Good Tech, Compassionate Healthcare (AMS Healthcare)

In this conversation, Kieran Quinn, a general internist and palliative care clinician-scientist at Sinai Health in the Department of Medicine and at the Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation at the University of Toronto, and James Downer, a critical care and palliative care physician in Ottawa, discuss virtual end-of-life care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

https://pcpcrc.ca/ - The Pan-Canadian Palliative Care Research Collaborative is a national network of researchers, healthcare providers, community stakeholders, and patient and caregiver partners who are passionate about palliative care research.

Dr. Kieran Quinn is a General Internist and Palliative Care Clinician-Scientist at Sinai Health in the Department of Medicine and Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation at the University of Toronto and an Adjunct Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). His research focuses on using advanced analytic methods and large administrative datasets to improve access and delivery of high-quality end-of-life care for patients with terminal noncancer illness, such as heart failure and dementia, and improving the recognition and care of people with post COVID-19 condition (long COVID). Dr. Quinn was awarded the Governor General’s Gold Medal for Academic Excellence and the John Charles Polanyi Prize in Physiology and Medicine. He is co-lead of Canada’s national research network on post COVID-19 condition and co-chair for the development of clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of post COVID-19 condition. He served as the Assistant Director of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, the Ontario Public Health Emergencies Science Advisory Committee, and as an Expert Member of the Chief Science Advisor’s National Task Force on the Post COVID-19 Condition. His early research success includes over $28 million in competitive grant funding and 7 CIHR grants as the nominated principal applicant. He has mentored 12 trainees who have published and won several awards for their work together. He has 103 peer-reviewed publications, including 52 as first author or senior author in high-impact journals such as JAMA, JAMA Internal Medicine, and BMJ.

Dr. James Downar is a Critical Care and Palliative Care physician in Ottawa. He graduated from McGill Medical School and completed residency training in Internal Medicine, Critical Care, and Palliative Care at the University of Toronto. He has a Master’s degree in Bioethics from the Joint Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto. He is currently the Head of the Division of Palliative Care at the University of Ottawa and a Professor in the Department of Medicine. He is the chair of Palliative and End-of-Life Care at the University of Ottawa, the co-chair of the Pan-Canadian Palliative Care Research Collaborative, the chair of the Ethical Affairs committee of the Canadian Critical Care Society, and the co-chair of the Ontario Palliative Care Network’s Provincial Education Steering Committee. He has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, has been principal investigator on more than 20 peer-reviewed grants, and is a former Associated Medical Services Phoenix Fellow. Dr. Downar also led several provincial and national efforts to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was involved in planning for medication shortages for both critical care and palliative care and led the development of a critical care triage system for the event of major surge in critically ill patients His research interests include communication and decision-making for seriously ill patients and their families; Palliative Care for the Critically Ill; and Palliative Care for Noncancer Illnesses.

http://amshealthcare.ca/

This conversation focuses on exploring technologies and their impact on compassionate healthcare and
features Laura Desveaux @lauradesveaux, a behavioural scientist at Trillium Health Partners and
physician and scientist Amol Verma @AmolAVerma from St Michael’s Hospital.
If you would like to learn more about the resources, people and articles mentioned in this podcast here
are a few links to get you started.
Both Laura Desveaux and Amol Verma are 2020 AMS Healthcare Fellows. If you would like to learn more
about their Fellowship work, you can read about their projects here:
Understanding the emerging intersection between digitally-enabled and compassionate care.
Evaluating AI prediction tools in enhancing compassionate care in hospital
You can find information on The GEMINI study here: https://www.geminimedicine.ca/about

In this conversation, Morag Paton @Morag_Paton, a researcher in higher education at the University of
Toronto, and physician and medical educator Ayelet Kuper @Ayeletkuper discuss “Compassion, Equity
and Moral Courage” and reflect on lessons from COVID.
If you would like to learn more about the resources, people and articles mentioned in this podcast here
are a few links to get you started.
Toronto Life article “Sunnybrook doctor Ariel Lefkowitz in conversation with Toronto Life editor Sarah
Fulford”
Ontario’s COVID protocols are constantly changing, and the ones discussed in the podcast have surely
changed. For the most recent protocols please visit: https://covid-19.ontario.ca/ontarios-covid-19-
vaccination-plan

In this conversation Nelson Shen NHA, PhD, and Daniel Buchman PhD, RSW discuss patient data privacy and consent in mental health care.

Nelson and Daniel are both working on research that will improve the experience of mental health patients and their relationships with health care providers.

If you would like more information on Nelson and Daniel and the important work that they are doing
here are some links to get you started:

Nelson Shen, NHA, PhD: Scientist at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Institute of Health Policy Management Evaluation, and a 2021
AMS Healthcare Compassion and AI Fellow
Nelson Shen AMS Healthcare project: Imagining Compassionate Consent for Digital Mental Health Services.

