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S. Pantazi

Stefan V. Pantazi, MD (1998, Bucharest), PhD (2006, Health Information Science, University of Victoria)
Professor, Health Informatics
School of Health Sciences, Community Services and Biotechnology
Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning
299 Doon Valley Drive
Kitchener, ON, Canada, N2G 4M4
Office:  1C23 
Phone: (519) 748-5220 ext. 3950
Fax: (519) 748-3563
Email: spantazi |at| conestogac.on.ca
Web: http://hi.conestogac.on.ca/spantazi
Bio:

Stefan Pantazi is a medical doctor trained in General Medicine. His keen interest in computing led him to Medical Informatics. In his doctoral dissertation "A Deterministic Dynamic Associative Memory (DDAM) Model for Concept Space Representation," he explored research topics in the areas of knowledge discovery and representation, with relevance to Case-Based Reasoning, Natural Language Processing and Information Retrieval.

Dr. Pantazi's interest in uncovering fundamental aspects of Medical Informatics and medical decision-making led to a strong emphasis on computational models of information processing. This has also resulted in the creation of the notions of “knowledge spectrum” and of “usability axiom of medical information systems,” two novel concepts, developed, refined and published in peer-reviewed journals. Both these concepts helped convey fundamental aspects of Medical Informatics to students and to other audiences and allowed for the proposal of a new definition of Medical Informatics as "context-dependent processing of medical information," a view fundamentally linked to such research areas as Case Based Reasoning, Information Retrieval and Algorithmic Information Theory.

Dr. Pantazi's teaching approaches have very strong applied components that complement and support understanding of theoretical concepts. In his view, this approach to teaching is difficult to separate from the kind of applied research aimed at the exploration of new technologies and their applications to healthcare problems. A relevant example in this regard is the development of a simple prototype, The Health Monitoring Station, that helps demonstrating typical properties of Health Informatics applications to non-technical audiences. One other such project is the Android Garage Door Opener, a simple proof of concept idea that helps with the exploration of distributed information systems architectures for sensor data capture, processing, analysis, communication, display and decision support.

Teaching:
Foundations of Information Systems
Programming Concepts
Database Concepts
Health Informatics II
Database Concepts III: Database and Information Management in Health Informatics
Decision Support in Health Care
Publications:

Journal (peer reviewed)

  • Pantazi, S. V., “Unsupervised Grammar Induction in Medical Language Processing Using the Deterministic Dynamic Associative Memory (DDAM) Model”, Journal of Biomedical Informatics; Vol 43, Issue 5, October 2010, Pages 844-857; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2010.07.003
  • Schaafsma, J., Pantazi, S.V., Moehr, J.R., Anglin C.R., Grimm, N.A.“An Economic Evaluation of a Macro Application of Telehealth in British Columbia, Canada”, Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, Volume 13, Issue 5, July 2007, Pages 251-256
  • Pantazi S.V., Kushniruk A., Moehr J.R. “The Usability Axiom of Medical Information Systems”, International Journal of Medical Informatics; Volume 75, Issue 12, December 2006, Pages 829-839; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2006.05.039; preprint: http://hi.conestogac.on.ca/pantazi/pws/papers/preprint-IJMI-D-05-00101.pdf
  • Moehr, J.R., Schaafsma, J., Anglin C., Pantazi, S.V., Grimm, N.A., Anglin, S., “Success Factors for Telehealth – A Case Study”, International Journal of Medical Informatics; Volume 75, Issues 10-11, October-November 2006, Pages 755-763; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2005.11.001
  • Moehr J.R., Anglin C., Schaafsma J., Pantazi S.V., Grimm N.A., “Lest formalisms impede insight and success: Evaluation in health informatics - A case study”, Methods of Information in Medicine, 2006, 45(1), 67-72
  • Moehr J.R., Anglin C.R., Schaafsma J.P., Pantazi S.V., Anglin S., Grimm N.A. “Video-Conferencing Based Telehealth: Its Implications for Health Promotion and Health Care.” In: Methods of Information in Medicine; 2005; 44: p 334-341.
  • Pantazi S.V., Arocha J.F., Moehr J.R. “Case-based medical informatics.” BMC Journal of Medical Informatics and Decision Making; 2004, 4:19; http://hi.conestogac.on.ca/pantazi/pws/papers/BMC1472-6947-4-19.pdf

  Conference (peer reviewed)

