Arthur Cheng

Arthur received his PhD in neuroscience from the University of Toronto. During his PhD, Arthur has planned, executed, and managed multiple cell and molecular biology research projects in parallel, resulting in peer-reviewed publications, research funding, and conference presentations. He is also proficient in utilizing R, Python, and Unix/Linus operating systems for analyzing large biological data sets and biostatistics. Arthur will be joining the UCAN team as a bioinformatician and is eager to contribute to cutting-edge research in tackling childhood arthritis and rheumatic diseases.

Harper (Xiaolan) Cheng

Harper obtained her Master of Science in Biostatistics from the University of British Columbia and her Bachelor of Science in Statistics and Biomedical Toxicology from the University of Toronto. She worked at BC Cancer Research Centre with the Huntsman Lab as a bioinformatician co-op student/intern while completing her Master’s degree. She was working intensively with RNAseq and single-cell RNAseq data. After this internship, Harper moved back to Toronto and joined Dr. Yeung’s lab. She will be working as a biostatistician and apply her statistical and data analysis skills to assist with the UCAN project.

Patricia Cui

Patricia is a Clinical Research Project Manager at the Toronto site. She has combined experience and education in research and international project management. Prior to joining the UCAN CAN-DU Project, she obtained her MSc in Psychology in the Learning Sciences at the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München, while working as a Project Manager on a global transformation project at Allianz in Germany. In addition to Project Management, Patricia is passionate about using research evidence to improve the quality of life for individuals. Back in Canada, she leveraged her knowledge in Psychology to coordinate various multi-site research studies at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). She is very excited to join this dynamic team and is looking forward to learning more along the way.

Gillian Currie

Dr. Gillian Currie is a Health Economist and Associate Director of Health Economics Research with Dr. Deborah Marshall’s research team. She holds an Adjunct Associate Professor appointment in the Departments of Pediatrics and Community Health Sciences in the Cumming School of Medicine and is a member of the O’Brien Institute of Public Health and the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute at the University of Calgary. She obtained her PhD in Economics from Yale University. Dr. Currie’s research focuses on applications of health economics within child health. Specifically, she is interested in stated preference methods, such as discrete choice experiments, to understand the choices of parents and children, about treatment choices in the face of trade-offs about benefits and risks.

Ameen Demidem

Ameen is a computer science graduate chasing the Software-Philosopher’s Stone that will turn a code base into gold and give it eternal life! Otherwise, he has a passion for technology when used to solve real-world problems or answer human needs. He can only tell three colours apart but, with eyes closed, he could juggle with abstractions. Ameen believes that performance matters, but would not compromise with code elegance: computer programming should be no different from poetry writing.

Trang Duong

Dr. Trang Duong completed her graduate work at the University of Western Ontario in Microbiology and Immunology. She did her post-doctoral training at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) Research Institute in the Developmental & Stem Cell Biology Program.

She is currently a Senior Research Associate and Laboratory Manager of Dr. Rae Yeung’s Lab. Dr. Duong’s role includes maintaining and overseeing the day-to-day operations, supervising and mentoring research and non-research trainees, supporting staff, and providing continuity for ongoing research.

Dr. Yeung’s lab also houses the Rheumatology biobank as well as the biospecimen repository for a number of national and international clinical research studies. One of Dr. Duong’s responsibilities is to oversee and manage these operations.

Simon Eng

Dr. Simon Eng completed his PhD at the University of Toronto in Immunology and the Combined Program in Genome Biology in Bioinformatics. Under the supervision of Dr. Rae Yeung at SickKids and Dr. Quaid Morris at the Donnelly Centre, he explored methods for producing a biologically and clinically based disease classification for childhood arthritis using machine learning during his graduate studies, publishing two papers with several more in progress. He continues to be interested in using machine learning in the context of linking biological processes with clinical observations as well as the applications of machine learning at the bedside.

Luiza Grazziotin

Luiza Grazziotin is a pharmacist by training and completed an MSc in Cardiovascular Sciences. Currently, she is pursuing her PhD in Health Economics at the University of Calgary under the supervision of Dr. Deborah Marshall.

Luiza is passionate about different health economics modelling approaches and their applicability in describing complex health processes, evaluating new interventions, and ultimately, informing decision making. Luiza’s PhD project is focused on juvenile idiopathic arthritis personalized care using simulation modelling and cost-effectiveness analysis.

Karin Groothuis-Oudshoorn

Dr. Karin Groothuis-Oudshoorn is an Assistant Professor and a Biostatistician working at the Department of Health Technology and Services Research at the University of Twente. She is trained as a mathematical statistician and worked for more than 20 years as a biostatistician at multiple research institutes. She is an expert in the analysis of (patient) preference studies, handling missing data with multiple imputation, and applying statistical learning to health services research. She is a founding member of the International Academy of Health Preference Research and a member of the Medical Ethical Committee of Twente.

