Rapid innovations in technology, particularly AI, have many worried that machines will threaten their jobs. Yet there’s an optimism around the way technology could revolutionize the healthcare sector — particularly if, as these innovations develop, the next generation of healthcare workers develops with them.

Emerging healthcare technologies are indicating an ideological shift could be coming. Clinicians are personalizing care with data from wearable technology, advancements in genomic testing are better predicting risks of disease, AI and machine learning algorithms are detecting fatal illnesses earlier — technology has the potential to change the main role of healthcare from treating sickness to preventing it.

Keeping the innovation momentum going strong will require a steady stream of highly trained healthcare workers and researchers prepared to use, create and advance these technologies. And U of T Scarborough’s Arts and Science Co-op program is one way the vision of a high-tech healthcare system is getting the talent it needs.

Arts and Science Co-op students come from a range of programs across health, science and technology that give them the background to quickly begin using and helping develop the latest healthcare technologies, including custom and fledgeling ones. That was the case in a recent co-op placement that had students work with wet lab and computation scientists to develop a lab’s custom AI-based image analysis technology, which analyzes cellular phenotypes for early signs of cancer. Placements like these mean students will enter the workforce with the knowledge and experience needed to make these tools commonplace in medical settings.

Many Arts and Science Co-op students in computer science programs have similarly used their education in programming languages, web development and algorithms to develop technologies for healthcare and medical science. In another recent placement, students created and maintained code that uses machine learning to analyze big data, both physiological and genomic, to understand the relationship between sleep disruption and neurological disorders, namely Alzheimer’s.

Students in health sciences programs are having the same impact, drawing on their research training from top academics at U of T Scarborough. Another placement had students interact with patients, gain informed consent and use the latest in wearable sensor technologies to collect and interpret accelerometric, EEG and cardiopulmonary data.

These students offer a solution to labs and healthcare settings looking for enthusiastic employees with highly technical skills and the disposition to quickly gain new ones. Employers can submit job descriptions (or upload them on the university’s Co-op portal), interview and choose students to be hired for four-, eight- or 12-month work terms. They can also hire co-op students from more than 100 disciplines across all three U of T campuses, all of them eager to start building the healthcare system of the future, today. To learn more about co-op at U of T, reach out to the team at https://uoft.me/uoftcoop

By Alexa Battler