Jean-Paul R. Soucy

Jean-Paul R. Soucy

PhD candidate in Epidemiology at the University of Toronto

Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto

Biography

I am a Vanier Scholar pursuing a PhD in Epidemiology at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health in Toronto, Canada. My research interests include infectious disease epidemiology, health policy, and open data, with a focus on COVID-19 and antimicrobial resistance. I am advised by Dr. Kevin Brown at Public Health Ontario and Dr. David Fisman in the Epidemiology Division.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I was frequently interviewed as an expert for TV, radio, and print journalism. My research has been published in journals including The Lancet Microbe, the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the American Journal of Epidemiology, and Clinical Infectious Diseases. I have also written for the popular press on subjects ranging from public health policy, health data, and artificial intelligence. I also blog at Data Gripes.

I am a co-founder of the COVID-19 Canada Open Data Working Group and a founding editor of the University of Toronto Journal of Public Health.

My one page resume can be found here. A full list of my publications and talks can be found in my CV.

Interests

  • Infectious disease epidemiology
  • COVID-19
  • Antimicrobial resistance
  • Public health surveillance
  • Open data and transparency
  • Health policy

Education

  • PhD in Epidemiology, 2018–Present (expected defence date: January 2024)

    University of Toronto

  • MSc in Epidemiology, 2016–2018

    McGill University

  • HBSc in Biology; Minor in Mathematics, 2011–2016

    University of Ottawa

Writing

  • AI could revitalize local journalism, but only if we demand better digital municipal records ( The Globe and Mail, 2023)
  • Canada needs better data to confront our health-care crisis ( The Hub, 2022)
  • Why we must not ‘follow the science’ ( The Hub, 2022)

Code

As a proponent of reproducible research, many of my research papers are accompanied by data and code on GitHub.

COVID-19 Canada Open Data Working Group

I built a series of R packages to automatically update the COIVD-19 Canada Open Data Working Group dataset ( new dataset / old dataset) using GitHub Actions.

I also built a Python package to automatically archive COVID-19 datasets, webpages, and documents, which is publicly available as the Canadian COVID-19 Data Archive.

Other R packages

  • getDDD: Get WHO Defined Daily Dose – Download defined daily dose (DDD) information for selected ATC codes from the website of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Drug Statistics Methodology ( www.whocc.no).

Recent Posts

This blog has moved to data.gripe.

Just Some COVID Variant Data

A Canadian COVID variant tracker

What's Coming Next from the COVID-19 Canada Open Data Working Group in 2021

New datasets, a data ecosystem and an expanded dashboard

Contact

Send me an email (jeanpaul.soucy@mail.utoronto.ca) or use the contact form below.