Technology Development Team

Fahmida Islam

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Research Analyst I

Fahmida Islam

Fahmida holds a BSc in Psychology and Neuroscience from U of T. In the past she has worked as a Community Organization Worker and volunteered in various roles to support improving the quality of life of older adults. Prior to joining Techna, Fahmida was a Research Assistant at Bridgepoint Research Collboratory and Trillium Health Partners Mississauga, supporting projects utilizing digital health technologies to support care transition of older adults with complex chronic conditions. Outside of work she enjoys, hiking, skating and painting.

Tirth Patel

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Senior Software Engineer

Tirth Patel

Tirth came to UHN as a summer student in the Radiation Medicine Program in 2015, while finishing his bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience and Computer Science at the University of Toronto. His summer project, a decision support system for adaptive radiotherapy, eventually ballooned into a much larger software platform for clinical automation and research, known as MIRA.

Tirth now leads a team of developers working on MIRA, which has since become a key clinical tool and has been instrumental in dozens of research publications. Tirth has presented his work on MIRA at conferences around the world and was recognized with the RMP Exceptional Contribution to Research award.

In his now limited spare time, owing to the birth of his newborn daughter, Tirth enjoys camping and softball.

Rita McCurdy

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Administrative Assistant

Rita McCurdy

Rita is an administrative assistant within CDI. She began her career in healthcare at the Belfast City Cancer Centre, where she developed a passion for supporting vulnerable patients. She then started working as a private practice’s coordinator within orthopedic surgery. She relocated back to Toronto and began working at the Hospital for Sick Children as the Chief of Psychiatry’s Executive Assistant.
Rita has worked as an administrative assistant to various radiation oncologists in the Radiation Medicine Program since she first joined The University Health Network more than ten years ago. During that time, she has been a crucial link between patients, physicians, and several clinics.

Rita joined the CDI team in January 2022 and contributes to several projects, including eImbrase and Digital Triage, using her expertise in clinical practice and patient experience. She handles payroll, organizes events and meetings, and facilitates the onboarding of new team members at CDI.

Chao Bian

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Research Associate II

Chao Bian, Ph.D.

Dr. Chao Bian is a Research Associate II at Techna working for the Telemonitoring program. He has been working on the research and development of embedded hardware and software for the next generation Telemonitoring system.

Dr. Chao Bian received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Toronto. He conducted research in AI and Robotics team at KITE Institute in Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, UHN since 2016. His Ph.D. research focused on using IoT embedded sensors and machine learning to assess frailty in home settings for older adults. Besides his Ph.D. work, his other experiences have all have focused on the application of IoT embedded sensors and AI. He developed and optimized a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system for tracking patients and doctors in an Emergency Room in his master’s study. This experience earned him a visiting graduate student fellowship at the Auto-ID Lab of MIT where he continued the RFID tracking study. Chao was the lead developer for an award-winning IoT startup after his Masters. He also worked as an IoT and AI developer at IBM Canada in 2018. In 2019, he co-founded an award-winning mobile health startup that uses Computer Vision to automate physical function assessments for physiotherapists.

Chao was one of the inventors of two patents. He also won the Emerging Entrepreneur Award from AGE-WELL NCE and the RBC Graduate Fellowship for Entrepreneurship from the University of Toronto. Chao has published his work in top engineering and clinical journals.
In his spare time, Chao is a long-time swimmer. He also enjoys camping and travelling.

Stephanie Williams

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Technical Analyst

Stephanie Williams, BEng

Stephanie, a Biomedical Engineering graduate from the University of Guelph, has been dedicated to healthcare enhancement and innovation at Techna’s Surgility team since 2020. Her focus includes application development, 3D design and printing, and process optimization. Beyond her work, Stephanie finds joy in outdoor exploration, sports, and community choir singing.

Trinette Wright

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Research Associate II (Intermediate Engineer)

Trinette Wright, BEng, MASc

Trinette joined Techna Institute in March of 2018, as a Research Associate. She is involved with developing virtual and augmented reality applications. Previously, she worked at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre as a Research Engineer.

Trinette has a BEng Electrical and Biomedical Engineering degree from McMaster University (2013) and an MASc Biomedical Engineering degree from Western University (2017).

Goldie Clark

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Administrative Assistant

Goldie Clark

Goldie Clark is a career Admin Assistant, bringing more than 40 years of work experience to UHN. She currently provides administrative support to both Techna and the JDMI Research Office.

Gregory Bootsma

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Staff Scientist

Gregory Bootsma, PhD

Gregory Bootsma graduated from the University of Waterloo with a B.A.Sc. and M.A.Sc. from the Department of Engineering, where he focused on algorithm design, computer vision, and 3D reconstruction. Upon graduation Gregory joined the Image Guided Therapeutics (IGTx) lab working with Dr. David Jaffray and Dr. Jeff Siewerdsen developing both hardware and software for radiation and surgical guidance systems. Gregory went on to do a Ph.D. in the Department of Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Dr. Jaffray. The focus of his thesis was reducing scatter in Cone-beam CT through the use of physics and computational methods to improve image quality. Gregory continues to work to improve X-ray imaging using Monte Carlo techniques to model and generate new X-ray source design, improve image quality, and facilitate overall imaging system design.

David Green

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Staff Scientist II

David Green, PhD

David graduated from Brock University with a B.Sc. in Chemistry and went on to pursue a graduate career in medicinal inorganic chemistry at McMaster University (M.Sc.) and the University of British Columbia (Ph.D.). David has also been on the executive of the Canadian Association of Radiopharmaceutical Scientists since 2007. Prior to joining UHN, David was a Radiochemist at the British Columbia Cancer Agency (Vancouver Centre) and TRIUMF where he was responsible for the clinical production of radiopharmaceuticals. Specifically, he initiated the production of a number of leading positron emission tomography (PET) radiotracers for oncology and neurology applications, including FDG-PET EF5, FLT and FDOPA. At UHN, Dr. Green continued his research interests in the area of novel nuclear medicine tracer development, characterization and imaging. More recently, David led the design, construction and operation of the 5000 sf Cyclotron and Radiochemistry Facility at the University Health Network, located in Toronto General Hospital. Dr. Green’s ongoing efforts are focused on bringing novel and clinically relevant PET radiopharmaceuticals into research and clinical trials at UHN.

Elyse Li

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Financial Analyst III

Elyse Li, MAcc

Elyse Joined Techna finance team in Dec 2018. Prior to Techna, she was a financial analyst at UHN Research Financial Services. Elyse holds a Master of Accountancy from Brock University.

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