The Cumming School of Medicine (CSM) is saddened to share the passing of Dr. Hude Quan, PhD'98 on Feb. 2, 2026. A globally recognized pioneer of data analysis in medical education and research, he was 63 years old.
Courtesy family of Hude Quan
An epidemiologist and professor in the CSM's Department of Community Health Sciences, Hude was a leader in the development of health data tools and standards used nationally and around the world to improve patient care, guide health policy and advance medicine.
Hude worked with governments and health organizations worldwide, helping adopt and refine indicators for cardiovascular disease, patient safety, and health equity. He supported international efforts to validate the World Health Organization's (WHO) updated international classification standards for diseases, known as ICD-11, which officially took effect in 2022.
Hude became the founding director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Classification, Terminologies, and Standards at the University of Calgary, one of only a handful of centres in the world focused on data science.
He was born in the Chinese village of Dongjjingcheng in 1962. Hude earned a medical degree in 1984 and master's degree in Social Medicine and Epidemiology at Harbin Medical University in northeast China in 1987. Supported by a scholarship from UNICEF, he earned a second Master of Science in Epidemiology from the University of London in 1991. Returning home, Hude quickly landed a faculty position at Harbin Medical University and an academic career at the intersection of health and data took flight.
Hude fatefully agreed to serve as an interpreter for a group of UCalgary faculty visiting Harbin, including health sciences professor Dr. Edgar Love, MD, PhD. Those connections eventually led Hude to pursue his doctorate in Calgary starting in 1993. After earning his PhD in Epidemiology in 1998, he began working as a health data researcher and was appointed an assistant professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences shortly thereafter.
Hude was the founding director of the CSM's Centre for Health Informatics (CHI), a research hub advancing precision medicine through data analytics, machine learning and secure data access. Through the CHI, he helped launch a new diploma and master's program in data science and analytics.
While serving as director of Alberta's Strategies for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) Data and Research Services Team, Hude helped transform the way researchers in Alberta access health data. He was also a member of the Libin Cardiovascular Institute at the CSM and the Chiu Family/AstraZeneca Chair in Cardiovascular Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.
Hude was a role model and leader, remembered for profound generosity and helping others advance their careers. Hude's academic legacy includes supporting more than 35 master's, PhD and postdoctoral trainees from around the world. He created a graduate-level course in administrative data analysis that requires students to conduct a full research study, from question to publication. The result was enhanced data analysis skills for dozens of graduate students and more than 60 peer-reviewed papers from course projects.
He also established international training and exchange programs that have brought students from China, France, Spain, Korea and other countries to Calgary, and sent local students to intern at the WHO headquarters in Geneva.
More recently, Hude spoke openly about a four-and-a-half-year battle with cholangiocarcinoma, a rare and aggressive bile duct cancer. Despite the diagnosis, Hude continued to do research, teach and supervise his students. Hude attended a WHO conference in Geneva in Oct. 2025 and insisted on answering as many work emails as he could into this year.
A recipient of countless national and international accolades and regularly listed among the world's most highly cited researchers, Hude was named the UCalgary Distinguished Alumni Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2025 for revolutionizing how health data is collected, analyzed, and applied.
Hude was guided and supported through life by his Christian faith. He enthusiastically shared words of hope and faith with others, describing his family and church community as a source of richness and love. Hude passed away peacefully at home in the presence of his wife, Sarah, and two sons, Samuel and Joshua. Plans for a public celebration of Hude's life are in development.
