Project Team Members
Carmina Agarpao
Clinical Research Project Assistant
Carmina Agarpao has a Bachelor of Science in biology from the University of Waterloo, and a post-graduate certificate in clinical research from Humber College. Last year, Carmina obtained her first position in clinical research as an intern with Dr. Rae Yeung’s team, and she is now working as a clinical research project assistant. She is very excited to be a part of the UCAN CAN-DU team, and looks forward to learning as much as she can in this role.
Connie Cline
Blood Draw Technician
Connie is a Certified Medical Laboratory Technician with the Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science. She completed her training at Mohawk College. Connie has over 11 years experience as Blood Draw technician. Connie strives to make the most out of each and everyday but when Connie isn’t at the clinic she enjoys nothing more than spending quality time with her husband and their 2 daughters.
Gillian Currie
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. Gillian’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.
Anisa Domi
Technologist I
Erik Drysdale
Erik grew up in British Columbia and obtained a BA and an MA in Economics from Simon Fraser University and Queen’s, respectively. After working as an Economist at the Bank of Canada for two years, Erik obtained an MSc in Statistics, taking courses in biostatistics and bioinformatics, and then worked as a Bioinformatician at the Boutros Lab in the OICR. Erik’s research interests are focused on the intersection of statistics and machine learning and include high-dimensional data analysis and survival modelling. In his free time Erik enjoys reading, listening to podcasts, and playing tennis.
Trang Duong
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 Research Institute in the Developmental & Stem Cell Biology Program.
She is currently a Senior Research Associate and Laboratory Manager of the Yeung Lab. Trang’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 on-going 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 Trang’s responsibilities is to oversee and manage these operations.
Working Group(s):
- Validation Phase Working Group – Biobank Data
Simon Eng
Lab Research Project Coordinator
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.
Shivani Goyal
Shivani Goyal is the Lead, Strategy & Research at eHealth Innovation at University Health Network, and Assistant Professor at the Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation at University of Toronto.
Shivani is currently leading a digital strategy for the commercialization of chronic disease management mobile technologies. She has extensive experience in the design and development of evidence-based behavioural digital platforms, as well as in evaluation methods, ranging from traditional (i.e. RCTs) to more nimble real-time analytics approaches.
Driven by the overwhelming prevalence of chronic illness and the need to revolutionize the traditional models for health care delivery, Shivani is exploring how consumer-focused approaches can enable patients to drive their own care. This involves expanding health care beyond hospital and clinics, and evolving traditional consumer markets (e.g. Pharmacies), communities, even our own homes, to be facilitators of improved health.
Through public-private partnerships, Shivani’s goal is to move eHealth research from bench to the hands of patients, through the co-development of innovative, robust and scalable models of health care delivery.
Shivani holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering, from the University of Toronto. Her thesis was focused on the design and evaluation of a behavioural mobile application for the self-management of diabetes. She also holds a Masters in Biomedical Engineering from Université de Montréal, and a Bachelors of Mechanical Engineering from Concordia, with a specializing in aerospace engineering.
Luiza Grazziotin
MSc, PhD student
Luiza Grazziotin is a pharmacist by training, and completed a 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 modeling 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
Product Designer
Healthcare Human Factors @ University Health Network
Kelsey is passionate about creating positive impact through design. With over 4 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.
Aniba Khan
Clinical Research Project Coordinator
Aniba has a Bachelor of Science degree in Life Sciences from the University of Toronto and a post-graduate certificate in clinical research from Humber College. She has over 4 years of experience coordinating phase I-V trials from initiation to completion in diabetes, endocrinology, cardiology, and neurology for both CROs and specialized clinics. Aniba looks forward to working with the UCAN CAN-DU team to further enhance her skills and experience in clinical research.
Abida Khattak
Data Analyst
Michelle Kip
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 modeling. 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.
