Ecosystem

Digital Health

 

Digital Health Researchers

The department of Surgery at McGill University has a large a robust focus on Digital Health Innovation. Through the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre’s Clinical Innovation Platform, Digital Health tools development and research is centralized.

Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg

Surgeon-Scientist-Innovator

Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg

Surgeon-Scientist-Innovator

Domain

Cell biology

Links

PubMed

Biography

Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg is President and CEO of the Integrated Health and Social Services University Network for West-Central Montreal (West-Central Montreal Health).
Before assuming this position on April 1, 2015, Dr. Rosenberg had served since 2013 as Executive Director of the Jewish General Hospital (JGH). After joining the hospital in 2007, he spent six years as the Chief of Surgical Services.

Dr. Rosenberg is Professor of Surgery and Medicine at McGill University, where he earned a Master of Science degree and a doctorate in experimental surgery. He also completed post doctoral studies and a surgical fellowship in transplantation at the University of Michigan, and went on to earn a Master of Engineering degree—the equivalent of an MBA for scientists and engineers—from the University of Waterloo.

Dr. Jeffery Barkun

Surgeon-Innovator

Dr. Jeffery Barkun

Surgeon-Innovator

Domain

Digital Biomarkers

Links

PubMed

Biography

Jeffrey Barkun, MD, MSc. FRCSC, is a liver transplant and hepatobiliary surgery specialist at the McGill University Health Centre. He holds a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology and bio-statistics. In addition, Mr. Barkun is a full professor at McGill University in the department of surgery and has been involved in the development of a computerized clinical file for the McGill University Health Centre since 2001 where he has also been serving as Clinical Director of technological transition since 2008.

Dr. Edward Harvey

Surgeon-Scientist-Innovator

Dr. Edward Harvey

Surgeon-Scientist-Innovator

Domain

Sensor Development and Digital Diagnostics

Links

PubMed

Biography

Dr Harvey, MD MSc FRCSC, is a full professor of surgery. He has held several prominent positions including president of the Canadian Orthopaedic Association, editor in Chief of the Canadian Journal of Surgery, and head of basic science at the Orthopaedic Trauma Association. His research encompasses biosensors, evaluation of novel hardware and surgical approaches to expedite fracture repair, and innovation and business models in surgical discovery.

Dr. Liane Feldman

Surgeon-Scientist

Dr. Liane Feldman

Surgeon-Scientist

Domain

Digitally-Enhanced Surgical Quality

Links

PubMed

Biography

Dr Liane Feldman is the Edward W. Archibald Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery at McGill University and Surgeon-in-chief at the McGill University Health Centre. Her patient-centred research program focuses on improving outcomes of abdominal surgery. This includes technology-enabled assessment and improvement of operating room performance, optimization of perioperative care processes, and measurement of patient-centred outcomes during surgical recovery.

Dr. Dan Poenaru

Surgeon-Scientist

Dr. Dan Poenaru

Surgeon-Scientist

Domain

AI Predictive Models, VR Simulation, Telemedicine

Links

PubMed

Biography

Dr. Poenaru is a professor of paediatric surgery and researcher at the Montréal Children’s Hospital and McGill University. He has earned Masters degrees in both Health Professions Education and International Development, and a doctorate in Health Strategy & Management. He is a FRQS- and CIHR-funded investigator in patient-centred surgical care, head of the McGill CommiSur Lab, director of the Jean-Martin Laberge Fellowship in Global Pediatric Surgery and founding member of the Global Initiative for Children’s Surgery (GICS). He has published over 140 scientific papers and several book chapters, and supervises multiple Masters’ and PhD students from Canada and across the world. His research in digital health includes use of ML models for clinical predictive tools in acute appendicitis, NLP in the EHR and for abstract mining, AI-based precision communication patient-centred apps, and VR for trauma simulation training.

Prof. Thomas Fevens

Scientist

Prof. Thomas Fevens

Scientist

Domain

Medical AI

Links

Website
Google Scholar

Biography

Dr. Fevens is an Associate Professor and Associate Chair, Computer Science and Software Engineering, at Concordia University, and an Adjunct Professor, Dept. of Surgery, at McGill. While at Queen’s University, Dr. Fevens obtained an MSc and a PhD in Computing and Information Science in 1999, specializing in Numerical Analysis and Computational Geometry, respectively, also having a BSc and an MSc in Physics from Queen’s. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at McGill from 2000 to 2001 in the School of Computer Science. An expert in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Deep Learning and Medical Imaging, he has published articles in top venues such as ICCV, MICCAI, and IEEE TMI on Computer-Aided Breast Cancer Malignancy Classification, Clinical Image Segmentation, and Deep Learning for Medical Imagery. His areas of research also include Biometrics Analysis, Assistive Technology, and Computer Networks.

Dr. Kevin Lachapelle

Surgeon-Scientist

Dr. Kevin Lachapelle

Surgeon-Scientist

Domain

Predictive imaging

Links

PubMed

Biography

Dr Lachapelle is Vice Chair of Surgery ( Education ) and Cardiac Surgeon at the MUHC where his practice is focused on Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm pathology , diagnosis, and treatment. His research is focused on risk prediction using phenotypes, genotype, and imaging in patients with aortic pathology. He has funding from Doggone Foundation for a multicentre study termed the Aneurysm Risk Prediction Program ( ARAP ).

