Helen Chen

Helen Chen is a Professor of Practice and Director of the Professional Practice Centre in Health Systems at the University of Waterloo. She holds cross appointments in Statistics and Actuarial Science and Computer Science. Her academic career includes a BA and MS in Engineering Mechanics from Tsinghua University (China), and a PhD in Computational Biomechanics from the University of Waterloo.

Research focuses on AI applications in public health, including generative AI for synthetic health data, drug discovery, and clinical language processing. Key projects include frameworks for social media infodemic monitoring and FAIR/CARE-compliant health data sharing ecosystems. Teaching interests span health informatics, AI-driven public health strategies, and health data management standards.

Recent work includes predictive models for peritoneal dialysis eligibility and welfare tests for health data sharing. Her interdisciplinary approach bridges computational methods with real-world health system challenges, emphasizing ethical data utilization and translational research.