Daniel Buchman, PhD, RSW: Bio Ethicist and Independent Scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Assistant Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, Member of the University of Toronto Joint Center for Bioethics, and a 2020 AMS Healthcare Compassion and AI Fellow.

Daniel Buchman AMS Healthcare project: Understanding AI implications for stigma and compassion in mental health and addiction. 

BrainHealth Databank: A CAMH-wide initiative that will accelerate research and improve care by collecting and studying the full spectrum of data that individuals choose to share to advance mental
health. 

Biographies
Gillian Strudwick
Bio Venkat Bhat
 
If you wish to participate in the study: https://www.honeybeetrials.com/researcher/018850/a-paid-digital-health-study-for-
nurses

Program:

Interventional Neuropsychiatry Program

Study Funder Department of Defense, Canada (IDeAS Program): https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/programs/defence-ideas/element/competitive-projects/challenges/moral-trauma-frontline-see-prevent-treat.html

UHT-St. Michael’s link to the Phase 1 of the current project (Phase 2): https://unityhealth.to/2021/08/vr-moral-distress-pandemic/

Useful Resources:

https://covid19-sciencetable.ca/sciencebrief/burnout-in-hospital-based-healthcare-
workers-during-covid-19/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35614505/

https://theconversation.com/high-rates-of-covid-19-burnout-could-lead-to-shortage-of-
health-care-workers-166476

https://www.researchprotocols.org/2022/2/e32240/

 
Pertinent Publication Links:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34871178/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9731177/

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=10095849

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36310921/

Jen Recknagel

Director, Innovation and Design, NORC Innovation Centre

Jen combines a background in human-centered design to address challenges at the intersection of health and its social determinants. Experienced with executing a variety of service design projects, she is currently the Senior Design Lead at UHN OpenLab, and Director of

Innovation and Design at the NORC Innovation Centre. Her work is focused on engaging a diverse set of stakeholders, and using participatory-led approaches to developing solutions to complex organizational and health system challenges, a national award-winning magazine focused on urban health in Toronto.

Isabel Mannion RN, BN, M Sc,(A) , CHE

Member of the Seniors Advisory Committee and The NORC Innovation Centre Advisory Committee

Isabel Mannion has baccalaureate and master’s degrees in nursing with a particular interest and experience in gerontology, the study of aging. A retired senior, she enjoyed a long career working in, consulting, accrediting, speaking, and writing about the care of elders and others in long term, chronic and acute care, UHN’s NORC Innovation Centre, and serves on two of its committees.

NIC Vision

The NORC Innovation Centre at UHN (NIC) is a first-of-its-kind centre advancing new models of social connection and accessible care for older adults living in the community. Our mission is to support a new model of integrated health and social care in naturally-occurring retirement communities (NORC), and to develop health, social, and technology solutions that support healthy aging.

Resources

NORC Innovation Centre at UHN

Stay Updated: Twitter | LinkedIn | Sign Up For Our Emails

Policy Paper created in conjunction with the National Institute for Aging

“It’s Time to Unleash the Power of Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities in Canada”

https://norcinnovationcentre.ca/wp-content/uploads/NORC-Report-FINAL.pdf

Toronto Star article

Women’s College Hospital

Women’s College Hospital and NIC have secured a 3 million research grant funding to study NORCs in Toronto. The objective of the research is to identify new solutions by successfully implementing community-driven NORCs enhanced with on-site access to health services and social supports (referred to as ‘enhanced NORCs’) that leverage and build on existing community resources.

 Women’s Age lab website

Definition: ‘Elder orphans,’ without kids or spouses, face old age alone. An overlooked segment of the population.

In this conversation, Ibukun Abejirinde, a scientist at the Institute for Health System Solutions at Women's College Hospital, and Assistant Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, and an AMS Healthcare Fellow in Compassion and AI chats with Terence Tang, a General Internal Medicine Physician at Trillium Health Partners, a Clinician Scientist at the Institute for Better Health and an AMS Healthcare Fellow in Compassion and AI. They discuss social determinants of health, health inequities, and digitally enabled models of care.

Ibukun Abejirinde is an Implementation and Evaluation Scientist who works with policymakers, patients, community organizations, and researchers to find practical solutions to persistent and emergent problems in healthcare. Her research focus on innovative models of care that use digital technology.

Specifically, how they impact health equity and health service delivery. Ultimately, her goal is to improve access to high-quality care for everyone, irrespective of where they live or where they are from.

Dr. Abejirinde is currently a Scientist at the Institute for Health System Solutions, Women’s College Hospital where her work informs the implementation, sustainability, and expansion of virtual care programs within and beyond Ontario. She is also an Assistant Professor (Status) at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. As a 2022 AMS Healthcare Fellow in Compassion and AI, her study is being conducted in partnership with three community partners, with the aim of understanding how immigrants and refugees to Canada experience virtual care and digital health compassion.

