Unity Health Toronto’s December Honour Roll
Every month, staff, researchers, physicians, learners and teams across Unity Health Toronto celebrate important honours, achievements and awards. Congratulations to all who’ve been recognized in December!
Unity Health Toronto ranked 10th among Canada’s research hospitals for 2025, and 4th for research intensity, according to Research Infosource Inc. This prestigious annual ranking recognizes research growth and productivity that translates directly into saving lives.
November was Research Month at Unity Health, a dedicated time to celebrate the outstanding work happening across our research enterprise. During this month, several members of Unity Health’s research community were recognized for their contributions and achievements at the 2025 Unity health Research Awards.
Congratulations to the following researchers from MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions:
- Dr. Rick Glazier, scientist, won the Legacy Award
- Kate Francombe Pridham, research program manager, won the Dalton Charters Leadership Excellence Award
- layla jabbour, research program manager, won the Research EDIAR Impact Award
Five researchers at Unity Health were recipients of the Innovation Fund Awards 2025 from the Innovation Fund Provincial Oversight Committee for leading exceptional projects in each of their respective categories.
Dr. Lisa Hicks, malignant hematologist at St. Michael’s, won the award in the Chronic Disease category for her project, “Reducing repetitive blood testing in the ICU: A multidisciplinary quality improvement initiative.”
Dr. David Klein, staff physician at St. Michael’s, and Dr. Andrew Beckett, trauma surgeon at St. Michael’s, won the award in the Education category for their project, “Operation Trillium Cura – A Tabletop Simulation and Knowledge Translation Project on Canadian Civilian – Military Health System Collaboration in War.”
Dr. Christopher Witiw, neurosurgeon at St. Michael’s, and Dr. Errol Colak, radiologist at St. Michael’s, won the award in the AI and Machine Learning category for their project, “Integrated pipeline for real time triage of patients suffering traumatic brain injury.”
Dr. Colak was also named Chair of the AI Committee of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). This is in recognition of his significant contributions and international leadership in machine learning in the radiology community.
Drs. Archna Gupta and Saadia Sediqzadah, scientists at Upstream Lab (part of MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, St. Michael’s), and Dr. Robert Simpson, clinician investigator at St. Michael’s, were awarded the 2026 PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship. This fellowship protects research time for a new investigator who has demonstrated the ability to successfully complete high impact knowledge translation research.
