Ashley Girgis

Ashley Girgis, MHI

Health Informatics Specialist (AI focus)

Welcome to my technical portfolio!
Here, I showcase a unique blend of my skills and experience intersecting computational analytics, data strategy, and healthcare to drive meaningful change.

Technical Background

Data Architecture

SQL Data Types & Structures Relational Databases HL7 FHIR OMOP CDM Entity Relationship Diagrams ETL Frameworks Data Dictionaries Healthcare Standardized Vocabularies (e.g., ICD-10-CA, SNOMED CT)

Data Science

High Proficiency in Python Data Cleaning & Normalization Pandas NumPy Matplotlib Dashboards Data Visualization Tableau SAS R Statistics EDA

Machine Learning

scikit-learn PyTorch TensorFlow Keras Flower AI Federated Learning Supervised Learning Unsupervised Learning Neural Networks Confusion Matrices Performance Metrics ML Methods & Evaluation SaMD NLP NLTK

Generative AI

LLMs GPT Gemini Claude Llama Groq Model Experimentation & Testing Hugging Face Open Source Models Real-world Use Cases (e.g., Evidence Synthesis, Agentic AI)

EHR Integration

Experienced with EPIC EHR Epic Cadence Epic Ambulatory Clinical Workflows Digital Implementation Change Management Ticketing Tools ServiceNow Feedback Mechanisms Learning Health Systems

Responsible AI

Health Equity Data Representation Data Governance Model Bias AI Ethics Risk-Reward Trade-off Data Sovereignty AI Observability

Product & Project
Management

Agile & Scrum Co-design Methods Confluence Jira Trello Canva Miro Figma BPMN & Process Improvement Use Case Mapping MS 365 Specialist (Certified)

Contact

Let's Connect

ashleygirgis@hotmail.com linkedin.com/in/agirgis

Sample Projects

Twitter Surveillance System - ML model predicting daily % of COVID-19 vaccine hesitant tweets

Twitter Surveillance System
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Climate Change Dashboard - Greenhouse gas emissions data with multiple visualization types

Climate Change Dashboard
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Statistical Analysis of COVID-19 Data - SQL data processing for correlation analysis in SAS

COVID-19 Data Analysis
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Data Wrangling of Synthetic Patient (EMR) Data - Healthcare data processing and grouping

Medical Records Processing
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Education & Professional Development

Advanced Degrees

Master of Health Informatics (MHI) — University of Toronto, DLSPH, IHPME
AI-recognized degree by Vector Institute. Collaborated in 10+ projects with nurses, physicians, and computer scientists proposing various AI frameworks for wait time estimation, disease risk prediction, and data de-identification pipelines. University of Toronto is ranked #1 university in Canada.
Bachelor of Health Studies & Health Informatics Option — University of Waterloo
BSc with emphasis on social determinants and patient-centred care. The Health Informatics Option facilitated development of computer science skills through 8 specialized courses including Python, SQL databases, SAS statistical analysis, epidemiology, and knowledge translation. University of Waterloo is ranked #1 in Canada for computer science and #21 globally.

AI Certificates

ML Specialization
Andrew Ng @ Stanford University on Coursera and DeepLearning.AI: 1) Supervised ML, 2) Advanced Learning Algorithms, 3) Unsupervised Learning and Reinforcement Learning
AI 4 Public Health
Certificate @ AI4PH: Public Health Data Visualization & Storytelling, Critical AI and Public Health, Tools for Data Science, Quantitative Measures of Equity, Knowledge Mobilization
Generative AI Essentials
Bootcamp Certificate @ McMaster's Innovation Hub MacHealthICE
ML Observability Fundamentals
Certificate @ Arize AI: Explainability, Model Drift, Data Quality, Performance Analysis

Leadership & Innovation

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Digital Health Discovery Platform (DHDP) - Terry Fox Research Institute

  • Developed and launched $25-million Request for Applications aimed at fostering cross-sector partnerships with a scope focused on multi-modal health data sharing and AI advancements
  • Engaged with 100+ Executives across Canada's private and public healthcare sectors to build capacity and amplify targeted outreach of the funding opportunity
  • Informed selection of national data standards and AI frameworks (OMOP CDM, Flower AI, FAIR principles) by launching DHDP Technology, Data, and AI working groups with diverse domain expertise

