Other Affiliations
Clinician Scientist (Sinai Health System, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto)
Adjunct Scientist (ICES Central)
Research Interests
Limited access to palliative care, especially for people with noncancer illness like heart failure and dementia, results in poor quality of life and unnecessary suffering as death approaches. A shortage of palliative care providers to meet the growing needs of patients and their caregivers demands high-quality research to inform how best to deliver care to meet these increasing demands. Innovative models of collaborative multidisciplinary care are needed to address these gaps to enhance access and improve the dying process for patients and support their caregivers. I am General Internist and Palliative Care Clinician-Scientist who is passionate about developing and evaluating innovative care models to improve access and quality of end-of-life care to support the right patient, in the right location, at the right time.
Professional Interests
I aim to change health policy and clinical practice through improvements in access to palliative care and the quality of end-of-life care for patients dying of noncancer illness. My goal is to practice as a clinical leader and Clinician-Scientist in General Internal Medicine and Palliative Care at a leading Canadian academic institution with a focus on novel and integrative palliative care and research.
Impact
I have been a co-principal and co-investigator on 8 major research programs (totaling over $2.4 million in competitive funding) supported by national and international grant funding agencies. I was awarded the Governor General’s Gold Medal as the top graduate student across the entire School of Graduate Studies at the University of Toronto. I presently have 56 publications (36 as first author or senior author) in high impact journals such as JAMA, JAMA Internal Medicine, BMJ and CMAJ (h-index 15).
Many of my provincial and national research studies on high-quality end-of-life care informed health policy in the design of palliative care programs for patients with noncancer illness such as heart failure and dementia. These findings have been used by the Ontario Government in the recently published Ontario Provincial Framework for Palliative Care, the Ontario Palliative Care Network’s Palliative Care Health Services Delivery Framework and the Ontario Medical Association’s 5-Point Plan for Better Healthcare. I was recently awarded the Michael Decter Scholarship in Health Leadership and Policy for my work in this field.
I have made important contributions to the dissemination of clinical evidence on a global scale. Many of my studies received attention from international media agencies and millions of followers on Twitter. They were viewed more than 30,000 times, have been cited frequently and are ranked in the top 5% of all published research. I am also the former director of The Rounds Table, a clinical research-focused podcast that aims to help practicing clinicians stay up to date on the latest evidence. Under my leadership, I quadrupled its audience. It is now downloaded by more than 7,000 monthly listeners from over 100 countries worldwide.
Despite being in the early stages of my career, I mentored 11 trainees in their clinical and research development. I am proud to have helped them get into medical school and their top ranked clinical residency programs. Together, we have 10 publications related to the delivery of high-quality palliative and end-of-life care to ensure the right patient, gets the right care, in the right place, and at the right time.