Meet Calin Vlad Demian, who just defended his Doctoral Thesis at the Doctoral School of The Department of Economics on 5th October! Congratulations to Vlad, and we wish him success along the way!
1. What do you love about your job?
I am an Information Analyst at NICOR, within UCL. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/nicor
My job involves going through cohorts of patient data and looking for hospitals and doctors which fail to provide adequate levels of care. I love the fact I am able to use data in a meaningful way, that gives back to the community and improves people's lives.
2. Give an example of data challenges you are facing.
The biggest challenge I face in my work is the handling of missing data. As my work affects hospitals' reputations, there is a strong incentive for them to 'game the system' by not filling in key information. On the other hand, some hospitals do not routinely collect some types of data. I therefore have to think carefully about missing data and imputation, ensuring that there is an adequate balance of sticks and carrots in the system.
3. What did you take away from your CEU education?
My CEU education provided me with a whole suite of quantitative skills (computational, numerical and statistical) that I use in my work every day.