A Case Study of Enhancing the Data Science Capacity of an RCMI Program at a Historically Black Medical College

Qingguo Wang (), Vibhuti Gupta, Aize Cao, Ashutosh Singhal, Todd Gary and Samuel E. Adunyah
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Qingguo Wang: Department of Computer Science & Data Science, School of Applied Computational Sciences, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN 37208, USA
Vibhuti Gupta: Department of Computer Science & Data Science, School of Applied Computational Sciences, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN 37208, USA
Aize Cao: Department of Biomedical Data Science, School of Applied Computational Sciences, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN 37208, USA
Ashutosh Singhal: Department of Biomedical Data Science, School of Applied Computational Sciences, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN 37208, USA
Todd Gary: Department of Biomedical Data Science, School of Applied Computational Sciences, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN 37208, USA
Samuel E. Adunyah: Department of Biochemistry, Cancer Biology, Neurosciences and Pharmacology, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN 37208, USA

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 6, 1-11

Abstract: As data grows exponentially across diverse fields, the ability to effectively leverage big data has become increasingly crucial. In the field of data science, however, minority groups, including African Americans, are significantly underrepresented. With the strategic role of minority-serving institutions to enhance diversity in the data science workforce and apply data science to health disparities, the National Institute for Minority Health Disparities (NIMHD) provided funding in September 2021 to six Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) to improve their data science capacity and foster collaborations with data scientists. Meharry Medical College (MMC), a historically Black College/University (HBCU), was among the six awardees. This paper summarizes the NIMHD-funded efforts at MMC, which include offering mini-grants to collaborative research groups, surveys to understand the needs of the community to guide project implementation, and data science training to enhance the data analytics skills of the RCMI investigators, staff, medical residents, and graduate students. This study is innovative as it addressed the urgent need to enhance the data science capacity of the RCMI program at MMC, build a diverse data science workforce, and develop collaborations between the RCMI and MMC’s newly established School of Applied Computational Science. This paper presents the progress of this NIMHD-funded project, which clearly shows its positive impact on the local community.

Keywords: data science; RCMI; HBCU; health disparities; diversity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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