Transplant Frontiers: AI at the Cutting Edge of Precision Care
Event Speakers
Dedication. Expertise. Leadership.
Dr. Mamatha Bhat
Dr. Mamatha Bhat is a Hepatologist and Clinician-Scientist at UHN's Ajmera Transplant Centre, and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She is a Scientist at Toronto General Hospital Research Institute. Dr. Bhat completed her medical school and residency training, including the Clinician Investigator Program, at McGill University. She then completed a Transplant Hepatology fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, followed by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Fellowship for Health Professionals through which she completed a PhD in Medical Biophysics (U of T).
The goal of Dr. Bhat’s research program is to improve long-term outcomes of liver transplantation through a precision medicine approach, using tools of Artificial Intelligence, RNA nanomedicine and systems biology to personalize the care of patients with HCC and NASH in the transplant setting. Her interdisciplinary program and team have been supported by CIHR, Terry Fox Research Institute, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Canadian Liver Foundation (CLF), among others. Dr. Bhat is Co-Lead of the Transplant AI initiative, sits on the Executive committee of the CDTRP and is incoming Chair of the International Liver Transplant Society Basic and Translational Science Research committee. She is currently Director of the Clinician-Scientist Training Program for the Department of Medicine, which includes over 20 trainees and ensures training of the next generation of CS in the DOM.
Dr. Aman Sidhu
Dr. Aman Sidhu is the Medical Director of the Toronto Lung Transplant Program at UHN, 
and an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She completed medical school at the University of Ottawa, followed by residencies in internal medicine at the University of British Columbia and respirology at the University of Alberta. She also completed a master’s of science degree in epidemiology at the University of London in London, England. After additional fellowship training in lung transplantation at the Toronto General Hospital, she joined the Toronto Lung Transplant program as a staff respirologist. Her research interests include the implementation and evaluation of health technologies such as telemedicine/virtual health platforms to improve access to and quality of care for patients with lung disease. 
Dr. Bradly Wouters
Dr. Bradly Wouters is an internationally recognized leader and cancer researcher. He became Executive Vice President of Science and Research at UHN in 2016 and prior to that served as the Interim Director of Research at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre since 2014. He joined UHN in 2008 as Senior Scientist and Director of the Princess Margaret Hypoxia Program, and has held faculty appointments at the University of Toronto in the Department of Medical Biophysics and the Department of Radiation Oncology since that time. Prior to joining UHN, Dr. Wouters was Professor and Head of Experimental Radiation Oncology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. As EVP of Science and Research, Dr. Wouters is focused on creating an environment that incentivizes, facilitates, and rewards excellence in basic, translational, and clinical research across all elements of UHN.
Dr. Andrew Sage
Dr. Sage is an Assistant Scientist with the Toronto Lung Transplant Program at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute and an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada. His research is focused on identifying and translating novel biomarkers and medical devices to aid in surgical decision-making during lung transplantation. He has a keen interest in cutting-edge technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence as well as remote piloted aircrafts. In 2021 Dr. Sage was part of the team that completed the world's first delivery of a human lung for transplant via drone in downtown Toronto. Prior to joining the Toronto Lung Transplant Program, Dr. Sage completed a PhD at the University of Toronto in Pharmaceutical Sciences and an MSc and BSc in Biochemistry at McMaster University and Queen's University, Canada. " 
Dr. Demilade Adedinsewo
Dr. Demilade Adedinsewo (DEM-ee-LAH-day Ah-DAY-deen-SHAY-woe) is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and non-invasive cardiologist at Mayo Clinic in Florida with a clinical focus on women’s heart health and echocardiography. Her research interests include heart disease in women, cardiovascular health disparities, and the applications of artificial intelligence tools for disease detection. She is currently a Mayo Clinic Women’s Health Research Scholar.
Dr. John Halamka
Bio Coming Soon
Dr. Dorry Segev
Bio Coming Soon
Dr. Divya Sharma
Dr. Divya Sharma is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at York University, with cross-appointments as an Assistant Professor (status-only) at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, and as a Clinician Investigator at the University Health Network (UHN).
Dr. Sharma holds a PhD in Computer Science with a specialization in Machine Learning from the Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur. Following her doctoral studies, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Biostatistics Department of the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, UHN. Her research program focuses on developing bespoke deep learning models for integrative, high-dimensional modeling of multimodal big healthcare data, with a strong emphasis on clinical interpretability. Through interdisciplinary collaborations at the University Health Network (UHN), she addresses various health outcomes including liver disease, sepsis, cancer, and osteoarthritis. Her innovative modeling approaches, published in journals like Lancet Digital Health and Bioinformatics, emphasize developing robust ML models for personalized medicine and clinical deployability, particularly in the area of liver transplant research.
Dr. Deepali Kumar
Dr. Deepali Kumar is a Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto, and Director of the Ajmera Transplant Centre at the University Health Network in Toronto, Canada. She is a consultant in transplant infectious diseases and her research interests focus on infections in transplant recipients including the impact of viruses and vaccines in the transplant population. Dr. Kumar has published over 250 scientific papers and mentored many trainees. She has held leadership roles in the Canadian Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplantation including President of the AST in 2022-23. Dr. Kumar is also Chair of the Canadian Standards Association Committee on Cells, Tissues, Organ Transplantation. Coming Soon
Dr. Karina Vold
Dr. Karina Vold is an Assistant Professor at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto. She is also a Research Lead at the U of T Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, an AI2050 Early Career Fellow with the Schmidt Sciences Foundation, a Faculty Associate at the U of T Centre for Ethics, and an Associate Fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence. Vold specialises in Philosophy of Cognitive Science and Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence, and her recent research has focused on human autonomy, cognitive enhancement, extended cognition, and the risks and ethics of AI.
