“The SSPARK (Sourcing, Synthesizing, Presenting, and Applying Research Knowledge) Project will improve the health of Ontarians by ensuring that the best available evidence is consistently applied in critical care settings across the province. By embedding knowledge translation and continuing professional development within day-to-day clinical practice, SSPARK will reduce persistent knowledge-to-practice gaps, enhance clinicians’ competence, and support more reliable delivery of evidence-based care. Its cross-institutional model will strengthen collaboration between academic and community ICUs, reduce inequities in access to new knowledge, and foster a sustained culture of learning and quality improvement. Ultimately, this initiative is expected to lead to safer, more effective critical care and better patient outcomes for Ontarians.” – Dr. Dominique Piquette

PSI Foundation is pleased to announce Dr. Dominique Piquette as the recipient of the 2026 PSI Mid-Career Knowledge Translation Fellowship.

About Dr. Dominique Piquette

Dr. Dominique Piquette is currently a Staff Physician in the Department of Critical Care Medicine of the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre; Scientist at the Sunnybrook Research Institute; and Associate Professor in the Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine of the University of Toronto. She is also an Education Scholar at the Wilson Centre (a research institute in healthcare education), and co-Program Director of the Sepsis Canada/LifTING Health Research Training Platform.

Dr. Piquette’s research focuses on better understanding how physicians learn in changing critical care clinical environments at the postgraduate and post-certification levels. She uses a range of research methodologies, including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches.

About the PSI Mid-Career Knowledge Translation Fellowship

The PSI Mid-Career Knowledge Translation Fellowship is intended to provide salary support for a mid-career physician researcher in Ontario, who has demonstrated the ability to successfully complete high impact knowledge translation research. The total amount of the award is $400,000 over two or three years, with the sponsoring institution providing matching funding, contributing to 50% of the total award.

PSI acknowledges that mid-career can be a challenging time for physician researchers. During this phase, there are often additional academic roles and responsibilities including committee work, leadership positions, and mentoring of junior investigators, while clinical work continues. PSI recognizes the importance in supporting this phase of an investigator’s trajectory.

Dr. Piqutte highlights the importance of salary support awards for mid-career physician researchers:

“Mid-career salary support is crucial for sustaining meaningful research programs and ensuring that early-career momentum translates into long-term impact. At this stage, clinician-investigators are simultaneously advancing complex research portfolios, mentoring the next generation of scientists, contributing to national innovation and health-system priorities, and fulfilling essential clinical and administrative roles. Stable salary support allows them to protect the time necessary to conduct high-impact research, pursue innovative or higher-risk ideas, and maintain the continuity required for longitudinal programs that deliver tangible benefits to Ontarians. Yet funding opportunities for mid-career investigators remain particularly scarce and highly competitive. Without sustained investment in this critical segment of the health research community, Ontario risks weakening its capacity to generate the evidence needed to improve healthcare quality and population health.”

Fellowship Funds to be Used to Improve the Quality and Safety of Care for Critically Ill Patients in Ontario

Critical care research in Canada has led to many discoveries that improve the care for seriously ill patients. However, these research findings do not always reach the bedside quickly. This “knowledge-to-practice gap” means that patients may not always receive the best or most up-to-date care. The gap exists for many reasons — new evidence is produced faster than clinicians can absorb it, traditional education sessions are often too general, and every hospital has its own routines and challenges.

To help close this gap, Dr. Piquette’s team is developing the SSPARK Unit — short for Sourcing, Synthesizing, Presenting, and Applying Research Knowledge. SSPARK will bring together researchers, healthcare providers, and patients to identify new evidence, summarize it in simple formats, and share it directly with intensive care teams. The unit will work with hospitals across Ontario to adapt this information to their local needs and help staff use it in daily practice.

By making research easier to understand and apply, SSPARK aims to improve the quality and safety of care for critically ill patients. It will also build stronger connections between hospitals and researchers, helping ensure that life-saving discoveries benefit patients everywhere, not just in research centres.

