# Deepit Bhatia (@deepit.bsky.social)

Profile: https://sifa.id/p/deepit.bsky.social
Headline: Studying infectious disease epidemiology, disease dynamics, and ecology at Penn State University

## About

Creative, committed epidemiologist with over 10 years of expertise in solving complex problems using of novel spatial and temporal methodologies (including supervised machine learning) on dozens of big data sets and communicating them in actionable ways to private, government, and non-government stakeholders.

Over the last few years, I have researched: the impacts of the US financial crisis on risky behaviours, the impacts of different interventions in cancer-related outcomes, the economic impacts of infectious disease outbreaks, the subnational vulnerability of regions to infectious disease outbreaks, and the use of human mobility data in predicting and tracking the spread of outbreaks.

I have also engaged with stakeholders in 9 countries in Asia to research the feasibility of a centralized tuberculosis sample diagnosis system (India) and to develop and lead training sessions on infectious disease risk assessment and surveillance tools in the context of biosecurity (Southeast Asia).

Skills include:  Languages/Software: R, SQL, SAS, STATA, QGIS, Word, Excel, Powerpoint.

Research skills: Study design, literature reviews, data wrangling and manipulation, statistical analyses (including time-series, logistic regression, spatial analyses, integrating machine learning techniques), data visualization, manuscript writing, editing, submission.

Stakeholder engagement skills: Workshop development, structured and unstructured interviews, training development and implementation, cultural competence in India and the ASEAN region.

## Career

- **Graduate Fellow at Penn State University** (Jan 2021 - Present)
- **Epidemiologist at York Region (The Regional Municipality of York)** (Apr 2020 - Oct 2020)
  Vaughan
- **Researcher at Public Health Agency of Canada | Agence de la santé publique du Canada** (Jan 2020 - Mar 2020)
- **Project Coordinator at BlueDot Inc** (Jan 2017 - Sep 2019)
  •	Developed materials and trained senior and technical officials and stakeholders in 9 countries on software tools to increase regional capacity in preparedness and response to infectious disease outbreaks.
  • Designed and conducted workshops with stakeholders to better understand data and analytic needs pertaining to infectious disease surveillance and biosecurity.
- **Epidemiologist at BlueDot Inc** (Jan 2017 - Sep 2019)
  •	Led the development of a subnational-level, calibrated infectious disease vulnerability index using factor analysis and supervised machine learning.
  • Developed geospatial methodology to assess the spread of vector-borne disease at a census tract level using local mobility data.
  • Developed daily risk assessments for PHAC assessing the risk of importation of ongoing infectious disease events to Canada.
- **Research Analyst at ICES** (Apr 2015 - Dec 2016)
- **Practicum Student at ICES** (Jan 2015 - Apr 2015)
  During this placement, I worked with Dr. Jeff Kwong in assessing the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine in older adults. I also worked on a research article assessing the impact of changes in Pap test intervals in Ontario with the incidence of chlamydia.
- **Research Student at The Hospital for Sick Children** (Sep 2014 - Dec 2014)
- **Research Student at The Hospital for Sick Children** (Apr 2014 - Sep 2014)

## Skills

### Technical
- Data Analysis
- Microsoft Excel
- R
### Business
- Client Relations
- Data Visualization
- Project Management
- Risk Management
### Interpersonal
- Presentations
### Other
- Big Data Analytics
- Cancer Epidemiology
- Clinical Data Analysis
- Epidemiology
- Exploratory Data Analysis
- Large-scale Data Analysis
- Mathematical Modeling
- Multivariate Statistics
- SAS
- Spatial Epidemiology
- Statistical Data Analysis
- Statistical Inference
- Statistical Modeling
- Statistics

## Publications

- Travel Surveillance and Genomics Uncover a Hidden Zika Outbreak during the Waning Epidemic — Cell (Jul 2019) https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(19)30783-4
- Projecting the end of the Zika virus epidemic in Latin America: a modelling analysis — BMC Medicine (Oct 2018) https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-018-1158-8
- Infectious disease implications of large-scale migration of Venezuelan nationals — Journal of Travel Medicine (Sep 2018) https://academic.oup.com/jtm/article/25/1/tay077/5091517
- Potential plague exportation from Madagascar via international air travel — Lancet Infectious Diseases (Mar 2018) https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(18)30077-X/fulltext
- The Effect of Changes in Cervical Cancer Screening Guidelines on Chlamydia Testing — Annals of Family Medicine (Jul 2017) http://www.annfammed.org/content/15/4/329.figures-only?related-urls=yes&legid=annalsfm;15/4/329&cited-by=yes&legid=annalsfm;15/4/329
- Examining the impact of cycle lanes on cyclist-motor vehicle collisions in the city of Toronto — Journal of Transport and Health (Dec 2016) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214140516300147?via%3Dihub

## Credentials

- Biomedical Human Subjects Research (IRB) Course — CITI Program (Jul 2021) https://www.citiprogram.org/verify/?w8f2cbd67-201c-44d5-b598-3d5539a5a79e-43720511

## Education

- **Penn State University** — Doctor of Philosophy - PhD (2021 - 2025)
- **University of Toronto** — Master of Public Health - MPH (2013 - 2015)
- **McGill University** — Bachelor of Science - BS (2009 - 2013)

## Involvement

### Volunteering
- Bikesauce (Sep 2018 - Present)
  Volunteer
- Santropol Roulant (Oct 2009 - Jul 2011)
  Cook
  With a team of 3-6 people, I prepared meals for older adults in Montreal. I specialized in meeting dietary needs of our clients.

## Languages

- English (native)
- Hindi (native)

## Links

- linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepit-bhatia