Our Team

We are a team of clinicians, researchers, data scientists and technical staff working to improve healthcare with hospital data.

GEMINI Executive Team

Co-Lead

Co-Lead

Director, Operations & Strategic Partnerships

Director, Data Science & Innovation

Team Members

Assistant Professor, Faculty Affiliate

Investigator

General Internist

General Internist

General Internist

Senior Scientist

General Internist

General Internist

Co-Lead

Psychiatrist

General Internist

Co-Lead

General Internist, Affiiate Scientist

Amol Verma

Co-Lead

My role with the GEMINI team:

I am an internal medicine physician and scientist at Unity Health Toronto and the Temerty Professor of AI Research and Education in Medicine at the University of Toronto.

My educational background:

I completed a BSc in Microbiology and Immunology at Dalhousie, medical school and residency at the University of Toronto, a Masters in Economic and Social History at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, a 1-year interdisciplinary fellowship with the Canadian Frailty Network a 2-year research fellowship studying big data and advanced analytics in the Clinician Investigator Program of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and a 1-year fellowship in Artificial Intelligence and Compassion with AMS Healthcare.​

My past experience and accomplishments:

I serve as a Provincial Clinical Lead for Quality Improvement in General Internal Medicine with Ontario Health, the Vice-Chair of the Researcher Council of the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, and was a member of the Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel on Health Data Sharing. I received the 2023 Canadian Society of Internal Medicine New Investigator Award, the 2022 Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Early Career Leadership Award and the 2022 Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s early career Trailblazer Award in Population and Public Health Research. 

I feel most inspired when:

I am near the ocean.​

Fahad Razak

Co-Lead

My role with the GEMINI team:

I am a hospital-based general internist at St Michaels Hospital and Scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute. I am co-lead of the GEMINI program. I am also the Provincial Co-Lead, Quality Improvement in General Internal Medicine at Ontario Health, and I find this a great fit for my clinical work and research focus. ​

At the University of Toronto, I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine and Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation.  I am a member of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table.

My educational background:

My training includes a degree in Engineering Science (Biomedical Engineering), Medical Doctorate, Residency and Fellowship in General Internal Medicine at the University of Toronto. I was the first physician appointed as a David E. Bell Fellow at Harvard University and my post-doctoral training focused on social determinants of health and population health through use of large datasets.

My past experience and accomplishments:

Notable research recognitions at the University of Toronto include the Dean’s Emerging Leader Award, the President’s Impact Award, and being named a Senior Fellow at Massey College. I received the Canadian Society of Internal Medicine’s New Investigator Award and the Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship from the PSI Foundation.  I have received >$65 million in grant funding as Principal Investigator from sources such as CIHR, NSERC, and the Canadian Cancer Society. I have published >100 peer-reviewed publications (h-index 35, >50 as first/senior author), including in high impact journals such as JAMA, the BMJ, PLOS Medicine and PNAS as first/senior author. 

I am  a Canada Research Chair in Data-Informed Health Care Improvement and Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. I serve as a Provincial Clinical Lead for Quality Improvement in General Internal Medicine with Ontario Health, and am Vice-President Research at the Canadian Society of Internal Medicine. I am on the advisory board of the BMJ.

I was the Scientific Director of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table and co-authored >50 science and policy briefs that shaped the policy, public health and clinical response to the COVID-19 crisis. I am a member of the Federal Expert Panel on Science Advisory and Research convened by the Minister of Health.

I feel most inspired when:

I can see something grow that I have nurtured and cared for. For GEMINI, I feel inspired as I see our team grow stronger and more skilled in striving to achieve the complex and broad goals we have set for ourselves.

Vlad Kushnir

Director, Operations & Strategic Partnerships

Educational background

PhD in Pharmaceutical Science, University of Toronto

MSc in Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Toronto

BSc (Hons) in Biology and Psychology, York University

My past accomplishments

Prior to joining GEMINI, I managed a research program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, aimed at developing and evaluating the effectiveness of brief interventions for addictive disorders and co-morbid mental health issues. In my role, I guided the execution of randomized controlled trials and prospective studies, developed protocols and grants proposals, and managed all data collection and analysis efforts. Some of my key accomplishments include successfully leading a national trial on the real-world effectiveness of nicotine patches which involved over 2,000 participants, acquiring grant funding for problem gambling and tobacco dependence research from national and provincial agencies, and authoring dozens of publications in top-tier scientific journals.​

When I feel most inspired

I have the freedom to explore different ideas and make something my own.