“As Ontario’s health-care system faces unprecedented pressure, remote clinical monitoring offers a transformative path forward. Supported by the PSI Mid-Career Knowledge Translation Fellowship, my research and knowledge translation will ensure this inevitable shift delivers care that is patient-centred, equitable, safe, and clinically meaningful.” – Dr. Andrea Gershon

PSI Foundation is pleased to announce Dr. Andrea Gershon as the recipient of the 2026 PSI Mid-Career Knowledge Translation Fellowship. 

About Dr. Andrea Gershon

Dr. Andrea Gershon is a Respirologist and Senior Scientist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto and ICES.

Dr. Gershon’s award-winning research and knowledge translation program uses ‘Big Data’ to learn from the real-world experiences of people living with lung disease, with a focus on vulnerable groups. Her clinical studies evaluate the use of remote monitoring and wearables in people with respiratory disease.

Dr. Gershon enjoys working with junior faculty, postgraduate fellows, graduate candidates, and other students at all levels of training. She has a passion for supporting these upcoming leaders, researchers, and clinicians who are the future of discovery and innovation to improve respiratory health worldwide.

About the PSI Mid-Career Knowledge Translation Fellowship

The PSI Mid-Career Knowledge Translation Fellowship is intended to provide salary support for a mid-career physician researcher in Ontario, who has demonstrated the ability to successfully complete high impact knowledge translation research. The total amount of the award is $400,000 over two or three years, with the sponsoring institution providing matching funding, contributing to 50% of the total award.

PSI acknowledges that mid-career can be a challenging time for physician researchers. During this phase, there are often additional academic roles and responsibilities including committee work, leadership positions, and mentoring of junior investigators, while clinical work continues. PSI recognizes the importance in supporting this phase of an investigator’s trajectory.

Dr. Gershon highlights the importance of salary support awards for physician researchers at the mid-career level:

“Mid-career salary support is a smart investment. It gives physician researchers the time and resources to lead, mentor the next generation, and turn their expertise into real improvements in patient care, health equity, and a stronger, more sustainable health system. I am very grateful for this PSI Mid-Career Knowledge Translation Fellowship.”

Fellowship Funds to be Used to Improve the Health and Health Equity for People with Respiratory and Other Chronic Diseases

Canada’s healthcare system is facing increasing strain as the population ages and more people live with chronic illnesses including heart and lung disease. Hospitals and clinics are often overwhelmed, leading to long wait times and barriers to accessing timely, high-quality care—particularly in rural, remote, and underserved communities. To address these challenges, remote clinical monitoring (RCM) is emerging as a transformative approach. RCM uses connected technologies—such as smartphones, smartwatches, and wearable sensors like Fitbits—to continuously track health indicators including breathing, oxygen levels, sleep, and heart rate from home. This data allows healthcare teams to identify issues early, adjust treatment plans in real time, and provide proactive support between in-person visits, helping reduce emergency department use and prevent hospitalizations.

Dr. Gershon has developed a comprehensive RCM platform to accelerate innovation in this field across Ontario and beyond. The system integrates a patient-friendly mobile app, wearable sensors, and a secure clinician dashboard that facilitates continuous, data-driven care. Her goal is to use RCM to make healthcare more personalized, efficient, and equitable for all Canadians. This includes mentoring trainees to strengthen national research capacity and advance the science and practice of RCM.

“Insomnia affects one in five Ontarians, with the burden falling disproportionately on women and the socioeconomically disadvantaged. The impacts extend beyond poor sleep as people with insomnia experience reduced quality of life, workplace accidents, and significant health care costs. In Canada, insomnia’s economic impact reaches $1.9 billion in direct and indirect health care costs, with annual GDP losses estimated at $26 billion. While a specialized talk therapy for insomnia called CBT-I is a safe and highly effective treatment, access to trained therapists remains limited. Because of this gap, many rely on potentially harmful prescription medications or over-the- counter remedies. Through this fellowship, I will translate Ontario’s new Quality Standard for Insomnia into practical tools for health and social providers across primary care and adapt these principles to create resources and programs tailored to older adults in long-term care, and those living with dementia. By equipping clinicians with evidence-based approaches and reducing reliance on potentially harmful medications, this work will improve health outcomes, safety and quality of life for Ontarians.” – Dr. Sophiya Benjamin

PSI Foundation is pleased to announce Dr. Sophiya Benjamin as the recipient of the 2026 PSI Mid-Career Knowledge Translation Fellowship.

