Longtime public health practitioner Alan Sim shared on LinkedIn on Monday that he is stepping down as chief data officer in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance and Technology. Sim took the CDO role when he rejoined the agency in December 2020, subsequently contributing to its adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve health services.
He had previously worked with CDC as a health informatics scientist from 2000 to 2002, when he participated in the development of the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Sim’s Stints in the Private Sector
Before his CDC comeback, Sim served as chief data scientist at Vista Defense Technologies for over three years, supporting the company’s services to the Department of Defense and Veteran Affairs’ operational and research projects. He also had a previous stint of more than seven years as chief of data discovery and research and senior epidemiologist/informatician at CNF Technologies, leading data processing services for the three major U.S. military branches.
His past experience also includes over four years work as senior epidemiologist/informatician at Conceptual Mindworks and as a business process consultant at the MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Sim holds a PhD in Epidemiology from Drexel University, as well as master’s of science degree in community health from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health.
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