Women in AI (WAI) - Lavndr Project

  • First (1st) place team in the WAI Hackathon, sponsored by AltaML, ATB Financial, and Arize AI. Challenge targeted AI solutions addressing Sustainable Development Goals 4, 5, and 9. Project focused on mobile health for high-risk pregnancy prediction, specifically pre-eclampsia.
  • Advanced project into a conference poster and paper; presented at conferences: TCAIREM AI in Medicine, IHPME Research and Impact Day, and Future of Health Leadership, Informatics, Policy (FHLIP)
  • Finalist for Young AI Role Model of the Year

UHN Synapse Project - EHR (EPIC) Implementation

  • Oversaw 100+ IT support staff (EPIC Floor Support Lead) to meet the change management needs of UHN's largest hospital, Toronto General Hospital
  • Escalated patient safety tickets; created and promoted EPIC education for healthcare technology adoption
  • Redirected team members to hospital units in need, enforcing teamwork for effective problem-solving/troubleshooting and escalating urgent concerns

Academic Contributions

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Published Research

ML for Evidence Synthesis - Peer-Reviewed publication in Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR). Rogers K, Miller A, Girgis A, Clark E, Neil-Sztramko S, Dobbins M. Leveraging AI to Optimize Maintenance of Health Evidence and Offer a One-Stop Shop for Quality-Appraised Evidence Syntheses on the Effectiveness of Public Health Interventions: Quality Improvement Project. J Med Internet Res 2025;27:e69700. URL: https://www.jmir.org/2025/1/e69700. DOI: 10.2196/69700

Mobile Health Policy - IOS Press, The Role of Digital Health Policy and Leadership. Bhasker, S., Candas, K., Girgis, A., Rozario, N., & Santhakumaran, P. (2024). Informing Mobile Health Policy for Pregnant Women in Rural Populations in Canada, with a Focus on Pre-Eclampsia. Studies in health technology and informatics, 312, 107–111. https://doi.org/10.3233/SHTI231322

Active Research

Health Informatics, Visualization, and Equity (HIVE) Lab - Web scraping and investigation of data, leveraging multi-modal LLMs for exploratory analytics

LLM Methods & Evaluation, NCCMT - Designed LLM evaluation methodology, calculated performance metrics (TPR, TNR, F1) and produced confusion matrices to compare LLMs (GPT, Gemini, and Llama) to human reviewers and traditional ML for Health Evidence™ repository evidence screening

Previous Research

PREVENT Research Program - Visiting Research for PREVENT program focused on personalized prescription plans for chronic disease. Performed heuristic evaluation to promote user-centered product.

NSERC Undergraduate Research Award - National Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) award recipient, contributing to research with sustainable nanomaterials (cellulose nanocrystals, CNC) in Professor Michael K.C. Tam's chemical engineering lab. Conducted experiments, analyzed data and characterized compounds, and presented conclusions to mentor Shahid Islam, PhD and the research group regarding natural drug discovery for pharmaceutical reduction of cholesterol and next steps.

Knowledge Building

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AI in Health Systems Network, DLSPH

Co-created and led a network of 70+ graduate students and professionals seeking to build AI literacy, deepen practical understanding, and connect with like-minded peers. Organized and hosted tailored knowledge-building events, including AI workshops, journal clubs, and a webinar series with experts.

Educational Talks

  • "AI Ethics in Healthcare" Guest speaker for the inaugural session of Halton Healthcare's AI Series, presenting to hospital staff on key considerations with regard to responsible AI
  • Data sharing and Interoperability webinar hosted by The Cancer Collaborative for Precision medicine awareness month (PMAM) seminar series
  • "Navigating AI: Privacy, Ethics, and Social Impact" Guest lecture hosted at McMaster for INNOVATE 1Z03 Course: AI Innovative Technologies
  • ChatGPT and AI Tools workshop, hosted at National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools located at McMaster Innovation Park
  • Introduction to Python for Machine Learning workshop, hosted by AI in Health Systems Network at Dalla Lana School of Public Health
  • The Health Data Frontier Podcast discussing topics on data governance and ethical use of data, hosted by Private AI
  • "Bio-Careers Beyond Med: Facilitating Career Path Exploration with a Podcast" guest speaker for health informatics careers, hosted by University of Toronto