Personal
- Name
- Dr Tony Sahama
- Position(s)
- Senior Lecturer
Science and Engineering Faculty,
Electrical Engineering, Computer Science,
Information Security - Discipline *
- Other Medical and Health Sciences, Other Information and Computing Sciences, Information Systems
- Phone
- +61 7 3138 1131
- Fax
- +61 7 3138 1214
- t.sahama@qut.edu.au
- Location
- View location details (QUT staff and student access only)
- Qualifications
-
Doctor of Philosophy (Victoria Uni of Tech), Master of Philosophy (University of Sri Lanka), Master of Education (Higher Education) (Queensland University of Technology), B.Sc. (University of Sri Lanka)
- Professional memberships
and associations I hold professional memberships with
- Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
- Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
- Australian Computer Society (ACS)
- International Biometric Society (IBS)
- Statistical Society of Australia (SSAI)
- Health Informatics Society of Australia (HISA)
- Keywords
-
Clinical Data Warehousing, Computer Experiments [DACE], Computer Models and Simulations, Decision Support Systems [DSS], eHealth, Health Analytics, Health Informatics, Information Accountability, Medical Informatics, Ubiquitous Health
Biography
Born in Sri Lanka, Tony was educated at University of Peradeniya, Kandy, Sri Lanka and employed at the same university prior to migrating to Australia. Since moving to Australia, Tony lectured for seven years at Victoria University of Technology (VUT), Melbourne and University of Queensland (UQ) in Brisbane respectively. At present, Tony is a senior lecturer in the Information Security Discipline, Faculty of Science and Engineering (SEF). His research interest is in Health/Medical Informatics in particular, Healthcare Information Technology (HIT) and Clinical Decision Support Systems design and development. Dr. Sahama possesses PhD in Computer Science (Computer Simulation and Modelling, DACE), and has experience working with researchers in developing customised technology applications for Clinical Decision Support Systems, Data warehousing, Data Integration and IT applications for healthcare decision making processes. Tony’s recent work is in developing IT educational applications for consumers in the PACT arena (People Accepting Controversial Technologies). Currently, Tony is supervising 4 research masters and 4 PhD level projects in the Medical Informatics research area. Tony holds professional membership with ACM, IEEE, IBS, ACS, SSAI and HISA.
Career history
- 2012 – present: Senior Lecturer – QUT, Faculty of Science and Engineering (SEF)
- 2006 – 2011: Senior Lecturer – QUT, Faculty of Science and Technology
- 2000 – 2006: Lecturer – QUT, Faculty of Information Technology
- 1999 – 2000: Post Doctoral Fellow– Uni. of QLD (UQ), School of Land and Food Sciences
- 1996 – 1999: Lecturer (and PhD candidate), Victoria University, Melbourne
- 1987 – 1996: Lecturer (and Research Officer), University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
Interested Research Areas:
- Medical Informatics (Health Informatics)
- e-Health and Telemedicine
- Healthcare Information Technology (HIT)
- HIT – Technology Induced Error, Life Critical Scenario, Human Factor
- Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS)
- Design and Analysis of Computer Experiments (DACE)
- Biomedical Informatics (BMI)
Research theme: Health, Information and Security Research discipline: Information Security & Computer Science
Teaching
Teaching discipline: Information Security
My philosophy of teaching is twofold: It is firstly innovative and guarantees that students learn through their own choices and/or resolutions (using technology where possible). Secondly, timely and practicable communications, consultations, negotiations and contributions should take place at any point of the learning journey. I believe this approach facilitates students by applying concepts in a new situation that makes them think about their true meaning, leading to a deeper sense of understanding. It is important to understand the diversity of an individual’s learning style in terms of their abilities, interests and ambitions. Consequently, it is impossible to find one way to effectively teach hundreds of different students therefore an improved and extended repertoire of teaching strategies are useful. The greater the variety of teaching styles used by educators, the greater the probability of reaching more students in the real world. At present, I teach, coordinate, manage and support;
- Professional Practice in IT (PPIT) {Work Integrated Learning unit INB300}
- Industry Based Learning and related activites
- CEED projects for the Faculty
- COOP Education and Workplacments
- HDR (Higher Degree Research) candidates and candidatures
Thesis topics for potential postgraduate research students
- Clinical Data warehousing Models for evidence based medical decision making
- Design and Analysis of Health Analytics Models
- Computer Experiments for Biomedical Informatics and related applications
- Healthcare Information Technology (HIT) and applications development
- e-Health and Tele-health systems, processes and protocols
- Medical/Health Informatics and HCI (EHR, MHR and HR impact analysis)
Experience
- Twenty years plus research experiences (in particular Applied Research area)
- Experienced Higher Degree Research (HDR) Supervisor and Mentor
- Twenty five years of teaching experiences in several Universities (Locally and Overseas)