 AMS Research Team Members

- Ibukun Abejirinde (Scientist/Principal Investigator)

- Emily Ha (Research Associate and PhD candidate, UoT)

- Marlena Dang Nguyen (Equity Specialist and Research Coordinator)

- Kyla Gaeul Lee (PhD student, UoT)

- Isabelle Choon-Kon-Yune (Research Assistant)

- Mohaddesa Khawari (Peer Researcher)

AMS Study Research Partners

1. FCJ Refugee Centre Website

2. Crossroads Clinic, Women’s College Hospital Website

3. Access Alliance Multicultural Health and Community Services Website

AMS Research Advisory Team Members

1. Dr. Vanessa Redditt

2. Denise Zarn

3. Dr. Onil Bhattacharyya

4. Dr. Jay Shaw

Readings and Resources

1. Abejirinde IO, Ha E, Nguyen MD, Kaur D, Redditt V. Beyond technology: Digital Health

Compassion for Canadian Immigrants and Refugees. January 2023. Volume 19, Number 4.

Canadian Diversity (pg. 10-12). https://km4s.ca/2023/04/beyond-technology-digital-health-

compassion-for-canadian-immigrants-and-refugees/

2. Panel Discussion. Digital Health Imperative - Equity and System Transformation. Access Alliance

Multicultural Health and Community Services, Canada. All Staff Professional Development Day.

November 2022. Summaries- blog and video clip

3. Hankivsky, O., Grace, D., Hunting, G. et al. An intersectionality-based policy analysis framework:

critical reflections on a methodology for advancing equity. Int J Equity Health 13, 119 (2014).

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-014-0119-x

4. Hodges BD, Paech G, Bennett J. Without Compassion, There Is No Healthcare: Compassionate

Care in a Technological World. Edited by Brian D. Hodges, Gail Paech, and Jocelyn Bennett.

McGill-Queen’s University Press; 2020.

5. Crenshaw K. Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of

Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politics [1989]. In: 1st ed. Routledge;

1991:57-80. doi:10.4324/9780429500480-5

6. Singh P, King-Shier K, Sinclair S. The colours and contours of compassion: A systematic review of

the perspectives of compassion among ethnically diverse patients and healthcare providers. Van

Bogaert P, ed. PLoS ONE. 2018;13(5):e0197261. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0197261

Want to connect?

Are you attending the Metropolis Social Determinants of Health Conference in Gatineau Québec

(October 2-3 2023)? Join our roundtable dialogue 11:00am - 12:15pm on October 2 nd titled “Reimagining

Compassionate Healthcare for Immigrants: Lessons learned from Virtual Care”

Contact: Ibukun.abejirinde@wchospital.ca

Terence Tang is a General Internal Medicine physician at Trillium Health Partners located in

Mississauga, Ontario, and a Clinician Scientist at the Institute for Better Health.  He has training

in informatics and has a passion of using digital technology to improve care delivery and

population health. 

Links: 

 Institute for Better Health (https://www.instituteforbetterhealth.com/) 

A tool to capture social determinants of health by Upstream Lab

(https://upstreamlab.org/project/spark/)

A Conversational Health Chatbot, Bringing Compassion to a Tailored Digital Health Intervention for Women with Heart Disease.

Supervisors and Mentors

Dr. Elizabeth Peter, Professor, Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto. Dr. Peter locates her work in feminist health care and will provide mentorship in compassionate care.

Dr. Joe Cafazzo, Executive Director, Healthcare Human Factors, University Health Network. Dr. Cafazzo will provide mentorship on digital technologies that allow for self-care at home.

Dr. Mustafa Al-Durra, Cloud Solution Architect, Microsoft. Dr. Al-Durra will provide mentorship in artificial intelligence, Chatbot innovation, and eHealth/mHealth trends.

Four women with lived experiences will be advisors to this fellowship:

- Ms. Nicole Nickerson had a heart attack while pregnant and contributed her lived experience in an at heart Her Stories podcast.
- Ms. Donna Hart had a heart transplant and contributed her lived experience in an at heart Her Stories video.
- Ms. Vincenza Spiteri DeBonis has non-obstructive coronary artery disease and contributed her lived experience in an at heart Her Stories video.
- Ms. Lise Owens has Takotsubo cardiomyopathy and contributed her lived experience in an at heart Her Stories podcast.

Proposed Compassion Technologies and Attributes for Chatbot ‘Holly’
Chit-Chat. Relationship optimization – bidirectional, phased, actionable conversation (Authentic, Aware, Respectful).
Text Summarization. Voice tone and/or responsive data points in the text of women used to assess mood/emotion (Aware, Empathic, Empowering).
Personalized Learning. A responsive Library (Credible, Trustworthy, Reliable).
Customization and Branding. Personalization using colour, style, image, and language (Credible) Short Messaging Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). Praise and offer support (Empowering).
Select References
1. Virani T, Tait A, McConnell H, Scott C, Gergolas E. Nursing Best Practice Guideline:
Establishing Therapeutic Relationships. Toronto2002.
2. Sinclair S, McClement S, Raffin-Bouchal S, et al. Compassion in Health Care: An
Empirical Model. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. 2016;51(2).
3. How Woebot Forms a Therapeutic Bond. UK: Woebot Health; 2021.
4. Parry M, Bjornnes A, Victor J, et al. Self-management interventions for women with
cardiac pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Canadian Journal of Cardiology.
2018;34:458-467.

