Mad Minute with Mohsen Hooshmand, PhD

Mad Minute with Mohsen Hooshmand, PhD

Tell us a little bit about your current research projects and your lab. Are there any new developments that you're excited about?
I am involved in several projects that focus on analyzing physiological signals. In one project, I am working on analyzing stress levels during high-anxiety situations to assess physiological reactions between livelihoods, race, and more. In another project, we are working on predicting cardiovascular issues using continuous monitoring. We use advance machine learning methods or methods invented in the lab to make this possible.

MCIRCC is all about accelerating critical care research from the bench to the bedside. What do you predict will be some of the biggest innovations in the next five or ten years?
Removing noise when collecting physiological data using wearables, as well as implementing precise prediction/detection methods implemented on extremely portable devices are the main challenges that must be addressed in coming years. 

Predicting health issues amongst different populations using physiological data is critical in this field. There are lots of diverse factors that impact people health. Thus, researchers have to look for more complicated and complex patterns that might improve the performance of prediction and decision-making systems. The patterns themselves might require creating a new way to capture physiological signals using wearables and other connected devices.

The Najarian Lab specializes in developing advanced computational methods that address problems in critical care, among other things. What are some of the challenges you face when working with big data?
In addition to the reducing noise in data gathered by wearables, we have to be very careful with reading or interpreting data and information. Mistakes or defects in data can bias our methods and lead to wrong conclusions. Overall data representation is another issue that must be addressed, and dealt with on an individual project basis. Last, proper data management needs to be a primary concern for each and every project—as you said it’s big data!

Although the weather lately says otherwise, spring temperatures should be right around the corner! What are some of your favorite Ann Arbor activities during the warmer months?
Well, it seems shoveling snow (haha)! My Lab is located in NCRC. Other people complain about it's disadvantages, e.g. being far from Downtown or getting lost in its corridors but not me!

Luckily for me, it's very easy to see wildlife around my building! Every day, I can go and shoot animals (with my camera, of course!) around the building or on my way to the home. It gives me such joy. During spring and summer, I'll be able to spend more time in nature, taking photos of Ann Arbor's beautiful wildlife!