In Profile: Karen Tu

The challenge, discovery and feeling of doing something for the greater good excites Professor Karen Tu. She is an expert in collection and interpretation of electronic medical records and other “big” health care data, and she believes medical-records analysis can help tackle child malnutrition and obesity in many ways.

First, available data can help identify patients who are predisposed to malnutrition and obesity. This knowledge can allow physicians and other health care providers to focus on prevention.

In addition, analysis of medical data can provide insights into the effectiveness of existing programs and policies that target malnutrition and obesity. For example, Tu has partnered with Public Health Ontario in a study to assess provincial programs that promote exercise and fight obesity. And she was recently part of a study that used primary care electronic medical records to find that child obesity rates in Ontario are highest in one-to-four year olds and in 10-14 year olds.

“Children do not get outside and exercise enough with so much technology in our homes. It is troubling, as childhood obesity often leads to long-term health concerns,” says Tu, a professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto.

Working with the Lawson Centre’s network of researchers allows Tu to bring more data into the large electronic medical records database she developed. This bank, called the Electronic Medical Record Administrative data Linked Database, contains data on more than 500,000 patients from over 350 physicians.

“It’s a great resource, which for example allows us to validate methods for identifying patients with specific diseases,” says Tu, who is also a family physician at Toronto Western Hospital. “I look forward to working with Lawson Centre researchers to learn more about the links between early nutrition and chronic disease among children in Ontario.”