About Dr. Sophiya Benjamin

Dr. Sophiya Benjamin is Geriatric Psychiatrist and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University. She is the Schlegel Chair in Mental Health in Aging at the Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging (RIA) and the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of GeriMedRisk, a publicly funded, not-for-profit organization that optimizes medication use in older adults through clinical consultations across Ontario and the education of clinicians both nationally and internationally. She is on the medical staff of Waterloo Regional Health Network, and her clinical practice is in the Kitchener-Waterloo Region.

Her work is dedicated to addressing system-level challenges in the care of older adults, focusing on implementing and integrating evidence-informed solutions for issues such as polypharmacy and insomnia.

About the PSI Mid-Career Knowledge Translation Fellowship

The PSI Mid-Career Knowledge Translation Fellowship is intended to provide salary support for a mid-career physician researcher in Ontario, who has demonstrated the ability to successfully complete high impact knowledge translation research. The total amount of the award is $400,000 over two or three years, with the sponsoring institution providing matching funding, contributing to 50% of the total award. 

PSI acknowledges that mid-career can be a challenging time for physician researchers. During this phase, there are often additional academic roles and responsibilities including committee work, leadership positions, and mentoring of junior investigators, while clinical work continues. PSI recognizes the importance in supporting this phase of an investigator’s trajectory.

Dr. Benjamin highlights the significance of salary support awards for physician researchers at the mid-career level conducting knowledge translation research:

“Salary support awards, particularly for knowledge translation, are an investment that ensures important research doesn’t remain confined to the lab or journal but is mobilized for clinicians and policymakers and ultimately benefits patients. These awards provide protected time and strategic support to physician researchers, helping us bridge this gap and ensure the implementation of high-impact research that improves health outcomes for people across Ontario.”

Fellowship Funds to be Used to Improve Sleep Health for Older Adults in Ontario

Dr. Benjamin’s fellowship work extends from her experience with GeriMedRisk. Beginning with a stepped wedge randomized controlled trial in 2017, it showed decreased harmful medication use and hospital avoidance while reducing wait times for older adults to receive specialist expertise. This evidence led to sustainable funding from the Ontario Ministry of Health, enabling GeriMedRisk to spread and scale across Ontario. GeriMedRisk was recognized in Canada’s National Dementia Strategy in both 2019 and 2023.

GeriMedRisk’s work with older adults on multiple medications highlighted the well-known connection between sleep disturbances and problematic sedative medication use. This informed Dr. Benjamin’s work in establishing the Older Adult Insomnia Collaborative in 2022 to address this problem across health care settings. The collaborative now has over 45 members representing expertise in multiple areas. In conjunction with this work, Dr. Benjamin co-chaired the Ontario Health Quality Standard Advisory Committee resulting in Ontario’s first Quality Standard for Insomnia in February 2025.

This fellowship will support the next phase of this work in enabling knowledge translation of Ontario’s new insomnia quality standards into practical tools, resources and programs across three key areas: integrating evidence-based sleep pathways in primary care, designing and implementing long term care specific interventions through co-design with residents and staff, and developing resources for people living with dementia and their care partners. By partnering with experts by experience, clinicians, and researchers from more than 25 organizations, this work will improve sleep health for Ontarians while reducing reliance on inappropriate medications and enabling equitable access to evidence-informed care.

“Canada has among the highest incidence and prevalence rates for multiple sclerosis (MS) worldwide and an estimated 30,000+ people in Ontario live with MS. MS can be a highly disabling condition in it’s own right. However, most people with MS don’t just have MS; rather the majority have additional health conditions, amongst which the commonest are anxiety and depression.  Having anxiety and/or depression adds significant health challenges to people with MS.  Although effective treatments for anxiety and depression in people with MS exist, such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and Mindfulness-based interventions (MBI), access in Ontario is very limited.  In this PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship, I will implement and evaluate evidence-based tailored CBT and MBI resources for people with MS across Ontario.” – Dr. Robert Simpson

PSI Foundation is pleased to announce Dr. Robert Simpson as the recipient of the 2026 PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship.