A few of my favourite things

Backcountry canoe camping with my friends and kids

Building something with my kids (i.e. mini catapult, fuel-powered rocket, etc.), essentially anything that has the potential to be launched or explode

Backyard BBQ with friends and family on a sunny summer afternoon

Denise Mak

Director, Data Science & Innovation

Educational background

I have a Computer Science undergraduate degree from the University of Waterloo, as well as a Masters and PhD in Bioinformatics from Boston University.

My past accomplishments

I have been fortunate to have been involved with several major data projects that include managing a national longitudinal database of clinical patient data for a rare disease to studying mental illness using anonymized genetic data.

When I feel most inspired

I know I can’t save lives directly but try to contribute in other ways to make a meaningful impact.

A few of my favourite things

Relaxing with a cup of coffee or glass of wine (depending on the time of day)

Rewatching my favourite shows

Sitting by a fire doing any of the above!

Elham Dolatabadi

Assistant Professor, Faculty Affiliate

University of Toronto

Elham Dolatabadi is an Assistant Professor at the School of Health Policy and Management in Machine Learning and Health Informatics at York University and a Faculty Affiliate at Vector Institute. Prior to this, she was a Scientist and Health Lead at Vector Institute, where she led various large-scale projects in collaboration with hospitals, government, and private sectors in Ontario and Canada to deliver innovative AI solutions for real-world healthcare problems. Her interdisciplinary research harmonizes innovations in health informatics and machine learning to address complex challenges influencing human health and to reduce health disparities. In particular, her interest revolves around the three core pillars of multimodal learning in health, health equity analysis using causal mechanisms, and ambient intelligence. She is actively involved in various application domains stemming from these pillars, including characterizing Post-COVID-19 Condition (PCC) in Canada, improving youth mental health, building an early warning system for mental health crisis, and responsible development and deployment of clinical AI models.

Amrit Krishnan

Investigator

Amrit Krishnan is a Technical Team Lead at the Vector Institute. He leads the development of open-source software tools for the responsible development and deployment of Machine Learning (ML) systems for healthcare. Specifically, his team develops tools for:

1. Evaluating and monitoring ML systems to help clinical teams adopt them into their workflows in a safe and transparent way.

2. Researching and developing federated learning systems in healthcare settings.

3. Researching and developing foundation models for clinical time-series data.

He has a master’s degree in Engineering Physics, focusing on robotics and complex adaptive systems.

Janice Kwan

General Internist

Sinai Health

Dr. Janice Kwan practices general internal medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital and is an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She completed her undergraduate, medical, and residency training all at the University of Toronto.

She was Chief Medical Resident and a fellow with the Veterans Affairs Quality Scholars program in her final year of postgraduate medical training. She went on to earn a Master of Public Health in health policy and management at Harvard University. She was awarded a research fellowship in diagnostic medicine with the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine.

Dr. Kwan’s research focuses broadly on diagnostic error, a relatively neglected topic in patient safety and quality improvement until recent years. In addition, her areas of interest include the study of missed test results, quality of care in general internal medicine, clinical decision support systems, medication reconciliation, and evidence synthesis. Her work has appeared in Annals of Internal Medicine and British Medical Journal.

Lauren Lapointe-Shaw

General Internist

University Health Network

Lauren Lapointe-Shaw MDCM PhD is an Assistant Professor and Clinician Scientist in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto, Staff General Internal Medicine Physician at the University Health Network .

She was previously awarded a CIHR Fellowship Award and CIHR-IHSPR’s Rising Star Award for her work relating to the transition home from hospital. She has expertise in using health administrative data to answer questions relating to the quality of healthcare and the effects of health policy. Her research centers on the organization of and access to physician services and preventing hospital readmissions.

Research Interests:

  • Acute/hospital care
  • Internal medicine
  • Health services research
  • Health policy/reform

Jessica Liu

General Internist

University Health Network

Dr. Jessica Liu is an Internal Medicine Physician at the University Health Network (UHN) and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto, where she is a Clinician Investigator with a focus on healthcare quality improvement and innovation.In addition to her clinical practice, she has completed a research fellowship in quality improvement and patient safety with the Toronto division of the United States Veteran Affairs Quality Scholars Program (VAQS), which began as a joint collaboration between the U.S. Veterans Health Administration and the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. As of June 2016, she is also a research fellow with the Women’s College Hospital Institute for Health System Solutions and Virtual Care (WHIV).As part of a Mount Sinai Hospital research fellowship in quality and innovation, Dr. Liu has also worked as an Associate in the Healthcare Consulting Practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Toronto, where she applied her medical and clinical experience to clients in the healthcare sector.Dr. Liu’s research focuses on patient safety and quality of care, and optimizing clinical processes and outcomes. Specifically, her recent research and publications have focused on pharmaceutical industry-physician conflicts of interest, online physician ratings and the patient experience; quality of care of hospitalized patients; and rates and characteristics of physician disciplinary action by provincial regulatory colleges.Following her medical education at the University of Western Ontario (UWO), Dr. Liu completed her clinical fellowship in Internal Medicine at the University of Toronto. Prior to this she obtained a research-based Masters of Science (Anatomy and Cell Biology) from UWO and acted as an Oncology Research Associate for Cytochroma Inc. (now OPKO Health), a private sector biotechnology firm.

