Sault College health students showcase their work

Sault College students from three different health-care programs had the opportunity to present their work to local industry leaders at the institute’s second Health Care Research Showcase.

Grouped into teams of four or five, the students spent the last four months working on a project that is "relevant to the industry" said Prof. Theresa Mudge.

Sault College students from three different health-care programs had the opportunity to present their work to local industry leaders at the institute’s second Health Care Research Showcase. (Cory Nordstrom/CTV News)

"What we're seeing today is, our topics on precision medicine, for example, the future of medicine and where it's going," Mudge said.

"We're seeing a lot on mobile health clinics, virtual care. We're also seeing topics on employee wellness and burnout and mitigation strategies related to that."

The three courses involved are health care leadership, health care administration and health informatics. As post-graduate courses, students are all foreign trained in a range of backgrounds.

Stephy Varghese is currently in the health care administration program but completed health informatics last year.

Varghese is a Registered Nurse who was trained in India, where she also completed a Master’s degree in business administration, business analytics and digital marketing.

Sault College students from three different health-care programs had the opportunity to present their work to local industry leaders at the institute’s second Health Care Research Showcase. (Cory Nordstrom/CTV News)

Sault College students from three different health-care programs had the opportunity to present their work to local industry leaders at the institute’s second Health Care Research Showcase. (Cory Nordstrom/CTV News)

She "always wanted to bring health care and technology together," she said. Her group’s project explored artificial intelligence for customized treatment planning.

"When I have information like genetics, lifestyle, the past medical history, past surgical history and all the data that has been there," Varghese said.

"I call it as the big data migrating with all the things with the artificial intelligence that can actually give up a good personalized care."

Meet potential employers

The showcase serves as the students' culminating projects, but more importantly, it gives them the opportunity to discuss their ideas with potential employers.

Representatives for Sault Area Hospital, Group Health Centre, and many more health-care organizations and businesses were on hand.

Health-care administration student Bolanle Oladipupo said the opportunity to share their projects with people in the industry meant a lot.

"One lady came up and she was like, 'This we need,'" Oladipupo said.

"And she actually took our handouts and she was writing down some things. It's so good, and it makes us proud that what we have actually done is reasonable and people can reason with us."

"Coming here as a team member at Sault Area Hospital and seeing the passion that they have for healthcare, is incredible," said Brandy Sharp Young, of SAH.

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"The ideas that they have, lots of hospital staff have been able to come through here today and see what the students are doing, and we look at these ideas and think, 'How can we partner? What can we do to take this, from an idea to something into which into fruition, right?'"

Mudge said the first showcase was held in April, and it was such a success, they knew it needed to be done regularly for each cohort.

“It’s their time to shine … and students have gotten jobs out of it, so it’s a win-win-win."

Sault College plans to continue the showcase for future cohorts. College staff said the event has been successful in matching students with jobs based on the skills and ideas they’ve been able to present.