Medical Project Manager

To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing to apply for the Surgical Microscopy Optics/Photonics MS/PhD Product Manager. I believe my interest, skills and qualifications closely match the job description. Currently, I work as a Research Engineer Physicist in Sunnybrook Health Science Centre. In this position, I am responsible for managing the technical research in Vascular Biology Imaging Research Group. I develop, design and perform quantitative and statistical clinical MRI multi-centre studies of carotid artery between 12 centres in Canada. This starts from defining a project from ground, data collection and data management to design and develop algorithm for analyzing the collected images and finally perform clinical and statistical data analysis. Moreover, this role gives me the opportunity to collaborate with vendor companies to facilitate design and implementation of the software of interest for data analysis. I develop a software tool using Matlab and C++ for diagnostic of coronary artery diseases. I work closely with IBM Healthcare, Siemens Healthcare and Medis Healthcare to modify their products based on our interest and integrate our designed framework into their product. Before that, I was working as a Research Engineer at GE Healthcare located at St. Joseph’s Hospital in London, ON. GE Healthcare group in London collaborates with the University of Western Ontario, Robarts Research Institute, Lawson Health Research Institute and London Health Sciences Centre in multiple medical imaging research projects. I was hired for this contract position shortly after my graduation to assist GE engineers to translate my PhD project into a commercial product for automatic diagnosis of cardiac disease. My role involved direct communication and presentations to GE customers, managers and engineers to bridge the gap between them in order to deliver reliable software tools to help clinicians for more accurate diagnosis.

I completed my PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Robarts Research Institute under supervision of Dr. Terry Peters in Dec 2012. During my PhD, I worked closely with a team of GE scientists and engineers, a multidisciplinary group of researchers and radiologists in Robarts Research Institute, St Joseph’s Healthcare and the Digital Imaging Group of London. This experience provided me the opportunity to work closely and build a collaborative relationship with influential customers and scientists to better understand opportunities for innovation in medical technology and research commercialization. Over the past seven years, I have been involved in different phases of developing a medical imaging project. This extended from early stages of finding innovative research grounds and algorithm development, to implementation of software tools for clinical evaluation. The project was defined to apply computer science algorithms and medical imaging software tools for automatic segmentation and classification of different cardiac diseases. The translation of my research project has included filing patent applications, presenting my research to GE managers and customers in healthcare industry and receiving their feedbacks to improve my work. In addition, I presented my research work in leading international conferences, and published articles in competitive journals in the field of medical imaging. During my graduate studies, to further develop my management skills at a different level, I got involved in some organizational activities for student and professional groups. For instance, I acted as the chair of IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Student Society (IEEE EMBS) at Western; I also helped with the organization of several workshops and student conferences. I worked as an instructor at Rafsanjan University after I received my Masters of Engineering degree. I presented undergrad electrical engineering courses and laboratories. I taught advanced physics, electrical circuit theory as well as electronics laboratory and physics laboratory. Moreover, I had an opportunity to be a teaching assistant at Western University for medical imaging, medical image processing, Communications, Circuits lab and computer programing. My solid experience and enjoyment of teaching motivates me to continue this direction.

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After obtaining my bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, I started as a design engineer and was promoted to the role of project manager in a consulting and construction company. In this role, I supervised a group of 3 engineers and 15 technicians to ensure proper function of the manufacturing process to apply quality assurance tests, in accordance with the applicable regulatory procedures. As a project manager, my job was to effectively connect design engineers, technicians to general managers and final customers. This included different steps from adjustment in the project design to the final level of delivering the project to the costumers.

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Mariam Afshin

The University of Toronto

Sunnybrook Health Science Centre

1905, 100 Harrison Garden Blvd, Toronto, ON, M2N 0C2, Canada Email: ******.******@**********.** &

******.******@*****.***

Phone: 416-***-****

Engineering Employment Experience

Research Physicist Sep 2014- Present

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Canada

Bridged the gap between Sunnybrook hospital, University of Toronto and three medical device companies (Siemens, IBM, Medis)

Presented scientific work in highly prestigious and comparative industrial and academic venues

Collaborated closely with three vendor companies (Siemens, IBM & Medis) to modify their products for analysis and storage of Dicom MR images

Applied for ethics and regulatory approval

Supervised radiology residents, MD/PhDs, Masters, PhDs and undergrad students in a multi-disciplinary group

Supervised MRI quality control for different multi-centre clinical trial projects

Designed computer science algorithm for automatic, fast and accurate analysis of the received MR images

Trained and taught medical students to apply the developed algorithm

Validated the developed techniques in big datasets to minimize user manual interaction and error

Developed reproducible post processing techniques for analysis of large MRI datasets

Managed research PACS system among 12 research centres in Canada Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre Sep 2013 –Aug 2014 Post-Doctoral Fellow

Collaborated and worked closely with medical device companies to modify their product based on clinical requirements

Interacted with regulatory agencies and industrial research partners

Initiate a multi-disciplinary group of engineers, scientist, physicians

Managed the Vascular Biology Imaging Research Group core in technical research

Manage research PACS for multi-centres trial

Supervised research groups in imaging experiments, data analysis and paper publication

Provided scientific recommendation to the students and radiology residents for post processing of clinical trial studies

Designated, developed and performed quantitative analysis techniques to study clinical MRI images

Designed and tested software tools for pathology of coronary and carotid artery diseases using Matlab and C++

Validated and implemented trouble shooting on the designed framework

Collaborated and worked closely with medical device companies to modify their product based on clinical requirements