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Dr. Bo Wang
Dr. Bo Wang has been appointed the chief artificial intelligence scientist of University Health Network (UHN), Canada’s largest network of research hospitals.  
An assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Department of Computer Science and Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, Wang focuses his research on machine learning and computational biology.  
He is stepping into the role after the launch of the UHN AI Hub earlier this year, which envisions more accessible, efficient and personalized health care through the integration of AI technologies. 
Wang will lead research into how AI can use vast amounts of anonymized patient data collected from the Toronto area’s diverse population to improve care, according to The Canadian Press. In an interview with the news agency, he said he is looking to explore various AI applications, including the development of personalized treatment plans and automated generation of clinical notes. 
“The goal is to promote adoption of AI in health care,” Wang said in an interview. “We have lots of research but adoption is quite rare, and I want to change that.” 
Dr. Shaf Keshavjee
Dr. Shaf Keshavjee is a world-renowned thoracic surgeon-scientist with a history of breakthroughs and discoveries in lung transplantation. He is the current Surgeon-in-Chief of the Sprott Department of Surgery, the Director of the Toronto Lung Transplant Program and Latner Thoracic Research Laboratories at UHN, and Professor of Thoracic Surgery at the University of Toronto. For Dr. Keshavjee’s achievements and leadership in the field, he has been appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honour that recognizes outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation. Furthermore, he is a member of the Order of Ontario and has been awarded two Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medals. In 2020, he received the prestigious Governor General of Canada’s Innovation Award. Other notable recognitions include UHN's Inventor of the Year Award, Canada’s Top 40 Under 40, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Society of Transplantation. 
Dr. Joseph Kim
Dr. Joseph Kim is a staff nephrologist in the Division of Nephrology and Director of the Kidney Transplant Program at the Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network. He is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. He is the Chair of the Medical Advisory Committee at the University Health Network, Co-Chair of the Data System Working Group for the Organ Donation and Transplantation Collaborative at Health Canada, Chair of the Global Data Harmonization Committee for the Transplantation Society, and Past-President of the Canadian Society of Transplantation. Dr. Kim completed medical school, internal medicine residency, and fellowships in nephrology and kidney transplantation at the University of Toronto. In 2008, he earned a PhD in epidemiology and a Master of Health Science in biostatistics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In 2020, he completed a Global Executive MBA for Healthcare and the Life Sciences at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Dr. Kim’s research interests include access to and outcomes of kidney transplantation as well as using data more effectively to inform health system improvement.
Dr. Rahul Krishnan
Dr. Rahul G. Krishnan is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto in Computer Science and LMP. He received his PhD from MIT advised by Prof. David Sontag where he was part of the Clinical ML Group. He received a BASc in Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto and an MS from New York University. Rahul was previously a senior researcher at Microsoft Research New England. He is expanding the Artificial Intelligence education in LMP (alongside Dr. Bo Wang) and has recently launched a new graduate course on Machine Learning for Healthcare
Dr. Kieran Halloran
Dr. Kieran Halloran is clinician investigator and associate professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and physician in the lung transplant program at the University of Alberta hospital. He completed pulmonary medicine training at the University of Alberta followed by a clinical fellowship in lung transplantation in Toronto, Canada in 2013, and went on to complete his MSc in Epidemiology at Harvard University in Boston, USA. His primary research interests are in phenotyping of post-transplant lung dysfunction, pre-transplant risk prediction, and the molecular mechanisms of lung rejection. His work is supported by international, national, and regional funding bodies and has been published in journals including The American Journal of Transplantation, The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, and The American Journal of Respiratory Critical Care Medicine.
Dr. Xun Zhao
Bio Coming Soon
Dr. Michael Cooper
Bio Coming Soon
Shilpa Raju, Patient Partner
Shilpa Raju is a patient partner with the UHN Transplant AI initiative. She received a double lung transplant in 2012, and following nearly three years of home hemodialysis to manage renal failure related to long-term immunosuppression, she received a living donor kidney transplant in December 2023. She is also a patient lead with the Canadian Donation and Transplantation Research Program (CDTRP), on the theme dedicated to engineering and allocating better grafts. She has contributed to various CDTRP efforts as a patient partner, including work related to AI and transplant. Earlier this year, Shilpa was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, reflecting on the challenges patients face balancing survival and quality of life through her transplant experience, and the importance of patient-centred care.
In addition to her lived experience, she has a Masters Degree in Public Health and extensive experience working with data as a public health epidemiologist for over 15 years, which enhances her ability to look beyond the individual and think about health at a population and systems level. During the COVID-19 pandemic, her work was cited in various news publications including the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star, and used to advocate for policy level change in Ontario.
She continues to be a vocal advocate for organ and tissue donation, and is committed to improving the transplant system and future outcomes for others.
Dr. Tereza Martinu