About Dr. Robert Simpson

Dr. Robert Simpson is an Associate Professor in the Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. He is a Specialist Physician and Clinician Investigator in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R). His clinical work is based between the University Health Network (Toronto Rehabilitation Institute) and Unity Health (St. Michael’s Hospital).

Dr. Simpson’s overall research encompasses helping to improve the quality of life of people living with multiple sclerosis (MS). His current research focus is on the role of psychological therapies in the care of people with MS.

About the PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship

Knowledge translation research aims at transitioning research discoveries to the real world to improve health outcomes. The PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship – valued at $300,000 for over two or three years – helps protect a promising new clinician investigator’s research time, allowing the Fellow to undertake high-impact translational research in Ontario.

Dr. Simpson highlights the importance of salary support for physicians at the early career level:

“The salary support award provided by PSI for this Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship is critical in enabling me to undertake the work proposed.  The support will protect my time to implement and evaluate tailored CBT and MBIs for people with MS across Ontario.  I will be able to dedicate my time to cementing collaborative working relationships with the specialist MS clinics across Ontario, train clinic staff to deliver these interventions, conduct rigorous analyses of effectiveness and implementation, and ensure the ultimate success of this project.”

Fellowship Funds to be Used to Improve the Psychological Care of People with MS in Ontario

People in Ontario living with multiple sclerosis (MS) often experience psychological distress. MS can be stressful for many reasons, including uncertainty about the illness and complex symptoms like low mood, low energy and physical discomfort which often get worse through stress. This creates a toxic cycle where stress worsens symptoms, symptoms worsen stress, and so on. Unfortunately, therapies to address this toxic cycle are not currently available for all Ontarians living with MS. Fortunately, Dr. Simpson’s prior research demonstrated psychological therapies can help people with MS manage symptoms of psychological distress effectively.  In this Fellowship, Dr. Simpson will translate these research findings into frontline clinical services for people living with MS across Ontario, delivering online guided self-management and group psychological therapy tailored to common issues people living with MS face. Dr. Simpson will train MS healthcare providers across Ontario to deliver these therapies and will support rollout throughout the network of specialist MS clinics across Ontario. The resources developed and rolled out will be tested in a rigorous clinical trial to see how well they work in the context of Ontario.  Resources developed through the Fellowship will be made freely available to all people living with MS in Ontario.

“Ontario’s primary care system is facing major challenges, with many people struggling to find a family doctor or primary care clinician and access the care they need. The new Primary Care Act (2025) offers a unique opportunity to make meaningful improvements, setting out six patient-centred goals to increase access and strengthen care for all Ontarians. My research and knowledge translation activities are focused on helping Ontario’s primary care system evolve to meet these important targets. This is a critical moment for health care in our province—a chance to make lasting, positive changes that will benefit every community. My research will play a key role in making care more equitable and accessible, informing policies and tools that support patients and health professionals alike. Ultimately, this research will help support a stronger, fairer primary care system—so that every Ontarian can get the care they need, when and where they need it most.” – Dr. Archna Gupta

PSI Foundation is pleased to announce Dr. Archna Gupta as the recipient of the 2026 PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship.

About Dr. Archna Gupta

Dr. Archna Gupta is a Scientist at Upstream Lab and Unity Health Toronto, and an Assistant Professor at the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. She is a practicing family physician and family medicine obstetrics provider at St. Michael’s Hospital. Dr. Gupta’s research focuses on health system strengthening, with a particular focus on primary care and health equity.

Dr. Gupta has established herself as a productive early-career clinician-scientist, having published 25 peer-reviewed articles—16 as either first or senior author. She has also secured over $1 million in research funding as a Principal Investigator (PI) or co-PI. Her recent study on how distance to primary care affects healthcare use and quality was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal and featured on the front page of the Toronto Star.

