University - where faculty from all schools and with different expertise can collaborate together to solve real problems,” says Rachida. Throughout my years of experience in this field, I have learned that advanced technical and analytical tools DO NOT alone solve problems…My current and future plans are to put emphasis on creating and sustaining communities and solutions that enhance the use of responsible data analytics and artificial intelligence for equitable social good.