Digital Mental Health Research Team
Dr. Gillian Strudwick RN, PhD, FAMIA, FCAN
Dr. Gillian Strudwick is a Registered Nurse, holding the positions of Senior Scientist and Chief Clinical Informatics Officer at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. She is also an Associate Professor at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto, and holds academic appointments at both Western University (Nursing) and the University of Victoria (Health Information Science). She serves as a board member for AMS Healthcare, and the Village Family Health Team in Toronto, Ontario.
In 2020, Dr. Strudwick became the first women in Canada to become a Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association and was recognized by Digital Health Canada as a top women leader in Digital Health.
Dr. Nelson Shen MHA, PhD
Dr. Nelson Shen is a Project Scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. He is also an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME) at the University of Toronto. He was a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Health System Impact Post-Doctoral Fellowship.
Dr. Shen’s program of research is participatory and uses mixed methods to engage patients, families, clinicians and other stakeholders in the design of technologies, processes, policies, and strategies that support digital health and AI initiatives. Broadly, his research interests focus on digital health in the areas of patient engagement, privacy, trust, compassion, adoption theory, evaluation, implementation sciences, and design thinking.
Dr. Lydia Sequeira MHI, PhD
Dr. Lydia Sequeira is an Associate Scientist within CAMH’s Digital Mental Health Lab. Her research is focused on improving mental health care and service delivery through technology, including studying the usefulness and integration of mobile health into care. Lydia is also a course instructor at Michener's Digital Health and Data Analytics Program and guest faculty at University of Toronto’s Master of Health Informatics Program.
Brian Lo MHI, PhD(c)
Brian Lo is a Doctoral Candidate at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, and CIHR Health Systems Impact Fellow at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). His research focuses on exploring how the uptake of digital health tools, such as electronic health record systems, mobile health apps, virtual care and patient portals, can be enhanced to enable better care for patients, families and clinicians.
Iman Kassam MHI
Iman Kassam is a graduate of the Master of Health Informatics program in Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. She is a Program Officer in the Digital Mental Health Lab at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. She also is the communications coordinator for the Ontario Nursing Informatics Group. She supports digital mental health research in the areas of population and public mental health, implementation sciences, and community/patient engagement.
Jessica Kemp MHI
Jessica Kemp is a recent graduate of the Master of Health Informatics program at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME) at the University of Toronto. She is a Research Coordinator in the Digital Mental Health Lab at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). She supports projects and research involving the development of digital interventions for mental healthcare, addressing clinician burnout related to electronic health record use, and the influence of patient portals on trust, compassion, and recovery.
Danielle Shin RN, MScN, PhD(c)
Danielle is a registered nurse and a PhD student at the University of Toronto, studying health services research with a focus on health informatics. Previously, she worked in an emergency department and an inpatient mental health unit in Nova Scotia. Her clinical experience sparked her research interests in suicide prevention in emergency settings, and she completed a Master of Science in Nursing at Dalhousie University. Danielle’s other research interests include implementation science, health service delivery and digital health.
Keri Durocher RN, MN, PhD(c)
Keri Durocher is a Registered Nurse and PhD student at Western University. She has a strong passion for nursing education, research, and projects that advance the profession of nursing. Her research interests include women’s and digital health, and her dissertation work will focus on patient’s experiences of the Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative within Ontario. She is a Professor of Nursing at George Brown College, a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Western University, and a Research Trainee at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. She is also the Communication Officer for the Pediatric Nurses Interest Group.
Dr. Sara Ling RN, PhD
Dr. Sara Ling completed a Master of Nursing with a Collaborative Specialization in Addictions Studies in 2014 and a PhD in 2022 at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing. She is an Associate Scientist within the Digital Mental Health Lab at CAMH, focusing on integrating digital health interventions within addictions settings. Dr. Ling previously worked as an Advanced Practice Clinical Leader at CAMH, where she provided clinical leadership support to the inpatient addictions services.
Dr. Laura Sikstrom PhD
Dr. Laura Sikstrom is a medical anthropologist (PhD, University of Toronto) and Project Scientist at CAMH at the Krembil Centre for Neuroinformatics. Most of her ongoing research examines new healthcare opportunities and risks that emerge alongside innovations in Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning. Dr. Sikstrom also teaches a wide range of courses in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto, including Childhood and Childcare, Global Health, Anthropology in Action and Medical Anthropology and Social Justice.
Sridevi Kundurthi BSc.
Sri Kundurthi is a graduate of the BSc Psychology Co-op program at the University of Waterloo. She is a Research Analyst in the Digital Mental Health Lab at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), where she supports research projects on identifying and improving digital interventions for grief, and digital data considerations for suicide prevention.
Charlotte Pape BA, MHI
Charlotte is a graduate of the Master of Health Informatics program at the University of Toronto within the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME). She is a Project Analyst in the Digital Mental Health Lab at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). She works on research projects that focus on facilitating access to supportive digital mental health tools and initiatives mitigating adverse clinician experiences.