Kelsey Hannon

Kelsey is passionate about creating positive impact through design. With over four years of experience, her unique perspective has enabled her to quickly problem-solve and understand how design can play a key factor in driving change in the healthcare industry. She strives to shape memorable and impactful patient experiences by translating patient needs into actionable design strategies. She has navigated the intersection of design, strategy, and technology across multiple industries including healthcare, finance, and telecommunications.

Emily Hickey

Emily has a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences from Brock University and a Graduate Certificate in Clinical Research from Humber College. She has previous experience assisting on sponsor initiated Cardiac Clinical Trials, and has also completed her internship for her Graduate Program with Dr. Yeung’s research team. Emily is currently a Clinical Research Project Assistant working on the UCAN CAN-DU project and is excited to be a part of furthering Childhood Arthritis Personalized Medicine. She looks forward to working and being a part of the UCAN CAN-DU team.

Michelle Kip

Dr. Michelle Kip is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Health Technology & Services Research Department at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. She is an expert in the field of (early) health technology assessment, and her research focuses on methods to evaluate the health economic impact of medical technologies in several phases of development, using cost-effectiveness analysis and simulation modelling. Besides evaluating the health economic impact of medical technologies, she is also experienced in the field of multi-criteria decision analysis, which includes methods to evaluate stakeholders’ preferences with regard to (new) medical technologies.

Chitra Lalloo

Dr. Chitra Lalloo completed her PhD at McMaster University in 2014. Her dissertation focused on the development and validation of a digital pain mapping and tracking tool for adolescents and adults with persistent pain, including arthritis. Dr. Lalloo completed a postdoctoral fellowship in 2016 and is currently a Research Associate at SickKids in Dr. Jennifer Stinson’s group. She is responsible for overseeing evaluation of the iCanCope pain self-management platform for youth with arthritis (funded by The Arthritis Society), chronic pain (funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research; CIHR), and sickle cell disease (funded by the National Institutes of Health; NIH). Dr. Lalloo is also overseeing iCanCope ResearchKit integration to facilitate remote e-consenting.

Odelia Lee

Odelia is a product designer who strives to create meaningful and accessible healthcare experiences. She brings an interdisciplinary approach to her work, drawing on her experiences in user research and behavioural neuroscience to uncover insights for improving health and well-being. She believes that design can play a key part in shaping how we interact with the healthcare system and is passionate about using thoughtful and inclusive design to make a positive impact on people’s lives.

Kevin Leung

With a background in computer science, network engineering, and pharmacy, Kevin is interested in the intersection of technology and clinical healthcare practice. Having worked on various projects related to pharmacy workflows, health systems integration, and electronic health records, he remains on the lookout for ways to improve efficiency and patient outcomes.

Kevin is an advocate for the practical application of the agile software development process and is passionate about teasing out the “simple” from within complected designs and implementations. He loves to refactor dogma with and .

Andrea Linares

Andrea completed her undergraduate degree at Mount Royal University (BSc) in Calgary, AB. During her time at Mount Royal she found a passion for research and further developed her skills by attending graduate school in Ontario (Ontario Tech University). Her thesis looked at the acute cardiopulmonary responses to exercise in healthy older adults (MHSc). Now back in Calgary, she is excited to be a part of the UCAN CAN-DU project under the supervision of Dr. Susa Benseler.

Henry Lu

Henry completed his BSc in Statistics and MSc in Biostatistics at the University of Toronto. During his school years and working, he became more and more interested in statistics especially biostatistics. He wishes to utilize his statistical knowledge and modeling strategies to answer biomedical questions and contribute methodological innovations that can be translated to enhance health and improve disease prevention and treatment. Currently he is working as a biostatician in Dr. Yeung’s lab at SickKids.

Alex Mosoiu

Alex Mosoiu is an experienced project manager with a background in information technology (IT) implementations, healthcare process improvement projects, and complex multi-site initiatives aimed at improving kids’ health. Alex brings years of experience managing clinical software implementations, including surgical and enterprise imaging applications, and acted as SickKids lead on the Canadian Paediatric Surgical Wait Times project, which implemented a consensus-based system to track elective surgical waits for children and youth at participating hospitals across Canada using a novel diagnosis-based access target system. The project helped identify surgery types for which access targets were exceeded most frequently and led to measures to substantially reduce wait times in those areas at SickKids. Following a move to the research information technology group at the SickKids Research Institute, he managed the implementation of the Institute’s centralized biobanking solution and led a team focused on the development and implementation of IT solutions in the clinical research context. Alex is tremendously excited about supporting the goals of UCAN CAN-DU and all the UCAN projects and its amazing team.

