Newswise — As a school kid growing up in Nigeria, Tolulope Sajobi found math very easy.
"I like numbers," said Sajobi, 28, fondly recalling that his dad, a high school teacher, used to quiz him on math problems over dinner.
At university, the young math whiz was a top student and seemed headed for a career in engineering. But an internship as a data analyst at one of Nigeria's leading hospitals changed all that.
"It was there that I saw how statistics could apply to public health and I became very passionate about improving health care systems in developing countries, especially Africa," he says.
The University of Saskatchewan PhD student in math and statistics has just won a prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research—$50,000 a year for up to three years. Working with supervisor Lisa Lix, a U of S associate professor and Centennial Chair of the School of Public Health, Sajobi now has an opportunity to use his math talent to help improve the health of people around the world.
"What makes him special is that combination of a solid theoretical understanding of statistics with an interest in applying this knowledge to real research problems," says Lix.
"I think his background as an international student has helped contribute to his success—he is sensitive to the determinants of individual and community health." Sajobi notes that since the 1990s medical researchers have recognized the importance of collecting data from patients on quality of life factors that can be affected by the disease course, such as stress and personal perceptions of well-being.
To learn how best to treat disease, medical researchers now recognize the need to track not just objective outcomes such as death or disease recurrence, but also changes in long-term psychological and social well-being of patients.
And finding the best statistical methods to measure these health-related quality of life changes is where Sajobi and Lix can make a difference.
One project they're working on is the Manitoba Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Cohort Study which is following a group of patients with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis to better understand patient-reported outcomes such as health-related quality of life.
By developing new statistical tools to analyze patient-reported outcomes, the research can help health professionals understand how health-related quality of life changes over time and how it is related to IBD flare-ups.
Winning the highly prized scholarship has made Sajobi realize just how lucky he is to have family and friends who believed in his potential and motivated him to pursue a PhD.
"It also confirms that the U of S was the right place for me to come and pursue my PhD," says Sajobi.
He plans to pursue a career as a biostatistician. "I hope to work with clinicians, epidemiologists, and public health researchers to address important public health research questions and improve the health of Canadians and people in developing countries," says Sajobi.
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