Researchers

Dr. Peter Senior’s clinical and research interests focus on type 1 diabetes, islet transplantation, hypoglycemia and diabetic nephropathy. He has been an investigator in a number of clinical trials in both diabetes and islet transplantation ranging from large multicentre studies (e.g., ACCORD) to smaller investigator-initiated trials.

As a health services researcher and clinician-scientist, Dr. Shah seeks to understand and improve the quality of care and long-term outcomes of people with diabetes. He has national and international leadership in several areas of research, including diabetes care in ethnic, immigrant and indigenous populations; long-term cardiometabolic consequences for women following gestational diabetes; and novel models of healthcare delivery to improve outcomes.

Dr. Sherifali’s research focuses on optimizing the management of diabetes and quality of life of people with diabetes across the lifespan. The broad goal of her research program is to engage individuals to effectively self-manage and mitigate the impact of diabetes on their life. Her research will examine health coaching and digital solutions to improve health-related outcomes and extend diabetes self-management.

Dr. Rayzel Shulman’s research program is focused on developing and evaluating health services interventions to improve the health and quality of care for youth living with diabetes. Areas of focus include transition to adult care, preventing DKA at diabetes diagnosis, and reducing socioeconomic disparities in care and outcomes.

Dr. Alexander Singer’s research focuses on using electronic medical records (EMRs) for secondary use, specifically in the areas of disease surveillance, natural language processing, and pragmatic clinical trials based in primary care settings. He is affiliated with several research groups, including the Canadian Institute for Health Information, Choosing Wisely Canada, Diabetes Action Canada, and the Patients, Experience, Evidence, Research network.

Aleksandra is well trained in mixed methods and led the economic evaluation of the DAC tele-retinopathy research project in collaboration with Community Health Centres in Toronto. She has developed a profound interest in the interplay of social theories and economics using the intersectionality framework guided by a health equity lens. Her goal is to mainstream how we conceptualize the impact of programs/interventions with respect to (in)equity and access to care on women, people from lower socioeconomic groups or people from certain cultures or racial backgrounds while remaining focused on economic analysis.

Metabolic complications of obesity and body fat distribution, with a particular emphasis on adipose tissue physiology. Experimental approaches combine cellular biology techniques with biochemistry, genomics, transcriptomics and clinical investigation in humans as well as the study of bariatric surgery.

Her research expertise includes mixed methods and qualitative research, patient engagement and participatory research approaches. Her current research uses participatory approaches to make the health system more equitable and accessible to marginalized populations. She leads various projects that address cultural safety of health care, racism issues in the health system, patient participation in research and health education, as well as reflexivity as a strategy for critical learning.

Dr. Tu is the founder of the Electronic Medical Record Administrative data Linked Database (EMRALD) and has unique insights into the analysis electronic medical record (EMR) data. She has extensive experience and expertise in the use of primary care EMR data, administrative data and the validation of administrative data and EMR data algorithms for the identification of common chronic diseases.

Dr. Bruce Verchere’s research aims to understand how pancreatic islet beta cells function and why they are lost or are dysfunctional in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes and following transplantation. He has made contributions to understanding of islet inflammation, the biosynthesis of beta cell hormones, and the pathophysiology of the beta cell peptide islet amyloid polypeptide.