Dr. Gupta received her PhD in Health Services Research at the Institute of Health, Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto (2022), her Master’s in Public Health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto (2014) and her Medical Degree from McMaster University (2009).

About the PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship

Knowledge translation research aims at transitioning research discoveries to the real world to improve health outcomes. The PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship – valued at $300,000 for over two or three years – helps protect a promising new clinician investigator’s research time, allowing the Fellow to undertake high-impact translational research in Ontario.

Dr. Gupta highlights the importance of salary support awards for early career researchers:

“Salary support awards for early-career researchers, like the PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship, are vital—they provide the protected time needed to pursue high-impact research and knowledge translation that address health system challenges. With this support, I can focus on translating research into practical solutions for Ontario’s primary care system, ensuring that the best available evidence informs policy and practice.”

Fellowship Funds to be Used to Transform Primary Care in Ontario

Ontario is facing a primary care crisis, with millions of people struggling to access primary care. This crisis affects everyone, especially vulnerable groups, and leads to more emergency visits and poorer health outcomes. To tackle these issues, my research aims to: (1) map where the greatest gaps exist between patients and primary care providers; (2) study the impact of virtual health visits on how far people need to travel for primary care; and (3) create easy-to-use resources to help people manage minor health issues themselves. By working closely with patients, primary care providers, and policymakers, these projects will help shape fair and practical solutions—like matching patients with family doctors based on where they live and making reliable self-care tools widely available. The goal is to make sure every Ontarian can get quality care when and where they need it, while decreasing unnecessary strain on the health system.

“According to the Ontario Early Psychosis Intervention Program Standards, early phase psychosis (EPP) is defined as experiencing symptoms of a psychotic disorder between the ages of 14 and 35, who are either untreated or receiving treatment for 6 months or less. EPP can be a confusing time for a young person. The hallmark feature of psychosis is the difficulty in telling what is real and what is not. This often-persistent lack of insight has treatment implications for both the patient and their healthcare providers. Medication acceptance and adherence can be a challenge. The mainstay of treatment of psychotic illness includes antipsychotics. While effective, they carry a significant burden of metabolic syndrome, including weight gain and increased risk of diabetes. Concerns about the side effects, how long one must be on medication, or even simply accepting one has a mental illness that requires medication in the first place, can be common concerns and barriers to treatment. We lack tools to address these issues that are tailored to both prescribers and patients, especially those that include people with lived experience in the development process. As such, my proposed research will employ knowledge translation approaches to guide both patients and prescribers on psychosis treatment, as well as the prevention/management of metabolic side effects of antipsychotics.” – Dr. Saadia Sediqzadah

PSI Foundation is pleased to announce Dr. Saadia Sediqzadah as the recipient of the 2026 PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship.

About Dr. Saadia Sediqzadah

Dr. Saadia Sediqzadah (she/her) is a psychiatrist and clinician-investigator at the Department of Psychiatry at St. Michael’s Hospital (Unity Health Toronto) and Scientist at Upstream Lab.

She specializes in early psychosis intervention, providing psychiatric care to transitional aged youth 14-35 years old with psychotic disorders. Her research is informed by her clinical practice serving this vulnerable population. Her projects focus upon shared medical decision-making in early phase psychosis and the prevention and management of metabolic side effects of antipsychotic medications.

About the PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship

Knowledge translation research aims at transitioning research discoveries to the real world to improve health outcomes. The PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship – valued at $300,000 for over two or three years – helps protect a promising new clinician investigator’s research time, allowing the Fellow to undertake high-impact translational research in Ontario.

Dr. Sediqzadah highlights the significance of salary support awards for physician researchers at the early career level:

“This salary support award is an absolute game changer for early career researchers like me. Trying to fit in research activities between clinics, in the evenings or weekends, while also (in my case) raising two small children, is very difficult to do. PSI’s support will allow me to protect my time so that I can focus on my research and knowledge translation projects to benefit the mental health of Ontarians. I am so grateful.”