Geoffrey Liu

Senior Scientist

University Health Network

Dr. Liu graduated sum laude from the University of Toronto medicine program, followed by residencies at the University of Toronto and a fellowship at the Dana Farber Harvard Cancer Center in Boston. He was Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School before returning in 2006 to the Ontario Cancer Institute–Princess Margaret Hospital. Dr. Liu’s major research focus is in molecular prognostic factors and pharmacogenomics of lung and esophageal cancer, with additional interest in head and neck, pancreatic, ovarian and testicular cancers, mesothelioma and thymoma. Trained in clinical and molecular epidemiology, he is the principal investigator of over two dozen completed, ongoing and upcoming cancer pharmacogenomic and molecular epidemiologic analyses of cancer observational studies and clinical trials funded by the National Cancer Institute (US), National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group, Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute, the Canadian Institute of Health Research, the Ontario Institute of Cancer Research, Cancer Care Ontario, Doris Duke Foundation and the Lung Cancer Foundation of America. He has research interests in epidemiological outcomes database methods, novel analyses of high dimensionality biologically rich data, pharmacogenomic analyses of conventional and molecularly targeted agents using primary human xenograft models, patient-reported outcomes in pharmacogenomics, and knowledge translation of personalized medicine and pharmacogenomic algorithms into clinical practice. 

Thomas Macmillan

General Internist

University Health Network

Tom MacMillan is Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto and Clinician in Quality and Innovation in the Division of General Internal Medicine at Toronto Western Hospital, UHN.  He received his MD from Queen’s University and his Internal Medicine residency and General nternal Medicine fellowship training from the University of Toronto.  He obtained a Masters of Science in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety from the University of Toronto.

Dr. MacMillan’s academic interests include resource stewardship, deprescribing, and developing new models of GIM ambulatory care.  In 2016, Dr. MacMillan lead the implementation of a new program of GIM ambulatory clinics at TWH including a rapid referral clinic to reduce admissions from the emergency department, a post-discharge clinic to prevent readmissions to the GIM wards, and a hypertension clinic.  Dr. MacMillan is currently the lead for Quality Improvement and Ambulatory Care at the HoPingKong Centre for Excellence in Education and Practice at TWH.

Shail Rawal

General Internist

University Health Network

Dr. Shail Rawal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto and a General Internist at University Health Network. Her research examines the intersection of health equity and quality improvement.

Her recent work centres on the quality of care received by patients whose primary language is not English and the use of sociodemographic data and patient-reported outcomes to improve care.

Research Interests:

  • General internist and clinician in quality and innovation at University Health Network
  • Intersection of health equity and quality improvement
  • Characterizing the uses of patient-level sociodemographic data to improve patient care
  • Improving the quality of care received by patients with limited English proficiency.
  • Quality and safety of care in general internal medicine

Kathleen Sheehan

Psychiatrist

University of Toronto

Dr. Kathleen Sheehan is a staff psychiatrist with the medical psychiatry program at the Centre for Mental Health-University Health Network. She is the principal investigator on several research projects and has been awarded grants from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the University of Toronto.

Dr. Sheehan is a graduate of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University and completed her psychiatry residency at the University of Toronto. Dr. Sheehan completed her B.Sc. in Neuroscience at the University of St. Andrews and subsequently obtained both her Masters in Neuroscience and Doctorate in Social Psychiatry at the University of Oxford.

Her clinical interests are in the fields of consultation-liaison psychiatry and psychotherapy. Her research focuses on quality of health care for individuals with co-occurring physical and mental illnesses, especially in the areas of stroke and delirium, as well as issues at the intersection of ethics, law and mental health care

Terence Tang

General Internist

Trillium Health Partners

Terence Tang is a general internist at Trillium Health Partners and a clinician scientist at Institute for Better Health. His research focuses on using data to improve care, and in designing, implementing, and evaluating digital health solutions to improve care and experiences for patients and providers.

Adina Weinerman

General Internist, Affiiate Scientist

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Dr. Weinerman is the Medical Director, Quality & Patient Safety and the Chief Patient Experience Officer at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

Her research focuses on quality improvement and specifically resource stewardship. Areas of focus are education, implementation and evaluation of the Choosing Wisely Canada® recommendations.