Dr. Sara Shearkhani is a Health Services Researcher with expertise in evaluation science, health equity, mental health, and integrated care. She completed her CIHR Health System Impact Post-Doctoral Fellowship in 2022 at East Toronto Health Partners (East Toronto Ontario Health Team), where she led initiatives to embed evaluation frameworks within integrated care systems and helped drive innovation in equity-focused service design.
Dr. Shearkhani holds a PhD in Health Services Research (specializing in Outcomes and Evaluation) from the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation and a Master’s degree in Economics. During her doctoral studies, she was a Fellow at both the Health System Performance Network and the Canadian Frailty Network, where she investigated healthcare utilization and the economic impacts of family caregiving. She was recognized as one of Ontario’s Faces of Change in 2014 and received the Canada Cares Award in 2017.
Her work focuses on leveraging evaluation and mixed-methods research to build learning health systems, reduce health disparities, and foster more equitable care delivery in marginalized communities.
Research Interests:
- Mental health
- Forensic mental health
- Reverse integeration
- Physical health equity for marginalized populations- Cancer screening
- Integrated care
- Learning health systems
- Equity in health outcomes for marginalized populations
- Healthcare utilization and cost
- Community-focused research
Approach:
- Mixed-methods research
Opportunities:
Dr. Shearkhani is currently accepting Master’s students with a passion for learning quantitative methods, cost-effectiveness analyses, and qualitative research.
Current projects:
- Evaluation Capacity Building
- Physical Health Equity for Marginalized Populations Living with Serious Mental Health
- Health System Transformation-Restraint Use and Seclusion in Forensic Patients