Navya Martin Kollapally Wins AMIA Reviewer Award

Navya Martin Kollapally M.S. ’21 (Computer Science), and a 2024 Ph.D. candidate, has been honored with the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Reviewer Award for her work in support of the 2024 AMIA Informatics Summit, held in Boston this past March. The award is given to peer reviewers based on effort, dedication and fieldwork on their subject of expertise. Her research focuses on social determinants of health through non-clinical factors.

She previously co-authored a paper titled “Integrating Commercial and Social Determinants of Health: A Unified Ontology for Non-Clinical Determinants of Health” with her advisor, Professor James Geller, chair of the Department of Data Science, which was presented at the 2023 AMIA Symposium in New Orleans.

AMIA reviewers are chosen based on their scholarly standing and assigned an average of seven research papers and posters. Kollapally was part of a three-person team who evaluated work to determine whether a subject was current and “in pace” with other similar researchers in their field. The process is a learning experience for the reviewer as well as colleagues submitting materials in consideration for the summit, and inspires a means to explore new questions, fill in gaps in similar papers and create new collaborative opportunities.

Now that Kollapally has completed her first year of reviewing successfully, she is eligible and invited to chair future event sessions.

Her own ontological data research on how non-clinical factors affect socially relevant health outcomes developed as a parent with concerns over the increasing instances of domestic lead poisoning in paint and water. According to her, over 10,000 children on average have experienced high levels of lead poisoning from environmental factors over the past three years. Almost 1 million people die every year due to lead poisoning, with more children suffering long-term health effects according to the World Health Organization. Kollapally is hopeful that her work will have a positive and measurable effect on affirmatively addressing these and other contributing determinants in a broad spectrum of health disparities.

She feels fortunate in working with Geller, a pioneer in the visualization and auditing of medical ontologies, who also proactively supports advancing women in technology fields.

“NJIT is like heaven to me. Professors like Dr. Geller are there for you all the way. He is more than an instructor and advisor. He has made it possible for me to successfully navigate and benefit from this program in ways I would not have anticipated. He adjusted the schedule to align with my personal and professional needs, worked tirelessly to secure a teaching assistantship, and has mentored me like a father figure. I am immensely grateful for the opportunities he has provided,” she said.

Kollapally was also a co-principal investigator with Geller on two papers, and shared authorship with him; Fadi Deek, former NJIT provost and distinguished professor in the Department of Informatics; Yehoshua Perl, professor in the Department of Computer Science; other NJIT alumna and current Ph.D. candidates; as well as faculty from other universities, which were presented at the BIOSTEC 2024 conference in Rome during February 2024.