Albert Park

Hi, I am Albert Park, currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Software and Information Systems within the College of Computing and Informatics at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.

Interests:

Social computing, group-health informatics, human-centered design, personal (consumer) health informatics, online communication, collaborative health technology, patient-provider interaction, peer support, patient-reported outcomes and patient-generated data

Background:

I was a National Institutes of Health-National Library of Medicine Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Utah. I hold a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Computer Science from Virginia Tech, and a Ph.D. in Biomedical and Health Informatics from the University of Washington.

Research:

My research focuses on the analysis of social interactions and social networks using modern data analysis and development of novel computational approaches to study social interactions and relationships in the context of health.

Website:

Health Informatics Lab: https://cci-hit.charlotte.edu

Are you looking for an opportunity to collaborate, do significant research and earn your Ph.D.? I will have two Ph.D. student positions. If you have strong technical skills particularly in areas pertaining to social computing and/or machine learning combined with a strong understanding of theories and research approaches within social and behavioral sciences, please send me the following: a brief statement about yourself, including your name, major, anticipated degree, and graduation date; and also a resume/CV highlighting relevant skills and experiences. Informal inquiries are welcome and may be made by email (apark11@uncc.edu).

Selected Representative Publications:

• Park, A., Conway, M. (2018) Harnessing Reddit to understand the written-communication challenges experience by individuals with mental health disorders: Analysis of texts from depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia communities. Special Issue of Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR): Mining Online Health Reports 2018;20(4):e121.
• Park, A., Conway, M., Chen. A.T. (2018) Examining Thematic Similarity, Difference, and Membership in Three Online Mental Health Communities from Reddit: A Text Mining and Visualization Approach. Computers in Human Behavior 2018 Jan; 78: 98–112.
• Park, A., Conway, M. (2017) Longitudinal Changes in Psychological States in Online Health Community Members: Understanding the Long-Term Effects of Participating in an Online Depression Community. Special Issue of Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR): Computing and Mental Health 2017; 19(3):e71.
• Park, A., Zhu S.H., Conway M. (2017) The Readability of Electronic Cigarette Health Information and Advice: A Quantitative Analysis of Web-Based Information. Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) Public Health and Surveillance 2017;3(1):e1.
• Park, A., Conway, M. (2017) Tracking Health Related Discussions on Reddit for Public Health Applications. Proceedings of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Annual Symposium. Washington DC.
• Park, A., Hartzler, A., Huh, J., Hsieh, G., McDonald, D., Pratt, W. (2016) “How Did We Get Here?”: Topic Drift in Online Health Discussions. Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) 2016;18(11):e284.
• Park, A., Hartzler, A., Huh, J., McDonald, D., Pratt, W. (2015) Homophily of Vocabulary Usage: Beneficial Effects of Vocabulary Similarity in Online Health Communities Participation. Proceedings of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Annual Symposium. San Francisco, CA.
• Park, A., Hartzler, A., Huh, J., McDonald, D., Pratt, W. (2015) Automatically detecting failures in natural language processing tools for online community text. Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) 2015;17(8):e212