Dr. Sahr Wali is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto and a Scientific Associate at the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research at the University Health Network. She is a digital health services researcher whose work bridges culture and innovation to advance equitable models of chronic disease care. She is the recipient of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Health System Impact Embedded Early Career Researcher Award for her work advancing culturally safe cardiac care pathways for racialized and socially disadvantaged populations.
Dr. Wali’s program of research examines how digital health technologies can improve access, continuity, and quality of care by enabling models of care that extend beyond traditional clinical settings and bring services closer to home. Her work examines how innovation can be defined beyond Western paradigms, centring local knowledge, priorities, and lived experience in the design of health interventions. Drawing on community-based participatory research and user-centred design approaches, she works in partnership with communities to integrate Indigenous methodologies, land-based practices, and graphic medicine to inform culturally responsive models of care.