Dr. Cathy Eastwood

Biography

Dr. Cathy Eastwood is an Adjunct Assistant Professor within the department of Community Health Sciences and Operations Manager for the Centre for Health informatics, a new Cumming School of Medicine initiative for facilitating precision health collaborations with Director Dr. Hude Quan and Associate Director Dr. Tyler Williamson.  Dr. Eastwood, a registered nurse since 1986, brings experience in clinical cardiology care, quality improvement, management, and education of nurses. In 1998, as clinical nurse specialist, she founded an outpatient heart failure clinic in Houston, Texas, and later successfully led multidisciplinary teams to improve patient and hospital outcomes.

Upon returning to Calgary, Dr. Eastwood’s PhD in Nursing focused on health services research, specifically, factors contributing to readmission after hospitalization for heart failure. This project launched her into the specialty of health data quality assurance. Dr. Eastwood collaborates with the Canadian Institute for Health Information and various World Health Organization (WHO) working groups to advance coded data quality. She recently completed a study testing the WHO’s Beta Version of International Classification of Diseases (11th Version), that has contributed to the development of WHO’s ICD-11 online coding tools, reference guide, and educational materials. New coding clusters for hospital harms and complex health conditions were reported as advanced methods for hospital data collection. Dr. Eastwood’s current work involves advancing collaborations, data access, and educational programs within the Centre for Health Informatics.  Her research focuses on developing methods for evaluating the contribution of electronic health record data for more accurate and efficient identification of chronic diseases and hospital acquired conditions in hospital data.