- More than 10 years of Learning and Teaching research experiences
- Reviewing Medical Informatics research papers in Computing Reviews
- Providing expert advice on Computer Code Analysis (Deterministic Computer Experiments)
- Providing expert advice on DACE (Design and Analysis of Computer Experiments)
Publications
- Rathnayaka Mudiyanselage K, Momot K, Noser H, Volp A, Schuetz M, Sahama TR, Schmutz B, (2012) Quantification of the accuracy of MRI generated 3D models of long bones compared to CT generated 3D models, Medical Engineering and Physics p357-363
- Woodman K, Trevelyan J, Sahama TR, Gudimetla PV, Sharda H, Lucey T, Taji A, Narayanaswamy R, Yarlagadda PK, (2011) Chaos or complex systems? Identifying factors influencing the success of international and NESB graduate research students in Engineering and Information Technology Fields, Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovations p5359-5366
- Liang L, Iannella R, Sahama TR, (2011) Synchronised integrated online e-health profiles, Health Informatics: The Transformative Power of Innovation - Selected Papers from the 19th Australian National Health Informatics Conference [Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, Volume 168] p96-103
- Gajanayake G, Iannella R, Sahama TR, (2011) Privacy by information accountability for e-health systems, Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE 6th International Conference On Industrial And Information Systems, ICIIS 2011 p49-53
- Miller E, Sahama TR, Grace P, Wilson C, Hefferan M, (2011) Motivations, expectations and experiences of Australian rural and regional planners, Australian Planner p305-312
- Afara I, Sahama TR, Oloyede A, (2011) Near infrared for non-destructive testing of articular cartilage, Proceedings of NDTMS-2011: Nondestructive Testing of Materials and Structures p367-373
- Sahama TR, Miller E, (2011) Informed use of patients' records on trusted health care services, International Perspectives in Health Informatics, Volume 164 Studies in Health Technology and Informatics p127-131
- Shin DI, Sahama TR, Kim J, Kim J, (2011) Data encryptions techniques for electronic health record exchange, International Perspectives in Health Informatics, Volume 164 Studies in Health Technology and Informatics p392-396
- Gajanayake G, Iannella R, Sahama TR, (2011) Sharing with care: An information accountability perspective, IEEE Internet Computing p31-38
- Rathnayaka Mudiyanselage K, Sahama TR, Schuetz M, Schmutz B, (2011) Effects of CT image segmentation methods on the accuracy of long bone 3D reconstructions, Medical Engineering and Physics p226-233
For more publications by this staff member, visit QUT ePrints, the University's research repository.
Awards
Awards and recognition
- Type
- Fellowships
- Reference year
- 2012
- Details
- Australian Government Endeavour Executive Award for Professional Development: research on clinical trials in a simulated environment to manage chronic diseases.
- Type
- Fellowships
- Reference year
- 2012
- Details
- QLD Smart States International Fellowship. The study is about "Understanding Practical Issues in the Clinical Simulations when Integrating Professionals and Public in the Healthcare Decision Making Processes"
- Type
- Assessor, Examiner or Supervisor Role
- Reference year
- 2011
- Details
- Member of QUT's College of Mentoring Higher Degree Research (HDR) Supervisors
- Type
- Fellowships
- Reference year
- 2010
- Details
- The SCEPTrE Fellowship (2009- 2010): To reward and promote excellence, advance understanding and improve student experiences of professional training and learning through enquiry in disciplinary study and through work.
- Type
- Reviewer for an Academic Journal
- Reference year
- 2010
- Details
- Reviewer for Computing Reviews (CR). www.reviews.com/reviewer
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2006
- Details
- Faculty of Information Technology, Teaching Equity Award (2006): Benefits and challenges through evaluation of cross-cultural awareness in a cooperative learning environment
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2006
- Details
- Faculty of Information Technology: The Teaching Scholarship Award (2006) {Special Commendation}
Research projects
Grants and projects (Category 1: Australian Competitive Grants only)
- Title
- Growing Sustainable Regions: Developing a Rural Statistical Sustainability Framework
- Primary fund type
- Australian Competitive Grants
- Project ID
- LP0776795
- Start year
- 2008
- Keywords
- Sustainable Regions, Rural Sustainability, Regional Growth, Spatial Decision Support Systems, Economic Development, Decision Making
Supervision
Completed supervisions (Doctorate)
- 3D Reconstruction of Long Bones Utilising Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) (2011)
Completed supervisions (Masters by Research)
- Improving Trust and Secured Data Accessibility for e-health decision making by using Data Encryption Techniques (2012)
- Development of the rural statistical sustainability framework tool (2011)
- Impact of a data warehouse model for improved decision making process in healthcare (2011)
- Information Sharing in Onesocialweb Using A Multiple Profile Manager to Better Inform Medical Decision Making Processes (2011)
- A Secure Framework and Related Protocols for Ubiquitous Access to Electronic Health Records Using Java SIM Cards (2010)
- SELinux Policy Management Framework for HIS (2008)
