Hello everyone. My name is Odamea Akomah, and I am based in the New York City area. I’ll be leading the course on Public Health Informatics and Global Population Health.
I currently serve as the Principal Technology Adoption Strategist at a leading cancer center. My work sits at the intersection of digital transformation, change management, and clinical, business, and research operations. My professional background is rooted in ensuring that complex technologies—from AI-enabled tools to enterprise-wide clinical systems—don't just exist but are actually utilized effectively by the people they are meant to serve. I focus on the "human layer" of technology, ensuring that innovation translates into measurable clinical and operational value.
My interest in public health informatics stems from the reality that even the most advanced health interventions fail if we ignore the mechanics of adoption. In global population health, informatics isn’t just about data collection; it’s about creating systems that are resilient, equitable, and intuitive enough to be used in diverse, often resource-constrained environments. I believe that public health informatics is the ultimate scaling mechanism for healthcare. When we optimize how data flows across populations, we aren't just managing records; we are actively closing gaps in care equity and outcomes.
One of the most pressing challenges I see in our field is the "last mile" of implementation. We are currently seeing a massive influx of data and sophisticated LLM integrations, yet there remains a significant disconnect between high-level population health data and the actual behavior of clinicians and patients on the ground. If a digital health strategy doesn't account for the socio-technical reality of its users, it cannot achieve population-level impact.
What I hope to learn from this program, and from all of you, is how informatics is being adapted across different global contexts and systemic constraints. I expect this cohort will challenge my perspectives on how we design for populations that have historically been sidelined by the digital divide. While I am here to share my expertise in adoption strategy and change management, I am also here to listen to your experiences—the real-world friction and the local successes—that define the future of global health.