Erik Koffijberg
Chitra Lalloo
Dr. Chitra Lalloo completed her PhD at McMaster University in 2014. Her dissertation focused on development and validation of a digital pain mapping and tracking tool for adolescents and adults with persistent pain, including arthritis (http://painquilt.com). Dr. Lalloo completed a post-doc in 2016 and is currently a Research Associate at SickKids (PI: Dr. Jennifer Stinson). 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 CIHR), and sickle cell disease (funded by NIH). See: http://icancope.ca Dr. Lalloo is also overseeing iCanCope ResearchKit integration to facilitate remote e-consenting.
Committee(s):
- Privacy and Ethics Advisory Committee
Kevin Leung
Product Designer
eHealthInnovation @ University Health Network
Maryam Masood
Clinical Research Project Coordinator
Maryam completed her Master of Science in Cell and Systems Biology from the University of Toronto. Her interest in Clinical Research stems from her senior year undergraduate internship at St. Michael’s Hospital where she was exposed to the exciting world of clinical research. Maryam has several years of experience as a research coordinator and is a Certified Clinical Research Associate (SOCRA). She has a diverse background of expertise in various observational and interventional research studies and therapeutic areas such as: oncology, ob-gyn, chiropractic care. She now wishes to expand her learning and apply her skills to the field of Rheumatology and is very excited to be a member of a multi-national research team. Maryam is well-versed with Canadian and USA regulations for clinical trials and will be the Clinical Research Project Coordinator at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids).
Jason Moore
Senior Developer
eHealth Innovation @ University Health Network
Jay became involved with healthcare during his master’s thesis in Denmark where he used video to bring the perspectives of people living with diabetes into the design process of an insulin injection device. After returning to Canada, he worked on a rewrite of the bant app so that it would be more relevant to people with type 2 diabetes. He has contributed to many of the apps at eHealth Innovation.
He loves code reviews, cycling, and elegant solutions.
Alex Mosoiu
Program Manager
Alex Mosoiu is an experienced project manager with 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.
Fenna Mossel
Fenna Mossel is a Research Coordinator for UCAN CAN DU in The Netherlands.
After working as a central monitor within the UMC Utrecht for 5 years she has great knowledge of ICH-GCP and national guidelines according the performance of clinical research.
She currently also works as a quality assurance officer research in the Wilhelmina Kinderziekenhuis Utrecht for the Division of Woman and Baby. This makes her familiar with accompanying researchers with setting up their research projects and monitoring while executing these trials.
All these experiences make her a good sparring partner for the participating centres in the Netherlands in setting up the UCAN CAN DU trial in their own centre.
Quynh Pham, MSc
Doctoral Trainee
eHealthInnovation @ University Health Network
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 eHI, 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.
Ana Sepulveda
Ana Sepulveda completed her Bachelor of Science, majoring in Health Sciences with a double minor in Chemistry and Psychology, at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta. Ana started her involvement with research in the early years of her undergrad degree, where she worked with Professor Brett McCollum (PhD) in SoTL projects looking at student preferences in education technologies for organic chemistry. She began with the team at Alberta Children’s Hospital as a student research volunteer in her senior year, and her passion for learning and research led her to her current role as a Research Coordinator for the section of Rheumatology. Her role with the UCAN CAN-DU project will be as the Canadian coordinator. She looks forward to working with all Canadian and Dutch team members and hopes to gain valuable experience in clinical and translational research.
Suzanne Tam
Research Technologist II
I am involved in the ongoing process in finding the optimal method in preparing the bacteria cell wall extract (LCWE) that our 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, I help process and archive biospecimens involved in our clinical studies, as well as the Rheumatology Biobank at Sickkids.
Akib Uddin BASc, MHSc
Manager
eHealthInnovation @ University Health Network
Akib is interested in building technology that can make a difference and help people lead healthier and happier lives. He first joined the eHealth Innovation for his masters, focusing on wearable sensors and biofeedback for blood pressure management, under the supervision of Dr. Joe Cafazzo. He has worked on the team in various roles, first as an intern, then as a Product Manager of multiple mobile platforms for chronic pain, juvenile arthritis, kidney disease, and heart failure. Akib has also contributed to the development of interoperability standards for diabetes devices and has worked on workshops with manufacturers for knowledge transfer.
Akib holds an MHSc in Clinical Engineering and a BASc in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Toronto.