[Note: I finally graduated but the combination of part-time work as a Board-certified Emergency Medicine physician; part-time work in research, writing, and consulting; and full-time work as a mom of two young children, precludes me from adequately updating these pages anytime soon...!]

Professional information:

With part of my time, I do research in the area of medical artificial intelligence. I finished my graduate studies at the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science in June, 2000. My dissertation work explores the development of a system for "intelligent" monitoring of patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). My goal for this project is to effect improved patient care by decreasing the false positive alarm rate of monitors in the ICU; false alarms currently comprise as many as 86% of bedside alarms (Tsien and Fackler 1997).

My other major research interests are development and application of machine learning techniques to understand correlations between patient characteristics and particular diseases, and exploration of artificial intelligence and data mining techniques for bioinformatics.  Please see Publications for further details.

A good part of my professional time is spent in direct patient care: originally, studying to become a physician at Harvard Medical School in the Division of Health Sciences and Technology; then, training in the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency program at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital; and now, working per diem in the Emergency Departments of Massachusetts General Hospital, Jordan Hospital, and Caritas Good Samaritan Medical Center.

I also enjoy writing, most recently co-authoring an emergency medicine book geared towards medical students (Blueprints Clinical Cases in Emergency Medicine).

Besides doing research and practicing medicine, I love competitive ballroom dancing, scuba diving, and traveling. I also very much enjoy ice skating, rollerblading, swimming, windsurfing, skiing, taking photos, baking and cooking, learning foreign languages, and watching good movies.

During my graduate studies, I served for 5 years as a "graduate resident tutor" for 48 undergraduate students at MIT in G Entry of MacGregor House. They were really a great group of people and it was an unforgettable positive experience.

The best thing I've done in my life is become a mom. Granted, being a mother is also amongst the most challenging things I've ever taken on. Multi-tasking has taken on new meaning. I now strive to play cars and trucks, trains, Little People, marbles, puzzles, videogames, Playdoh, and so forth, while also cooking, organizing, earning Continuing Medical Education credits, going through mail, and talking on the phone! Some day, I will improve my writing and reading skills in Mandarin, practice more piano, exercise more, and read a good book instead of listening to it on audiotape in the car on my way to work. Some day, I will finish organizing the house and move my childhood belongings out of my parents' house. Perhaps some day I will again be able to pack lightly for trips (when I no longer need sippy cups, diapers, strollers, car seats, instant hand sanitizing wipes, spare sets of clothing, and plenty of portable toys). I feel fortunate to have already traveled to nearly all of the continents (I only haven't been to Antarctica), but there are many more places that I would like to see in the future. I haven't been to Alaska yet, for example, but I hope to take an Alaskan cruise vacation some day. I also hope to go to Italy and New Zealand, as well as China again (the parts of China that I haven't seen yet). For the moment, though, I am happy to plan trips just to the zoo, museums, beach, our new "lake" house (on a pond), or the grocery store!

These pages are STILL under construction. Maybe next time I'll have included more photos in my Photo Gallery