2020 saw the inauguration of a new year-end community project initiative for the Desautels Faculty of Management鈥檚 Master of Management in Analytics. With many workplaces shut and much of Canada鈥檚 economy reeling from the public-health crisis, the MMA saw an opportunity to help local businesses and other organizations adapt by pairing them with MMA grad students to solve their data analytics problems or create data management solutions remotely.
Last year, students Omar Chehab, Katia Sory, Victoria McKeown and Kyle Gomes assisted the Montreal Children鈥檚 Hospital in solving data analytics difficulties brought on by telehealth solutions with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Before COVID-19, only four percent of primary care visits in Canada were conducted virtually (by phone, video, text or app); this number has since increased to 60 percent, according to Canada Health Infoway.1
鈥淲hen COVID hit, we couldn鈥檛 see patients鈥� on site, except for urgent cases, says Adrian Dancea, head of the pediatric cardiology division at the Montreal Children鈥檚 Hospital. 鈥淪o overnight we were kind of entering a new paradigm. COVID gave a big push to telehealth.鈥�
MMA students virtually established data management and analytics systems for the Montreal Children鈥檚 Hospital; including machine-learning algorithms, building data dashboards designed to predict five years into the future, identifying usage patterns and streamlining supplies of PPE (personal protective equipment) like masks, gowns and gloves. This helped the hospital progress into the new normal with more efficiency and greater knowledge of what to expect.
At the end of the project between the Children鈥檚 and the MMA program, Dr. Dancea expressed that the partnership 鈥渘eeds to continue and needs to expand鈥his should only be the beginning." Sure enough, the Montreal Children鈥檚 Hospital is back again to participate in the 2021 program starting in June.
鈥淭he MMA gives our students the chance to work with large corporate clients and smaller community clients,鈥� explains MMA program director Shoeb Hosain. 鈥淭his year, we are hoping to increase our efforts more broadly throughout Montreal and Canada as we鈥檙e committed to giving back more to NGOs, non-profits and small businesses facing challenging situations.鈥�
If you鈥檙e interested in participating and have data analytics or data management problems that need solving or have any questions about the MMA Gives community projects you can mma [at] mcgil.ca (email our team).听
mma [at] mcgill.ca (subject: MMA%20Gives) (The deadline to submit your project proposal is April 30th, 2021).
More about our MMA
The 海角社区聽Master of Management in Analytics聽(MMA)聽degree is a pre-experience, specialized program in analytics聽that can be completed in 1 year or 1.5 years.听聽
- Learn more about our聽MMA Program