Today’s conversation focuses on how digital interventions during COVID impacted the way we deliver
compassionate care and features David Wiljer @Wiljerd, from the University Health Network, as well as
Gillian Strudwick @GStrudRN and Allison Crawford @TBE_ICRE from the Centre for Addiction and
Mental Health.
If you would like to learn more about the resources, people and articles mentioned in this podcast here
are a few links to get you started.
CAMH Resources for Health Workers: https://camh.ca/en/health-info/mental-health-and-covid-
19/information-for-professionals/virtual-care

Coming soon from AMS Healthcare, join us for conversations on Good Tech, Compassionate Healthcare, an exploration of the convergence of technology and compassion in healthcare today.

We will host conversations between leading researchers, scientists, healthcare providers, as well as patients and caregivers, as they confront the challenges threatening our healthcare system, especially in the face of the pandemic. They will discuss the opportunities for digital health to innovate all aspects of healthcare today, and tomorrow. They will share their hope for technology, and they will share some cautionary tales about what they are seeing in the field. We hope to foster open and frank discussions about how they think we should integrate technology into the health-care system in a way that enhances – and doesn’t diminish – compassionate care. If there was ever a time to  uphold compassion as the bedrock and guiding principle of healthcare, its now, so please join us for these illuminating conversations. 

AMS Healthcare has recently published a bestselling book Without Compassion, There Is No Healthcare available wherever you buy your books. A series of articles based on this book are available on Healthy Debate.

In this episode, Dr. Connie Schumacher, Assistant Professor of Nursing at Brock University and an AMS fellow in compassionate AI, and Dr. Andrew Costa, Associate Professor at McMaster University and the Research Director at the St. Joseph's Health System Center for Integrative Care in Hamilton and Connie's mentor, discuss Connie's research on compassion centered communication of risk and self administered online health assessments.

St. Joseph's Center for Integrated Care - Centre for Integrated Care (stjoescic.ca)
YourCare+ Check-Up Assessment -  YourCare+ (yourcareplus.ca)

References

Schumacher, C., Dash, D., Mowbray, F., Klea, L., & Costa, A. (2021). A qualitative study of home care
client and caregiver experiences with a complex cardio-respiratory management model. BMC
geriatrics, 21(1), 1-11. 
Costa, A. P., Schumacher, C., Jones, A., Dash, D., Campbell, G., Junek, M., ... & Haughton, D. (2019).
DIVERT-Collaboration Action Research and Evaluation (CARE) Trial Protocol: a multiprovincial pragmatic
cluster randomised trial of cardiorespiratory management in home care. BMJ open, 9(12), e030301.
Jones, A., Schumacher, C., Bronskill, S. E., Campitelli, M. A., Poss, J. W., Seow, H., & Costa, A. P.
(2018). The association between home care visits and same-day emergency department use: a
case–crossover study. CMAJ, 190(17), E525-E531. 
Jones, A., Bronskill, S. E., Agarwal, G., Seow, H., Feeny, D., & Costa, A. P. (2019). The primary care and
other health system use of home care patients: a retrospective cohort analysis. Canadian Medical
Association Open Access Journal, 7(2), E360-E370.

In this conversation, Nursing Professor Claire Mallette, Medical Educator Tina Martimianakis
@martimianakis, psychiatric resident Erene Stergiopoulos @fullerenes and nursing student Ola
Thomas Obewu @olatommi reflect on the challenges of teaching, and learning, compassion in this
digital age.
If you would like to learn more about the resources, people and articles mentioned in this podcast here
are a few links to get you started.
Jean Watson Caring Theory
The Royal Alexandra Foundation Video, The difference Between Care and Caring

Welcome to our conversation titled, Digital Therapeutics Informed by Lived Experience. In this conversation Quynh Pham, Scientific Director and Principal Investigator at the Center for Digital Therapeutics at the University Health Network, and an AMS healthcare fellow and Compassionate AI, speaks with Joseph Cafazzo, Biomedical Engineer, Educator and Researcher, and the Wolfond Chair in Digital Health University Health Network. Quynh and Joe engage on digital health, digital therapeutics and the lived stories that have inspired their groundbreaking work.