Dhivya Narayan

Dhivya is the Product manager of UCAN product. With a passion for creating monetizable products which generate value to health and well-being of people, her driving force is to make healthcare more accessible through technology. Recognized for her ability to identify and enable cross-functional synergies, she has worked on large EMR systems and has supported healthcare organizations globally. With medical electronics engineering background, she comes with more than six years of experience in quality and product management of population health systems.

Zahra Naqvi

Zahra is a Clinical Research Project Assistant on the UCAN CAN-DU project. She obtained a Bachelor of Science in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from the University of Toronto, and a Graduate Certificate in Clinical Research from Seneca College. She has previous experience assisting in sponsor-initiated Cardiac and Orthopaedic clinical trials. Zahra looks forward to being a part of the UCAN CAN-DU team, and making a contributing towards an enlightened understanding of paediatric rheumatology.

David Ngo

David Ngo first joined eHealth Innovation as a student while finishing up his Software Engineering Technology program at Centennial College and has been working as a Quality Assurance Analyst since. His attention to detail and ability to think outside the box has not only helped with testing but also with the development of test plans as he works closely with the Project Managers and Developers in the development of self-management apps such as Medly, iCanCope, and UCAN. He is also responsible for the deployment of Medly to study participants through a mobile device management tool. When he is not finding bugs, he can be spotted on a basketball court, a mountain biking trail, or spending time with his family.

Quynh Pham

Quynh works at the intersection of health services research, analytics, and behaviour change theory to craft meaningful evaluations of digital health innovations. Her research focuses on designing and implementing innovative research methods to evaluate digital health innovations. She applies real-time analytics to evaluate effective engagement with consumer mobile health applications for chronic conditions. Quynh currently leads the research arm of the digitally-mediated prostate cancer survivorship program at eHealth Innovation at the University Health Network, and is also exploring the integration of the ResearchKit framework into a pediatric chronic pain application to facilitate informed eConsent. She is also the lead evaluator of the provincial SPARK program, which connects digital health innovations to provincial health data repositories.

Quynh is completing her PhD in Health Informatics Research under the supervision of Dr. Joseph Cafazzo at the Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation within the University of Toronto.

Emma Reid

Emma is a recent graduate from Sir Sandford Fleming College, completing her advanced diploma for Biotechnology – Advanced. Upon finishing her schoolwork, she completed a 15-week internship at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research in the Genomics department where she stayed on as a Research Technician for a little over a year. She was responsible for over 6000 DNA samples from cancer patients and the bulk of her project was to validate the presence of mutations in colorectal cancer tumors that had been called by Next Generation Sequencing. She is now currently working in Dr. Rae Yeung’s lab as a Research Technologist and is responsible for assisting with Biobank operations.

Frank Silverio

Frank is a Data Analyst for the UCAN CAN-DU project working with the project management team, bioinformatics team and application developers with regards to data management. He currently oversees the extraction of data from the UCAN app and the mapping and transformation of discovery data from other related studies to the UCAN data format. Frank has previously managed enterprise database systems and holds a BSc in Computer Engineering.

Suzanne Tam

Suzanne is involved in the ongoing process in finding the optimal method in preparing the bacteria cell wall extract (LCWE) that Dr. Rae Yeung’s lab uses for the study of Kawasaki disease. The ultimate goal is to dissect out the components in the extract and determine what is the agent(s) that is causing disease. In addition, she helps process and archive biospecimens involved in Dr. Yeung’s clinical studies, as well as the Rheumatology Biobank at SickKids.

Estevam Teixeira

Estevam is an experienced statistician looking to use a thorough understanding of biostatistics and experiment design to produce high-level statistical analysis. Skilled in Statistical Modeling, Data visualization, R, SAS, and Latex. Strong professional with an MSc focused in Biostatistics from the University of Toronto. Estevam is excited about working as a biostatistician at Dr. Rae Yeung’s lab at the SickKids Hospital.

Raymond Thompson

Raymond loves exploring the world through code and enjoys finding ways to make it useful to the human experience. With a degree in computer programming and over 7 years developing for web and hybrid mobile, Raymond joined the UCAN team inspired by the cause. He believes the intersect of healthcare and technology can produce a healthier world by empowering people to make better decisions about their own health. Plus, who doesn’t love the potential for cool data visualizations!

Amy Xu

Amy is a Clinical Research Project Coordinator on the UCAN CAN-DU project at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). She completed her B.Sc. in life science and her M.Sc. in physiology at the University of Toronto. Her graduate project focused on the development of imaging tool to screen for fetal anemia. She worked in the Division of Cardiology at SickKids as a research assistant prior to joining the UCAN team. She is looking forward to joining and working with the UCAN CAN-DU team.