Prof. Julio Fiore

Scientist

Prof. Julio Fiore

Scientist

Domain

Perioperative data science

Links

Google Scholar

Biography

Dr Fiore’s research focuses on developing strategies to measure postoperative recovery from the perspective of patients, assessing the comparative effectiveness of interventions aimed to improve recovery, and reducing harms associated with surgery and perioperative care interventions. His research program capitalizes on the use of cutting-edge digital platforms to assess patient-reported outcomes via item-response theory and computer adaptive testing.

Dr. Lawrence Lee

Surgeon-Scientist-Innovator

Dr. Lawrence Lee

Surgeon-Scientist-Innovator

Domain

AI supported surgical outcomes

Links

Google Scholar

Biography

Dr. Lee’s research interests include health technology assessment and comparative effectiveness research for surgical technologies and innovations, with emphasis on the practice of colorectal surgery. Other areas of research include perioperative assessment, and functional and patient-reported outcomes after major abdominal surgery. In particular, Dr. Lee specializes in advanced minimally invasive and endoluminal approaches to the treatment of colorectal disease using flexible endoscopy, transanal endoscopic surgery, and Transanal Total Mesorectal Excision (TA-TME).

Dr. Renzo Cecere

Surgeon-Scientist-Innovator

Dr. Renzo Cecere

Surgeon-Scientist-Innovator

Domain

Digital cardiac rehab

Links

PubMed

Biography

Dr. Cecere works to develop a post coronary bypass surgery follow-up interactive program on Alexa to improve patient quality of life. The program will be able to offer a daily patient health assessment which will provide for a faster and more accurate follow-up. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in digital health tools can allocate the use of health resources where it is needed most and improve medical decision-making. The use of an intelligent triage system might be able to handle uncertainty and gaps in knowledge, post-surgery follow-up of a patient. This will personalize health assessment services to meet patient needs post-surgery.

Prof. Jake Barralet

Scientist

Prof. Jake Barralet

Scientist

Domain

Medtech innovation

Links

Recent publications

Biography

Dr Barralet is a materials scientist graduate who specializes in biomaterials. After a postdoctoral position with Professor Aoki at Tokyo Medical and Dental University he worked at Smith and Nephew Group Research Centre, York, UK developing bone graft and casting materials. At the University of Birmingham UK he progressed research themes in tissue engineering and bone grafts in collaboration with biologist and clinical co-workers. He specialises in Bioceramics in particular low temperature syntheses of nanocrystalline and amorphous inorganics, cold setting materials (cements) and precipitation to create new or improved materials or devices for tissue repair or delivery. Work on tissue engineering has focussed on new ways to build 3D structures using microscaffolds as building blocks for macroscale constructs. In addition calcium cross linked alginate has been evaluated as a tissue engineering scaffold. He has been awarded a Canada Research Chair in Osteoinductive Biomaterials and will work on this topic as well as extending prior work to include biomineralisation.

Dr. Kosar Khwaja

Surgeon-Scientist-Innovator

Dr. Kosar Khwaja

Surgeon-Scientist-Innovator

Domain

Digital biomarkers

Links

Google Scholar

Biography

Dr. Khwaja is the Director of Acute Care Surgery at the Montreal General Hospital and Associate Director, Trauma Program Critical Care Medicine.

Dr. Amir Hooshiar

Scientist

Dr. Amir Hooshiar

Scientist

Domain

Surgical robotics

Links

Google Scholar

Biography

Dr. Amir Hooshiar joined the Department of Surgery as a Postdoctoral Researcher. His doctoral research was on haptics-enabled robot-assisted surgical systems for cardiovascular intervention. He was an NSERC Vanier Scholar during his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Concordia University and received the 2018 NSERC Gilles-Brassard Doctoral Prize for Interdisciplinary Research. Amir is the department’s first surgical robotics scientist and works toward establishing the Surgical Robotics Centre (SRC). His expertise is in the design, modeling, and control of surgical robots. He aims to conduct interdisciplinary research on next-gen (semi-)autonomous surgical robots for endoscopic, endoluminal, and percutaneous procedures. Amir hopes to place the SRC among the top surgical robotics centers in North America in collaboration with surgeons, clinical staff, science and engineering faculty members, and MedTech partners.

Dr. Shannon Fraser

Surgeon-Scientist

Dr. Shannon Fraser

Surgeon-Scientist

Domain

Digital perioperative

Links

Research Gate

Biography

Dr. Shannon Fraser is the Chief of General Surgery at the Jewish General Hospital, as well as the Medical Director of the C4: Command Center at the CIUSSS CODI. Her experience lies in triad leadership and governance structure development, currently being applied for Digital Health Initiatives such as the C4: Command Center and patient flow. Her passion is optimization of patient care: championing the introduction of NSQIP at the LGH, while she was concomitantly chief of surgery (2013-17), as the first community hospital in Quebec to participate. Currently she is developing digital quality performance dashboards for patient flow, director report cards, digital tool development for peri-operative assessments, as well as multidisciplinary/multi-site patient order set development and deployment.