Twitter: @drquynhpham / @josephcafazzo

Academic profiles: Quynh / Joe

1. The Centre for Digital Therapeutics: https://www.centrefordigitaltherapeutics.ca/
2. The Medly digital therapeutic for heart failure management https://medly.ca/
3. Developing Digital Therapeutics: The University Health Network Experience: https://commercialbiotechnology.com/menuscript/index.php/jcb/article/view/1023 (PDF of paper attached)
4. The Value of Technology to Support Dyadic Caregiving for Individuals Living With Heart Failure: Qualitative Descriptive Study: https://www.jmir.org/2022/9/e40108/
5. The Future of Virtual Care for Older Ethnic Adults Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic: https://www.jmir.org/2022/1/e29876/
6. A Dyadic Digital Health Module for Chronic Disease Shared Care: Design Thinking: https://preprints.jmir.org/preprint/45035
7. 3 Ways to Support Patient-Caregiver Pairs through Equitable Virtual Care: https://transformhf.ca/medly-caretown-virtual-care/

Thank you for joining us for this special episode of Good Tech Compassionate Healthcare. In May of 2024, AMS Healthcare was thrilled to convene 170 healthcare stakeholders from across Ontario to delve into the timely and ethical scaling of AI in our healthcare sector. The insights we gained were invaluable. The conference revealed a consensus that there is an urgent need to deploy AI solutions in the most capacity-challenged areas of our healthcare system, particularly in primary care. This move is crucial to reducing workforce burnout and improving workflows. Many of the leaders that we spoke to at our conference were asked a series of questions about AI in healthcare, and we will be sharing their insightful responses in these special episodes.

The leaders featured in Part Two are:

Jennifer Gibson - Director of the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics

Suresh Balu - Director for Duke Institute for Health Innovations

Nicole Woods - Director of The Institute of Education Research at the University Health Network

Carla Velastegui - Caregiver Advocate in the Digital Healthcare Sector

Dr Amol Verma - Physician and Scientist at St. Michael's Hospital Unity Health

Anna Foat - Patient Partner and Advocate

Laura Desveaux - Science Lead and Learning Health System Program Lead at Trillium Health Partners

amshealthcare.ca

In this conversation Gerrilynn Manitowabi, Associate Director at Wikwemikong Health Centre on Manitoulin Island in Northern Ontario and Nancy Young, Senior Scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute in Ottawa discuss The ACHWM Research Project- A culturally relevant tech-enabled tool that measures and supports the health and wellness of the children in First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities in Canada.

If you would like more information on key people and items mentioned in this conversation here are some links to get you started. 

• Stephen Richie, Linkedin: Stephen-ritchie-08aa113 
• Mary Jo Wabano, @MJWabano 
• ACHWM- https://achwm.ca/
• CHEO- https://www.cheo.on.ca/en/index.aspx. 
• Wikwemikong Health Centre- https://www.wikyhealth.ca/
• Medicine Wheels- https://www.edcan.ca/articles/teaching-by-the-medicine-wheel/

In this conversation, Alika Lafontaine, @AlikaMD an indigenous physician from northern Alberta and the President -elect nominee of the Canadian Medical Association, and Brian D. Hodges, @BDHodges1 Chief Medical Officer & EVP for Education at University Health Network discuss Building Virtual Relationships.

If you would like more information on the items mentioned in this conversation here are a few links to get you started.

Connect Care – Alberta Health Services https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/cis/cis.aspx

Atul Gawande – Why Doctors Hate Their Computers https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/12/why-doctors-hate-their-computers

Dragon dictation - https://dragonmedical.ca/

https://qz.com/1952225/why-amazon-berkshire-hathaway-and-jpmorgans-haven-failed/

Safe Space Health App: https://safespace.health/safespacehealth-app

AMS Book : https://www.mqup.ca/without-compassion--there-is-no-healthcare-products-9780228003779.php?page_id=73&

Ontario Telehealth Network; https://otn.ca/

https://www.cma.ca/dr-alika-lafontaine-president-elect-2021-22

In this conversation Nicole Letourneau RN, BN, MN, PhD, Monica Oxford PhD, and Linda Duffet-Leger PhD, MN, BN discuss their study on mothers with depression and how they are developing a technology to improve the serve and return relationship between caregivers and their children. 

If you would like more information on Nicole, Monica, and Linda and the important work they are doing here are some links to get you started:

Nicole Letourneau RN, BN, MN, PhD: Professor and Research Chair in Parent and Child Mental Health at the University of Calgary

Monica Oxford PhD: Professor at the University of Washington school of Nursing and Executive Director for the Barnard center for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health

Linda Duffet-Leger: PhD, MN, BN: Associate Professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Calgary

Team members: 

- Cindy Lee Dennis: Professor at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing and the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.

- Penny Tryphonopoulos: Assistant Professor at the Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing, Western University

- Mohammad Moshirpour: Meng Software Program Director Schulich School of Engineering, Senior Instructor Department of Electrical and Software Engineering at the University of Calgary.

