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Faculty Innovations

Michal Abrahamowicz

Dr Abrahamowicz is Co-Chair of the international – a large collaboration of experts in many different areas of biostatistical research whose objective is to provide accessible and accurate guidance in the design and analysis of observational studies. The guidance is intended for applied statisticians and other data analysts with varying levels of statistical education, experience and interests.


Sara Ahmed

Dr. Ahmed is working with industry partners to integrate Personalized and Digital Patient-Centered Pain Care across a continuum of care. This will include a patient portal to collect patient-reported outcomes (PROs), increasing access to specialty care using e-consult and ECCO solutions, and an EMR.


Susan Bartlett

Dr Bartlett is co-founder of Canada-PROMIS, the Canadian chapter of the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System.


Isabel Fortier

Dr Fortier is head of the , which provides methods, catalogues, open-source software, and expertise to support data documentation, harmonization, co-analysis, and dissemination.


Deborah DaCosta

Dr. DaCostawas awarded aMEDTEQ innovation grant to develop and pilot test an enhanced to promote maternal and paternal mental health.


Kaberi Dasgupta

Dr Dasgupta established a virtual (youth) with a CIHR-Diabetes Canada grant (SPOR).

She has also developed a CIHR-funded physician-delivered step count prescription strategy, which was integrated into the 2018 Diabetes Canada guidelines.


Steven Grover

Dr. Grover’s web-based health promotion programs show measurable clinical benefits:

  • Active Living with Breast Cancer Program allows patients to track their daily exercise activities online while completing an exercise challenge over 8-12 weeks.
  • An online that was piloted with 180 participants, showed reductions in stress levels.
  • His team also developed a based on Stan Rogers’ folksong “Barrett’s Privateers”:


Emily McDonald & Todd C Lee

Drs McDonald and Lee are two-time winners of the CLIC Innovation Prize.

In 2019, they won the MI4 Innovation Award for their project AntibioticSentinel, a tool for visualizing, in near real-time, the patterns of antibiotic resistance in a hospital at the point of care. This project has the goal of improving antibiotic prescription by bringing data science into empiric therapy.

In 2020, they won the Marika Zelenka Roy Innovation Prize for . MedSafer is an app that helps guide a “medication check-up” by providing scientific information on the harms and benefits, and instructions for safe de-prescribing. It has been used successfully in approximately 7000 medical inpatients over 2 randomized controlled trials funded by the Canadian Frailty Network and CIHR and is currently being studied as part of an Electronic Medical Record Integrated solution in Long Term Care Facilities in Ontario and New Brunswick.


Nancy Mayo

Dr. Mayo carried out two for a novel sensor that provides real-time auditory feedback every time a person takes a “good” step, one in which the heel strikes first when stepping (Heel2Toe). Results of the proof-of-concept studies showed that immediate, real-time auditory feedback has the potential to harness the power of the brain to stamp in a more optimal and safer walking pattern.


Nitika Pant Pai

Dr. Pai was funded by CIHR and IC-IMPACTS to develop !, an app-based program for multiplexed testing, which trains health aides to digitally document, counsel, and link participants to care. AideSmart! was piloted in India and is currently being tested across Canada.

Funded by the Governments of Canada and South Africa, she and her team also developed !, an award-winning smartphone application that supports self-testing, linkage, and counselling for HIV. This program has saved 4000 lives in Canada and South Africa, and will be evaluated in additional at-risk populations in the coming years.

Currently, her team is developing and evaluating , an internet of things (IoT) solution for sexual, reproductive, and menstrual health (SRHR MH) education. AnkaSmart! was a finalist in the 5th Annual ƻԺ Clinical Innovation Competition.

Dr. Pai’s innovation, , an app-based strategy for COVID-19 self-testing, will soon be evaluated in South Africa.

Suzanne Morin

Dr. Morin’s CIHR-funded program is an e-monitoring and coaching support system designed to extend the standard rehabilitation period following fractures in older adults. It uses a smart shoe insole, an exercise app and a secure dashboard designed for remote monitoring. In addition, Dr. Morin is developing a mobile app to support acute pain self-management in older adults following a fracture.


Robyn Tamblyn

Dr. Tamblyn developed , a CFI/CIHR funded electronic medication reconciliation software, evaluated by a CIHR-funded cluster randomized trial at the MUHC, which showed significant reductions in medication discrepancies.

Dr. Tamblyn also received MEDTEQ funding to develop a mobile application () to assist patients and caregivers in managing their medications following hospital discharge. SAM was recently piloted at the ƻԺ Health Centre (MUHC).

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