Fellowship Funds to be Used to Improve the Mental and Physical Health Outcomes for Youth with Early Phase Psychosis in Ontario

This Fellowship will fill specific gaps in early phase psychosis treatment, including the prevention/management of metabolic syndrome in psychotic illnesses.

Dr. Saadia Sediqzadah’s knowledge translation goals include developing the first patient decision aid for early phase psychosis that will be co-designed by people with lived experience (PWLE), their families/caregivers and healthcare providers. Additionally, her qualitative research on antipsychotic-induced weight gain will result in the development of an online tool tailored to PWLE and healthcare providers. At the heart of her projects is the inclusion of PWLE with psychosis, following the mantra “nothing about us without us”.

“Despite the significant burden of mental health challenges among youth in Canada, only a minority access appropriate services. This is true even for the subset of youth who have particularly complex needs, as there are few evidence-based, implementable interventions designed for them. My research engages service users and providers to adapt interventions for youth with complex mental health needs and evaluate them. By considering implementation from the outset, we can connect youth with the treatment that best meets their needs earlier in the course of illness and improve their outcomes.” – Dr. Nicole Kozloff

PSI Foundation is pleased to announce Dr. Nicole Kozloff as the recipient of the 2025 PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship.

About Dr. Nicole Kozloff

Dr. Nicole Kozloff is a scientist, child and adolescent psychiatrist and the co-director of the Slaight Family Centre for Youth in Transition at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). She is also an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Kozloff’s research aims to improve the accessibility and effectiveness of services for youth with complex mental health needs and their families. To date, she has been awarded over $14,000,000 in research funding as Principal Investigator (PI) or co-PI. Having benefitted from support and guidance from mentors, she has contributed to several mentorship activities for junior psychiatrists and other scientists, and recently received the CIHR – CPA Glenda M. MacQueen Memorial Career Development Award for Women in Psychiatry.

About the PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship

Knowledge translation research aims at transitioning research discoveries to the real world to improve health outcomes. The PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship – valued at $300,000 for over two or three years – helps protect a promising new clinician investigator’s research time, allowing the Fellow to undertake high-impact translational research in Ontario.

Dr. Kozloff highlights the significance of salary support awards for physician researchers at the early career level.

“Thoughtfully designing research and authentically engaging with end users to improve our health system takes time, yet there are so few opportunities for salary support for early-career physician researchers. The PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship is a rare example of an award that protects the time of physician researchers from the other demands of their busy careers. This allows physician researchers to apply their unique combination of clinical and scientific expertise to help bring research innovations to the real work.”

Fellowship Funds to be Used to Improve the Outcomes for Youth with Complex Mental Health Needs

A subset of Canadian youth has “complex” mental illness, with a major impact on functioning, extensive use of services, multiple mental or physical health conditions, or challenges related to the social determinants of health. For youth with psychosis, early psychosis intervention (EPI) programs are effective in research settings, but quality of care in real-world settings is inconsistent, and outcomes vary by the social determinants of health—they need structures and processes to support consistent, high-quality EPI service delivery, explicitly designed to address equity gaps. For youth with complex mental health needs other than psychosis, few well-articulated models of care exist, and promising practices are not always rigorously evaluated or spread beyond single settings—they need evidence-based, youth-friendly models informed by those with lived experience, addressing a broad range of needs, that can be implemented across different settings.

This Fellowship aims to implement the NAVIGATE model of coordinated specialty care, digitizing it to support training and uptake, incorporating processes to address the social determinants of health, and adapting it for youth with other complex mental health needs. These projects bring the evidence-based NAVIGATE model to the real world to improve outcomes for youth with the greatest mental health burden.

“Addressing youth mental health and reproductive health in an integrated way has the potential to reduce barriers to care and improve wellbeing. This work, supported by the PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship, aims to improve sexual and reproductive healthcare for Ontario youth with psychosis, and improve mental healthcare for pregnant and postpartum youth.” – Dr. Lucy Barker

PSI Foundation is pleased to announce Dr. Lucy Barker as the recipient of the 2025 PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship.

About Dr. Lucy Barker

Dr. Lucy Barker is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, a Psychiatrist and an Early Career Scientist at Women’s College Hospital, and an Adjunct Scientist at ICES.

