Nikolay Lukyanchikov, MD, became interested in computer technology, programming, and medicine at an early age. A native of Moscow, Russia, he studied medicine at Sechenov University to follow his passion for helping ease people’s suffering from devastating conditions and making an impact on society. During his clinical rotations, he identified several problems affecting healthcare systems and areas where computer technology can improve patient care.
He was further motivated to continue his education when the COVID-19 pandemic began. At the time, Dr. Lukyanchikov was assisting in underserved hospitals in rural Siberia. He saw the prevalence of memory lapses and knowledge-based mistakes when medical personnel is overwhelmed. He is now enrolled in Weill Cornell Medicine’s MS in Healthcare Policy and Research program and hopes to help reduce these incidents in the future.
Dr. Luyanchikov, a member of the class of 2022, believes his self-taught skills and formal education have helped him succeed in the health informatics track of the MS program. Along with his medical training, he completed a professional training program for medical interpreters to improve communications with patients across languages. At the same time, he developed his computer science and mathematics skills with the help of online materials. “My extensive self-taught curriculum has been a huge advantage for the health informatics track since the fundamental disciplines of mathematics, statistics, and theoretical computer science are key to the development of new technologies in health informatics,” he said.
The main program highlight for Dr. Lukyanchikov has been the synergy between courses. He noted that the knowledge gained from one course is always used and reinforced in others. He has particularly enjoyed Research Methods in Health Informatics and Biostatistics I with R Lab. Both courses were marked by the extraordinary teaching skills of Dr. Meghan Reading Turchioe, instructor of population health sciences, and Dr. Xi Kathy Zhou, associate professor of population health sciences and director of the biostatistics and data science track. “Research Methods in Health Informatics gave me a solid foundation of research skills to achieve my post-graduation goals,” he said. “Biostatistics I with R Lab truly tested my self-taught mathematical skills and provided an opportunity to further develop outside of the classroom by conducting real-world research under Dr. Xi Kathy Zhou’s mentorship. This experience greatly helped me in my transition from a pure medical researcher to a health informatics researcher.”
Dr. Lukyanchikov also emphasized the important role of Dr. Zhou beyond the biostatistics course. She has aided in his professional development and his path toward getting into a PhD program after completing the MS program. “Dr. Zhou has provided valuable insights into choosing the correct program and has vouched for me as a recommender,” he said.
Dr. Lukyanchikov’s long-term goal is to create a startup focused on developing the next generation of clinical decision support systems (CDSS), further dedicating himself to research and development.