Parent child interaction teaching scale (PCI): used to be known as the nursing child assessment teaching scale

Serve and Return: parental sensitivity and responsiveness to infants and young children in relationships

EQIP: enabling quality interaction with parents

Links to resources on infant and child mental health:

https://www.sickkids.ca/en/learning/our-programs/infant-and-early-mental-health-promotion/

https://www.zerotothree.org/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzMxrMJBZdQ

https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/serve-and-return/

https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/serve-return-interaction-shapes-brain-circuitry/

https://barnardcenter.nursing.uw.edu/

https://www.pcrprograms.org/

In this conversation Amy Hsu PhD, Scientist at Bruyère Research Institute, and Faculty Member of Family Medicine in Ottawa, and Peter Tanuseputro MHSc, MD, CCFP, FRCPC, Public Health Physician at the Bruyère Research Institute and the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute discuss AI enabled compassionate end of life care through their life expectancy calculator Project Big Life.

Dr. Amy Hsu, PhD: Scientist at Bruyère Research Institute in Ottawa and a Faculty Member in the Department of Family Medicine in Ottawa. Amy holds the University of Ottawa Brain and Mind- Bruyère Research Institute Chair in Primary Health Care in Dementia.

Dr. Peter Tanuseputro, MHSc, MD, CCFP, FRCPC: Public Health Physician and Family Physician at the Bruyère Research Institute and the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. 

RESPECT: Risk evaluation for support predictions for elder life in the community tool

OSSU: Ontario Spor Support Unit 

CIHR: Canadian Institutes of Health Research 

RESPECT (Life expectancy calculator): https://www.projectbiglife.ca/
-  Project Big Life has developed 4 additional calculators; dementia, elder-life, heart attack and stroke, and sodium measurements.

CMAJ paper 

Additional resource about end-of-life care

Tool to plan a conversation about death with your loved ones over dinner: https://deathoverdinner.org/

In this conversation Ed Spilg, Geriatrician at the Ottawa Hospital and Research Chair in Physician Wellness at the University of Ottawa and an AMS Phoenix Fellow and Cynda Rushton, a Nurse and Professor of Bioethics and Nursing and Medicine at Johns Hopkins University discuss moral distress, moral resilience, and mental health in healthcare workers amidst the Covid 19 Pandemic.

If you would like more information on Ed and Cynda and the important work that they are doing here are some links to get you started.

Ed Spilg
Geriatrician in the Division of Geriatric Medicine at the Ottawa Hospital, Assistant Professor and
Research Chair in Physician Wellness in the Department of Medicine at the University of Ottawa,
Senior Clinical Investigator in the Clinical Epidemiology Program at the Ottawa Hospital Research
Institute, and an AMS Phoenix Fellow

Cynda Rushton
Anne and George L. Bunting Professor of Clinical Ethics in the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of
Bioethics and the School of Nursing with a joint appointment in the School of Medicine’s
Department of Pediatrics

Book
Rushton, C. H. (Author & Ed) (2018) Moral Resilience: Transforming Moral Suffering in Healthcare. New York: Oxford University Press. (American Journal of Nursing/Elsevier Book of
the Year First Place Award in the category of professional issues 2020).
https://tinyurl.com/2h6ez5bu

Resources for clinicians

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12888-021-03637-w

https://tinyurl.com/bde6uuu9

https://www.cma.ca/physician-wellness-hub

https://www.cma.ca/sites/default/files/pdf/Moral-Distress-E.pdf

AACN Facebook Live: I’m not ok—Dealing with the baggage of a prolonged pandemic

Mind the Gap 

Rushton Moral Resilience Scale

Moral Stress Amongst Healthcare Workers DURING COVID-19: A Guide to Moral Injury. Centre of Excellence on PTSD, 2020.
https://www.moralinjuryguide.ca/

In this conversation Dr. Kumanan Wilson, speaks to Jaron Chong, discuss the opportunities for generative AI in healthcare diagnosis, efficiencies and education today and tomorrow.

Dr. Jaron Chong is an Assistant Professor of Diagnostic Radiology at the Department of Medical Imaging at Western University. He completed diagnostic radiology residency training at McGill University with a Body Cross-Sectional Imaging Fellowship at Yale New-Haven Hospital and a Masters in Health Informatics at the University of Toronto. His clinical interests include cross-sectional abdominal imaging, Abdominal/GU oncologic imaging in MRI and CT modalities, with research interests in the appropriate utilization of medical imaging and AI-assisted augmented radiology.

He serves as the Chair of the Canadian Association of Radiology Standing Committee on
Artificial Intelligence and Ad-Hoc Member of the Health Canada Scientific Advisory Committee
on Digital Health Technologies.

Dr. Kumanan Wilson is a board member at AMS.  He is the Interim CEO and Chief Scientific Officer, Bruyère Research Institute and VP Research and Academic Affairs, Bruyère Continuing Care. He had previously served as an innovation advisor for Bruyère.
Dr. Wilson is also a specialist in General Internal Medicine at The Ottawa Hospital and a Full
Professor and Faculty of Medicine Clinical Research Chair in Digital Health Innovation at the
University of Ottawa. He is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of CANImmunize, a
science-based technology company specializing in immunization software. Dr. Wilson’s research focuses on digital health, health data, immunization, pandemic preparedness and public health policy and innovation.