Dr. Barker’s research focuses on the intersection of reproductive and mental health, and equitable access to mental health services. Her current work specifically aims to improve reproductive mental health services for adolescents and transition-age youth.

Dr. Barker has demonstrated productivity as an early career Clinician-Scientist (including 43 journal article publications, 19 as a first or senior responsible author). She has received numerous awards for her research, including a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships Doctoral Award, two Pat Martens Memorial Student Prizes in Maternal and Child Health Research (Canadian Association of Health Services and Policy Research), and the Dr. Jack V. Tu Memorial Award for Excellence (IHPME). She has also taken on leadership roles to improve mentorship in the field of reproductive mental health.

About the PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship

Knowledge translation research aims at transitioning research discoveries to the real world to improve health outcomes. The PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship – valued at $300,000 for over two or three years – helps protect a promising new clinician investigator’s research time, allowing the Fellow to undertake high-impact translational research in Ontario.

Dr. Barker highlights the importance of salary support awards for physician researchers at the early career level.

“Salary support to conduct research and knowledge translation work is critical for early career physician researchers. The support provided by the PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship will allow me time to conduct research, implement findings in clinical practice, supervise students, and engage with stakeholders including community partners and youth with lived experience. I am incredibly grateful for this support.”

Fellowship Funds to be Used to Improve Care for Youth in Ontario, Integrating Both Reproductive Health and Mental Health

Mental health problems and reproductive health are highly intertwined for youth. Youth who are pregnant or recently delivered a baby are at high risk of experiencing mental illness, and youth with psychosis have higher rates of abortion compared to their unaffected peers. Yet, services that incorporate both reproductive health and mental health for youth are lacking. This project aims to improve care that integrates both reproductive health and mental health for youth in Ontario.

The project has two overlapping components, both of which fill critical gaps in reproductive and mental health services for youth. In the first, Dr. Barker and her colleagues will use new knowledge from their research about the mental health of pregnant and postpartum Ontario youth to improve current services, and to implement and evaluate a new virtual therapy group for postpartum youth. In the second, Dr. Barker and her colleagues will implement and evaluate a sexual and reproductive health module they recently created for women, transgender, and non-binary youth receiving care within early psychosis intervention programs. Throughout, Dr. Barker and her colleagues will engage with youth with lived experience, community organizations, clinicians, and clinical and health systems leaders to incorporate diverse perspectives and maximize impact.

“Primary care, the foundation of Canada’s healthcare system, is in crisis. Multiple complex factors have resulted in an estimated 6.5 million (22%) Canadians and 2.3 million Ontarians who are now without a family doctor, creating significant challenges accessing primary care, especially for vulnerable populations. There is an urgent need for data-driven insights to understand and address the problems Ontarians face accessing primary care. With the PSI Graham Farquharson KT Fellowship, I will lead and mobilize research guiding decisionmakers’ and policymakers’ understanding of and responses to the primary care crisis. My KT strategy aligns with PSI’s goal ‘to move research into the real world to help improve health outcomes’ and applies an equity lens aimed at improving access for vulnerable populations.” – Dr. Kamila Premji

PSI Foundation is pleased to announce Dr. Kamila Premji as the recipient of the 2024 PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation (KT) Fellowship.

About Dr. Kamila Premji

Dr. Kamila Premji is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Ottawa and a Clinician Researcher at the Institut du Savoir Montfort (ISM). She is a Family Physician who provides primary care services to approximately 1,200 patients in an urban community-based practice in Ottawa. She was awarded the Junior Clinical Research Chair in Family Medicine by the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa (2020-2025). She is currently enrolled to complete her Ph.D. at the Centre for Public Health and Family Medicine at Western University. To date, she has published more than 20 peer-reviewed papers as author or co-author and presented at numerous national and international meetings. Dr. Premji’s focus is on health services and policy research, with a special interest in access to primary care.