  • Pantazi, S.V., Pantazi, F., Daly, K., “Clinical Informatics in Undergraduate Teaching of Health Informatics”, In: Proceedings of ITCH2011. Victoria, BC, February 2011; http://hi.conestogac.on.ca/files/PANTAZI_S_ITCH2011.pdf
  • Pantazi, S. V., “An Overview of the Deterministic Dynamic Associative Memory (DDAM) Model for Case Representation and Retrieval”. In: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Case-based Reasoning (ICCBR2009). Seattle, WA, July 2009  
  • Pantazi S.V., Bichindaritz I, Moehr J.R. “The case for context-dependent  dynamic hierarchical representations of knowledge in Medical Informatics.” in ITCH2007, Victoria, BC; http://hi.conestogac.on.ca/pantazi/pws/papers/ITCH2007-Full-paper-SP-JM-IB.pdf
  • Pantazi S.V., Moehr J.R. “An Associative Memory Model for Unsupervised Sequence Processing.” PacRim2005 (p. 233-236), Victoria, BC, Canada, August 2005; http://hi.conestogac.on.ca/pantazi/pws/papers/PACRIM05-304.pdf
  • Grimm N.A., Pantazi F., Moehr J.R., Pantazi S.V., Lau F.Y. “Translating a Project-based Course in Health Care Quality Improvement to Distance Education Using the PDSA Approach.” In: 2005 Hawaii International Conference on Education; Honolulu, Hawaii
  • Kagolovsky Y., Kushniruk A., Pantazi S.V., Moehr J.R. “A new method for ‘user-centered’ indexing of documents in information retrieval.” (poster) AMIA’2002 Annual Symposium
  • Pantazi S.V., Kagolovsky Y., Moehr J.R. “Cluster analysis of Wisconsin breast cancer dataset using self-organizing maps.” MIE’2002: The XVIIth International Congress of the European Federation for Medical Informatics, Budapest, August 2002, p.431-436; http://hi.conestogac.on.ca/pantazi/pws/papers/SP-MIE2002.pdf
  • Kagolovsky Y., Pantazi S.V., Moehr J.R. “A new method for matching a document to potential users’ information needs.” MIE’2002: The XVIIth International Congress of the European Federation for Medical Informatics, Budapest, August 2002

  Book chapters 

  • Pantazi S.V., Pantazi F., Moehr J.M. “Health Informatics (HI). An introduction and overview”. In Fundamentals of Health Information Management, 1st ed. Ottawa: Canadian Healthcare Association (CHA); 2009; pp. 149-177 
  • Pantazi S.V., Arocha J.F., Moehr J.R. “Case-based medical informatics.” In: Intelligent Paradigms in Healthcare Enterprises, B.G. Silverman, et al., Editors, Springer, 2005, 31-65

Other

  • Pantazi S.V., "A Deterministic Dynamic Associative Memory (DDAM) Model for Concept Space Representation", dissertation, 2006, University of Victoria
  • Pantazi S.V., Moehr J.R. “Automated Knowledge Acquisition by Inductive Generalization.” In: e-Health 2004, Victoria, BC.
  • Pantazi S.V., Kagolovsky Y., “Artificial Neural Networks in Data Analysis and Data Mining” (poster). British Columbia Advanced Systems Institute (ASI) Exchange, Vancouver, BC, March 12, 2002
  • Pantazi S.V., Kagolovsky Y., Moehr J.R. “Cluster Analysis of Wisconsin Breast Cancer Database Using Self-Organizing Maps” (poster). HEALNet RESEARCH WORKshop, Ottawa, Ontario, November 23-24, 2001
  • Spircu T., Pantazi S.V., “Romanian Language Phonemes - A Statistical Analysis.” Romanian National Medical Informatics Conference, Iasi, Romania, 2000
  • Spircu T., Pantazi S.V., “Toward Romanian Language Speech Synthesis and Recognition.” Romanian National Medical Informatics Conference, Iasi, 2000
  • Pantazi S.V. “Chest wall mapping data acquisition using a 4-channel bioelectric signal amplifier.” Romanian National Medical Informatics Conference, Arad, 1998
  • Pantazi S.V., “Computer Assisted Medical Diagnosis.” Doctor of Medicine diploma thesis, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania, 1998 (in Romanian)

  Reports

  Unpublished manuscripts

  • Pantazi S.V., Frech S.D., Moehr J.R., Bernauer J., Kagolovsky Y. “An example-based approach for the development of an improved text analysis methodology”.