He has received support from multiple organizations including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the World Health Organization (WHO), The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Canada’s Immunity Task Force.

In this episode we have two brilliant scientists, both AMS Fellows in AI and Compassion, discussing how important compassion is in the co-design of digital care allowing for buy- in, ownership and engagement for patient, provider and community alike.

Carolyn Steele-Gray, PhD

Scientist, Toronto’s Bridgepoint Laboratory for Research and Innovation, Sinai Health

Assistant Professor, Institute for Health Management Policy Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto

Tier Two Canada Research C hair in Implementing Health Innovation

2020 AMS Healthcare Fellow in Compassion and Technology

Mike Lovas, BEng, MASc, BDes

Director of Design and Innovation at Cancer Digital Intelligence, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre at UHN.

2021 AMS Healthcare Fellow in Compassion and Technology

In this conversation, Benjamin Chin-Yee, an AMS Healthcare Fellow in Compassion and AI Clinical Fellow in Hematology at Western University
and Post Doctoral Associate at the Rotman Institute of Philosophy at Western engages with Jay Shaw, an AMS Healthcare Phoenix Fellow
Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Toronto and Research Director of AI Ethics and Health at the University of Toronto Joint Center for Bioethics discuss digital technologies for healthcare and health equity and the impact these technologies are going to have on how we care for patients

AMS Website

https://www.ams-inc.on.ca/

Benjamin Chin-Yee

https://www.benchinyee.com/

Jay Shaw

https://ihpme.utoronto.ca/faculty/james-jay-andrew-shaw/

Challenges and Strategies in Engaging Structurally Marginalized

Communities in Virtual Care:

https://academic.oup.com/jamia/article-abstract/29/5/990/6532728?login=false

The Definition of Inclusive Design: https://tinyurl.com/2p8drzjh

COVID-19, digital health technology and the politics of the unprecedented by Dillon Wamsley and Benjamin Chin-Yee:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20539517211019441

In this conversation, Laura Sikstrom, a Medical Anthropologist and Project Scientist at The Krembil Center for Neuroinformatics at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health, and an AMS Healthcare fellow in Compassion and AI, speaks with Sean Hill, the Director of The Krembil Center for Neuroinformatics, Senior Scientist at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health, and Professor at the University of Toronto. They discuss the meaning of fairness in mental health and the concepts used to support.

Dr. Laura Sikstrom is also an assistant professor (status-only) in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto. Dr. Sikstrom also co-leads the Predictive Care Team at CAMH, which focuses on the intricate intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and mental health care. By integrating computational techniques with ethnographic insights, this team investigates the potential and challenges of incorporating AI into mental health practice, with a focus on compassionate and equitable care. Dr. Sikstrom received funding from AMS Healthcare, Google, SSHRC and CIHR and is also a nominee for the prestigious Governor General’s Gold Award. 

Dr. Sean Hill is also a computational neuroscientist with experience in building large-scale computational models of brain circuitry. The Centre collaborates with clinicians and researchers, employing neuroinformatics, artificial intelligence, and multi-scale modeling, to develop data-driven definitions of brain disorders, predict patient trajectories, and transform mental health care. Dr. Hill applies large-scale data integration, neuroinformatics, multiscale brain modeling and machine learning to improve our understanding and treatment of mental health disorders. The Centre’s mandate is to accelerate global collaborations in brain science using the power of big data and brain modeling to fundamentally change how mental illness is understood.

Resources:

Sikstrom, Laura, Marta M. Maslej, Zoe Findlay, Gillian Strudwick, Katrina Hui, Juveria Zaheer,

Sean L. Hill, and Daniel Z. Buchman. 2023. “Predictive Care: A Protocol for a Computational

Ethnographic Approach to Building Fair Models of Inpatient Violence in Emergency

Psychiatry.” 

Sikstrom, Laura, Marta M. Maslej, Katrina Hui, Zoe Findlay, Daniel Z. Buchman, and Sean L. Hill.

2022. “Conceptualising Fairness: Three Pillars for Medical Algorithms and Health Equity.” 

What is ‘AI’ and what is it doing in psychiatry? A webinar presented at the RBC Patient & Family

Learning Space, CAMH, November 2, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVUs-BnGIOU

What happens to our brains when we get depressed? The Walrus, 2021, by Simon Lewsen.

https://thewalrus.ca/what-happens-to-our-brains-when-we-get-depressed/

In this episode, Sarah Munce, Scientist at the KITE Research Institute at the University Health Network, and Assistant Professor in the department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of Toronto, and Jennifer Stinson, Nurse and Clinician Scientist in the Child Health Evaluative Science Programs within the Research Institute at the Hospital for Sick Children, discuss virtual peer navigation as an avenue for the delivery of compassionate care for youth, and a smartphone based app that has been developed to help young people cope with pain. 