About the PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship

Knowledge translation research aims at transitioning research discoveries to the real world to improve health outcomes. The PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship – valued at $300,000 for over two or three years – helps protect a promising new clinician investigator’s research time, allowing the Fellow to undertake high-impact translational research in Ontario.

Dr. Kamila Premji highlights the importance of salary support awards for early career physician researchers.

“For early career researchers, salary support is a critical enabler of productivity, impact, and career development. With salary support, we can accelerate the growth of our program of research and build connections that translate into meaningful knowledge mobilization. I am grateful for PSI’s support and thrilled to have this opportunity to contribute to the health of Ontarians through research.”

Fellowship Funds to be Used to Improve Access to Primary Care in Ontario

Primary care is the foundation of Canada’s healthcare system. A recent national survey found that 97% of Canadians view access to a regular source of primary care as a basic right, and a large body of local and international evidence demonstrates that strong, accessible primary care systems result in improved health equity, improved health outcomes, and reduced health system costs. Concerningly, Canada’s primary care sector is experiencing capacity challenges that threaten access to primary care. More than 6.5 million Canadians and 2.3 million Ontarians are now without a regular source of primary care, and this is predicted to worsen due to factors such as health workforce retirements, declining interest in family medicine among medical students, shifts away from comprehensive, longitudinal family practice among family physicians, and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on health workforce burnout. Previous research has also found the pandemic has exacerbated health inequities, widening social disparities in access to primary care. With the PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship, Dr. Premji will produce and disseminate equity-oriented research guiding decisionmakers’ and policymakers’ understanding of and responses to the challenges accessing primary care in Ontario.

“Patients and caregivers are a primary source of wisdom about how their healthcare could be better. This project puts them in the driver’s seat, identifying which areas of care should be improved first.”  – Dr. Lauren Lapointe-Shaw

PSI Foundation is pleased to announce Dr. Lauren Lapointe-Shaw as the recipient of the 2024 PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation (KT) Fellowship.

About Dr. Lauren Lapointe-Shaw

Dr. Lauren Lapointe-Shaw is a General Internal Medicine Physician and Clinician Scientist at the University Health Network. She is also an Adjunct Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). She was awarded a CIHR-IHSPR Rising Star Award in 2019 and holds over $600,000 in CIHR funding as principal applicant. Her research focuses on the quality of in-hospital and outpatient care, as well as the organization of physician services.

About the PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship

Knowledge translation research aims at transitioning research discoveries to the real world to improve health outcomes. The PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship – valued at $300,000 for over two or three years – helps protect a promising new clinician investigator’s research time, allowing the Fellow to undertake high-impact translational research in Ontario.

Dr. Lapointe-Shaw highlights the importance of supporting early career physician researchers.

“The PSI Graham Farquharson KT Fellowship offers much-needed stability to early physician researchers, allowing them time to focus on their research and KT work. This time is pivotal to launching one’s career.”

Fellowship Funds to be Used for Quality Improvement on General Medical Wards

General medical wards care for patients admitted to hospital for common conditions such as heart failure, lung disease, pneumonia and falls. The number of patients cared for on such wards has increased over the past decade, and is expected to continue to grow in line with population aging. Learning what matters most to patients and their families can provide direction to quality improvement efforts. This project will elicit patient and caregiver priorities for improvement on general medical hospital wards, in order to drive quality improvement that is aligned with their preferences.

Dr. Lauren Lapointe-Shaw and her team will use group concept mapping to first elicit contributors to the patient and caregiver experience, and then ask patients and caregivers to rate and sort these ideas to create a map of key concepts, and to identify the top priorities for quality improvement. Throughout all steps of the process, they will focus on recruiting a diverse group of participants, to reflect the broad experience and perspectives of the general medical community.

The Ontario General Medicine Quality Improvement Network (GEMQIN) is an Ontario Health-funded program that brings together clinicians and administrators from Ontario hospitals to improve the quality of care provided on general medical wards. All data and reporting in GeMQIN is produced by GEMINI, Canada‘s largest hospital data research network. The outputs of group concept mapping will be used to develop new quality indicators for GEMQIN physician and hospital performance reports, as well as improvement initiatives in the general medical healthcare community.