Conducted statistical analysis to validate the results and design study 4

Coordinated data collection for a multi-centre clinical trial

Organized research collaboration among research centres outside of Sunnybrook SHC

Mentored undergrad and summer students

Assisted principle investigator in preparation of manuscripts, grant applications, ethics applications and educational materials as needed

Interacted with regulatory agencies and industrial research partners

Managed and supported a research PACS system for data management of different clinical trials

GE-Healthcare, London, Canada Jan 2013-Aug 2013

Digital Imaging Group of London

Research Associate:

Developed a software platform for automatic assessment of cardiovascular function using MRI (The PhD project algorithms were developed using Matlab and C++)

Designed test protocol for assessing accuracy of the developed algorithm

Tested and validated the developed software on large datasets Robarts Research Institute, London, Canada Sep 2008-Dec 2012 GE-Healthcare, London, Canada

Research Assistant:

Designed software tools for automated diagnosis of cardiovascular disease using MRI

Developed real-time algorithms for global and regional assessment of heart function (NN, SVM and LDA have been applied)

Produced MRI cardiac report to facilitate radiologist diagnostic procedure

Worked with real patient data in a multi-disciplinary team of physicians, engineers and computer scientists

Published pioneer research work in several medical Imaging Journals and International conferences

The University of Western Ontario (UWO), London, Canada Sep 2008-Dec 2012 Graduate Teaching Assistant

Lectured various undergraduate courses including programming for software engineering

Prepared technical presentation for course material

Evaluation of student performance on assignments and laboratory reports

University of Rafsanjan, Department of Physics, Rafsanjan, Iran Sep 2007-Apr 2008 Instructor

Selected taught courses: Advanced Physics, Electrical Circuit Theory

Taught laboratories: Introduction to Electronics, Advanced Physics Nasb-Ehdas Company, Tehran, Iran Sep 2005-Aug 2007 Project Manager

Supervised the manufacturing machinery regular maintenance

Worked closely with the maintenance staffs to ensure the quality of work

Prepared monthly reports of the operation for the supervisors regular meetings 5

Nasb-Ehdas Company, Tehran, Iran Sep 2003-Aug 2005 Design Engineer

Designed and implemented machinery test protocols and equipment

Trained new employees on the simulation tools and performing studies Siemens Corporation, Tehran, Iran May 2003-Aug 2003 Undergraduate Co-Op

Prepared technical summaries from IEEE transactions and standards

Assisted senior engineers with design of AC/DC panel board

Provided statistics to other lines of business

Tutor Sep 1999-Apr 2003

(Physics and Applied mathematics for Engineering)

Developed lessons designed to meet the goals and needs of engineering students

Documented monthly summaries of the materials covered and the student’s accomplishments

Education

Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering 2008-2012

The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada

“Automatic Estimation of Left Ventricle Cardiac Function from MR Images” Advisors: Dr. Terry Peters and Dr. Shuo Li

Masters of Engineering Science (M.E.Sc), Electrical Engineering 2005-2007 The University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran

“Background modeling and producing a panoramic image from video frames” Bachelor of Engineering Science (B.E.Sc.), Electrical Engineering 1998-2003 Semnan University, Semnan, Iran

Skills and Qualifications

Able to communicate and work with people from different academic backgrounds

Self-motivated and strong problem-solver, Experienced trainer and organizer

Excellent leader, co-ordination, project management and team work abilities

Fast learner with the ability to apply knowledge independently or co-operatively

Extensive experience in research, teaching and experimental work

Committed to the challenging work

Reliable, responsible and hardworking with strong professional ethics

Excellent oral communication skills developed through various presentations and seminars

Flexible in work hours and traveling within and outside of Canada Computer proficiency:

Selected Technical Software MATLAB, Visual Studio (Visual C++) Medical Imaging Software 3D Slicer, VTK, ITK, Vessel Mass Statistical Software SPSS, SAS, R, GraphPad

Productivity MS Office, MS project, LaTex

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Professional Associations/Scientific Societies

Chair, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) student chapter of London, Canada

Graduate Coordinator, Canadian Student Conference in Biomedical Computing Engineering 2010 (CSCBCE)

Social Event Coordinator, Biomedical Engineering Department, UWO

Seminar Organizer, Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) Strategic Training Program in Vascular research, Robarts Research Institute

Journal Club Organizer, Digital Imaging Group of London Honors and Awards

Western Graduate Research Scholarship

NSERC Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) Program in Computer-Assisted Medical Interventions

Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR), Vascular Training Program

Graduate Thesis Research Award

Workshops

MITACS workshops (Project management, Business Etiquette), Building Innovative Leadership in Health System, UWO, Canada

Ivey Centre for Health Innovation & Leadership (ICHIL), UWO, Medical Technology Innovation Symposium

Ultrasound Imaging Workshop, Robarts Research Institute, London, Canada

NA-MIC Training Workshop, Robarts Research Institute, London Ontario, Canada

3-D slicer Training Workshop, Robarts Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada

PACS system development, IBM Healthcare, Toronto, Canada

Data Repository, E-clinical, Sunnybrook Hospital, Canada

Vessel Mass, Medis Healthcare, Sunnybrook Hospital, Canada Patent Application

M. Afshin, K. Punithakumar, I. Ben Ayed, S. Li, “Assessment of Regional Myocardial Function via Statistical Features in MR Images”, Under revision by GE Patent Review Board, U.S. Docket No. 264087, filed on August 27, 2015.

* Immigration status: Canadian Citizen,

References Available upon Request

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