Pediatric Patient Engagement Online Training Material

https://porcch.ca/

Thank you for joining us for this special episode of Good Tech Compassionate Healthcare. In May of 2024, AMS Healthcare was thrilled to convene 170 healthcare stakeholders from across Ontario to delve into the timely and ethical scaling of AI in our healthcare sector. The insights we gained were invaluable. The conference revealed a consensus that there is an urgent need to deploy AI solutions in the most capacity-challenged areas of our healthcare system, particularly in primary care. This move is crucial to reducing workforce burnout and improving workflows. Many of the leaders that we spoke to at our conference were asked a series of questions about AI in healthcare, and we will be sharing their insightful responses in these special episodes.

The leaders featured in Part One are:

Dr. Keith Thompson - Family Physician and Adjunct Faculty Professor at Western University

Dr. Jaron Chong - Assistant Professor of Diagnostic Radiology at the Department of Medical Imaging at Western University

Colleen Flood - Dean of the Faculty of Law Queen’s University

Phyllis Berck - Patient Partner with UHN

Dr. Brian Hodges - Executive-Vice President of Education and Chief Medical Officer at University Health Network

In this conversation Dorothy Kessler PhD, Assistant Professor at Queen’s University, Affiliate Scientist at the Bruyère Research Institute, and a 2020 AMS Compassion and AI Fellow and Babak Taati PhD, PEng, Scientist at the KITE Research institute UHN, Assistant Professor at UofT in the Department of Computer Science and the institute of Biomedical Engineering, and 2020 AMS Compassion and AI Fellow discuss the work they are doing in technology to improve the quality of life for aging populations in long term care facilities and at home.  

If you would like more information on Dorothy and Babak and the important work they are doing here are some links to get you started.

Dorothy Kessler, PhD, 

Assistant Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Therapy at Queen’s University 

and an Affiliate Scientist at the Bruyère Research Institute Ottawa

https://www.ams-inc.on.ca/project/developing-tools-to-assist-people-with-cognitive-decline-benefit-from-home-monitoring-technologies/

https://healthsci.queensu.ca/stories/feature/queens-research-improving-digital-home-care-dementia-patients

Collaborators: 

Dr. Frank Knoefel, Bruyère Research Institute

https://agewell-nce.ca/frank-knoefel

Dr. Neil Thomas, Bruyère Research Institute

 https://carleton.ca/sam3/people/dr-neil-thomas/

Dr. Marica Finlayson, Queen’s University

https://rehab.queensu.ca/marcia-finlayson

 Dr. Jeff Kaye, Oregon Health and Science University

https://www.ohsu.edu/oregon-center-for-aging-and-technology/our-team

Babak Taati, PhD, PEng

Scientist at the KITE Research Institute, UHN

Assistant professor at UofT in the Department of Computer Science and the institute of Biomedical Engineering.

https://www.ams-inc.on.ca/project/using-artificial-intelligence-to-reduce-falls-in-ltc/

Collaborators: 

Dr. Andrea Laboni

Geriatric psychiatrist and clinical researcher based at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, UHN,

Medical lead of the specialized dementia unit 

https://www.uhnresearch.ca/researcher/andrea-iaboni

Dr. Thomas Hadjistavropoulos:

Professor; Research Chair in Aging and Health, University of Regina and Registered Doctoral Psychologist

https://www2.uregina.ca/hpl

Dr. Yana Yunusova

Professor, Department of Speech-language Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto

Senior Scientist, KITE Research Institute – UHN 

https://slp.utoronto.ca/faculty/yana-yunusova/

In this conversation, Charlene Ronquillo, a Filipina scholar, registered nurse, and health implementation expert at the University of British Columbia School of Nursing, engages in a captivating dialogue with Chantelle Recsky, a dedicated nurse and postdoctoral research fellow.

Together, they delve into the crucial topic of "Advancing Compassionate and Equitable Healthcare through Technology." Charlene, an AMS healthcare fellow and compassion and AI advocate, brings her extensive background as a health informatician, focusing on critical theory and implementation science. Her program of research is dedicated to ensuring the meaningful inclusion of non-dominant groups in the development of health technologies. Join them as they explore Charlene's recent work, which investigates the role of nursing data in shaping opportunities to embed health equity in machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence for health systems.

Chantelle, driven by her passion for improving healthcare, shares insights into collaborative research methods. As a postdoctoral research fellow hosted at BC Cancer in partnership with the UBC School of Nursing, Chantelle's research centers around the intersection of technology and quality of care. With a keen interest in the unintended consequences of advancing technologies in the health system, she contributes valuable perspectives to the discussion.

Tune in for a thought-provoking exploration of compassionate, equitable, and inclusive technology use in healthcare, featuring two dynamic voices at the forefront of shaping the future of nursing and health informatics.

Chantelle: https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/51211.html
Charlene: https://www.charleneronquillo.com/
Nursing & Artificial Intelligence Leadership (NAIL) Collaborative https://www.nailcollab.org/