Leong Scholars

Akshat Pai is a PhD candidate in the Institute of Medical Science. His study is the first in Canada that utilizes nearly two decades of data on childhood stroke to gain a holistic understanding of demographic factors and access to stroke care along with developing a validated evidence-based tool predicting post-stroke outcomes. His passion lies in addressing and helping alleviate barriers to healthcare for marginalized children and their families. He hopes to achieve this goal by advocating for inclusive and patient-centric healthcare practices across Canada.

Emily Hamovitch is a PhD candidate in the Institute of Health Policy, Management & Evaluation. In her doctoral work, she will use a mixed methods approach to examine changes in the provision of virtual follow-up care, before and after the formalization of virtual care use. The research will characterize patient and hospital-level and factors regarding the provision of follow-up care and examine reasons for these differences from the perspective of healthcare personnel. The study will provide evidence on how virtual care impacts the provision of follow-up care and whether it is delivered equitably.

Dr. David D’Arienzo is a PhD student at the Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluations, and a fellow in Academic General Pediatrics at the Hospital for Sick Children. He completed his medical school and pediatric residency at McGill University. His clinical interests lie in complex care and inpatient general pediatrics, and his academic interests are in healthcare delivery and health equity. David hopes to explore new healthcare delivery means and optimize current models, to improve healthcare accessibility. His project will focus on examining the impact that the shift to virtual care has had on the pediatric population, specifically in the realm of patient safety and effectiveness, through an equity lens.

Erica Wennberg is a MD/PhD student at the University of Toronto in the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. Her research project focuses on follow-up mental health care among youth and young adults whose first point of contact for mental health conditions is in the emergency department. She will investigate the use and quality of follow-up mental health care, including virtual care, in population-based studies and  a qualitative review.

Falan Bennett is an MD-PhD student at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Her project examines the fundamental causes of health inequities within the Canadian reproductive and pediatric fields. She will apply quantitative methods to dissect the racial patterning and structural determinants of disparities in Canadian maternal and child health outcomes.

Natasha Bruno is a PhD student studying Health Systems Research at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. Her project will follow youth with medical complexity for 2 years, working closely with paediatric and adult providers for transition planning as well as families to co-design transition goals and priorities to promote family-centred care. Ultimately, it is Natasha’s goal to encourage innovative, applied solutions to promote seamless and equitable transitions for a population that is disproportionately burdened by transition.

Jaden Dilda is a PhD student studying psychology at the University of Toronto and The Hospital for Sick Children. His research focuses on how socioeconomic status affects white matter development in both the general population and children treated for brain tumours. He hopes that his research will contribute to a holistic understanding of socioeconomic status that will shape research and clinical practices.

Sarah Malecki is a General Internal Medicine fellow at the University of Toronto and a PhD student in Clinical Epidemiology and Healthcare Research at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. She earned her BSc from Wilfrid Laurier University and her MSc in Molecular Medicine from the University of Ottawa. Combined with her experience as a support worker for youth with developmental disabilities, this background has fueled her research interest in young adults with medical complexity. Sarah developed research leadership experience during medical training while studying a model condition – 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, and is now expanding her focus to the broader population of young adults with medical complexity. Her goal as a clinician and independent researcher is to improve the lives of young adults with medical complexity, through policy-relevant research that informs new models of care.

Sarah Silverberg is a Master's Student at the Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluations. She completed her medical school at the University of Toronto, pediatric residency at the University of British Columbia and is completing her fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases at the Hospital for Sick Children. Her clinical and research interests include pediatric tuberculosis as well as vaccine preventable diseases and infectious diseases epidemiology. Her research focus is on evaluating the implementation and impact of novel vaccinations and prophylactic medications for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Sarah hopes that her work will help inform vaccination policy and shed light on the socioeconomic barriers faced in accessing population-wide programs.

Fatemeh Khorramrouz is a Registered Dietitian and PhD Candidate in Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto. Her work at The Applied Research Group for Kids (TARGet Kids!), Canada’s largest primary care research network for children, centers on the critical role that parents play in shaping healthy eating behaviors in early childhood. Through her research, she aims to develop strategies that empower families to make informed health choices and instill lifelong healthy eating habits in children.