Image-guided surgery has transformed surgical procedures by enabling minimally invasive approaches and shorter recovery times. However, surgical precision during these operations depends heavily on the ability to accurately measure distances within the body during surgery. Researchers from The Institute for Education Research at UHN evaluated the feasibility and accuracy of a digital tool that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to support more consistent and accurate surgical measurements.
The research team developed a digital ruler using computer vision technology that allows AI models to analyze surgical video footage. The model identifies the tips of surgical instruments and calculates the distance between them based on the known size of the instruments. The AI model was trained using over 1,200 annotated surgical videos and evaluated against measurements estimated by surgeons and physical rulers used in simulated surgical settings.
The results showed that the AI-based tool had less variability than human estimates, especially over longer distances. The tool performed best when used with human oversight, where manual reviews and corrections were made to help the AI correctly identify instruments.
While the tool remains a proof-of-concept, the researchers anticipate future applications in the operating room through integrating on-screen measurements in surgical video feeds. The tool could also be used after surgery to help surgeons review recorded procedures and refine measurement techniques.
Overall, this study demonstrates the potential for AI-based tools to support more objective and consistent measurement during image-guided surgery, which may help improve standardization and quality of surgical care.
Raphael Kwok, first author of the study, is a research assistant in the lab of Dr. Amin Madani.
Dr. Amin Madani, senior author of the study, is an Education Investigator at The Institute for Education Research at UHN. He is also the Director of the Surgical AI Research Academy (SARA) at UHN and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto.
This work was supported by UHN Foundation and the Temerty Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Amin Madani is a consultant for Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Allan Okrainec is a consultant for Medtronics and MedTech Syndicates, holds equity interests in GT Metabolic Solutions and Qaelon Medical, and receives honoraria from Ethicon.
Kwok R, Yoshida T, Hunter J, Laplante S, Brudno M, Fecso A, Okrainec A, Madani A. Development of an artificial intelligence based virtual tool for measuring distances during image-guided surgery. Surg Endosc. Epub 2025 Dec 9. doi: 10.1007/s00464-025-12461-2.
Welcome to the latest issue of Research Spotlight.
As Canada’s largest research hospital, UHN is a national and international source for discovery, education, and patient care. This newsletter highlights top research advancements from over 5,000 members of TeamUHN—a diverse group of trainees, staff, and principal investigators who conduct research at UHN.
Stories in this month’s issue:
● A Fresh Way to Treat Depression: UHN researchers see preliminary success with psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression.
● Ice: Winter’s Safety Challenge: Advanced winter footwear can help reduce slips, but extra precautions are still needed on ice.
● Harnessing AI to Decode the Heart: New, publicly available AI model to analyze data from ECGs.
● Linking Genes and Therapy Response: Gene mutation in blood-forming cells may improve cancer immunotherapy results.
Read these stories and more online here. To read previous issues, see the newsletter archive.
The UHN Mission Excellence Awards celebrate individuals and teams whose work advances clinical care, research and education in support of UHN’s mission of A Healthier World. Presented at a ceremony on January 28, the awards recognize exceptional contributions that are shaping the future of health care across the organization.
“These awards honour the dedication, ingenuity, and creativity of TeamUHN, celebrating excellence in clinical care, education, and research,” said Dr. Kevin Smith, President and CEO of UHN. “The work of this year's recipients challenges all of us to raise the bar.”
This year, the UHN Mission Excellence Awards highlighted innovation across the full continuum of health care—from scientific discovery with future therapeutic promise to solutions already improving patient safety and care delivery at scale.
Dr. Pamela Ohashi, recipient of the UHN Inventor of the Year Award (Individual), was recognized for her discovery of a novel immune receptor—the gamma delta (γδ) T-cell receptor—that may enable a new approach to cancer cell therapy. A Senior Scientist at UHN’s Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Director of the Tumour Immunotherapy Program, Dr. Ohashi and her team identified the T-cell receptor in a patient whose tumour was eliminated, successfully cloned it, and developed a therapeutic platform now in the translational research stage. Unlike conventional T-cell therapies, this approach has the potential to be applicable across a broader patient population. Further research and evaluation are ongoing to better understand its clinical potential and pathway toward commercialization.
The UHN Inventor of the Year Award (Team) also honoured Team HALO, whose innovation has already delivered measurable impact across UHN and beyond. HALO (Human Attended Live Observation) is a two-way audiovisual monitoring system that enables trained observers to monitor patients at risk of falling in real time. Now UHN’s standard of care, HALO has reduced patient falls, prevented adverse events, and supported care teams by easing workload pressures. Its expansion to more than 30 sites across Canada reflects its scalability, safety, and relevance across diverse care settings.
Together, Dr. Ohashi’s research and Team HALO’s system-wide implementation exemplify the intent of the UHN Mission Excellence Awards—recognizing work that responsibly translates ideas into action. By supporting innovation at every stage, UHN continues to advance solutions that strengthen the health system and improve care for patients, families, and communities.
Read the story with a full list of awards and awardees here.
The UHN Inventor of the Year Award is sponsored by Commercialization at UHN and recognizes an individual or team whose invention has made a substantial commercialization impact, contributing to UHN’s mission of ‘A Healthier World’.
Chronic pain affects one in five Canadians and is a heavy burden for individuals and the health care system. Researchers at UHN’s KITE Research Institute (KITE) reviewed the impact of ECHO Pain, a chronic pain and opioid management education program for health care professionals, and identified how it has strengthened chronic pain care across Canada.
People living with chronic pain face higher health care costs, limited access to specialized care, and reduced quality of life. At the same time, the rate of opioid addiction and overdose in Canada continues to rise. Together, these challenges highlight the need for better education and support for health care providers to ensure safe and effective chronic pain management and reduce the risks associated with prescribing opioids.
To address this need, a team at UHN and Queen’s University co-developed ECHO Ontario Chronic Pain and Opioid Stewardship (ECHO Pain). This virtual, case-based health professions education program brings together a team of specialists and primary care providers to discuss real patient scenarios, share best practices, and strengthen chronic pain and opioid management skills. Between June 2014 and June 2024, the program delivered 529 sessions and engaged over 1,500 health care professionals from across Ontario, including many practising in remote communities.
Participants of ECHO Pain reported high program satisfaction and increased confidence and knowledge in both chronic pain and opioid management. When the research team evaluated prescribing patterns, ECHO-trained care providers significantly reduced opioid prescriptions compared to those who did not participate. The program also fostered a strong, interdisciplinary community where health care providers could share knowledge, skills, and resources. Its virtual format provided timely access to education for physicians working in rural, remote, and underserved communities.
The research team identified several components of the program that contributed to its success, including strong administrative support, a dedicated research and education team, and consistent engagement from the multidisciplinary program team. They also emphasized the importance of regular recruitment of participants and patient cases, and ongoing evaluation to ensure the program continues to meet the needs of health care providers.
As the program model continues to be adopted nationwide, ECHO Pain offers a promising approach to strengthening chronic pain management and equipping health care professionals with the necessary skills, resources, and community to improve care for people living with chronic pain.
Dr. Andrea Furlan, first author of the study, is a Senior Scientist at UHN’s KITE Research Institute. Dr. Furlan is also a Professor in the Department of Medicine and the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto.
This work was supported by UHN Foundation, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, the Ontario Medical Association, and the Northern Ontario Academic Medicine Association.
Dr. Furlan has a monetized YouTube channel and receives royalties from two published books for people with chronic pain.
Furlan AD, Zhao QJ, Taenzer P, Smith AJ, Fabico R, Morgan K, Mostyn R, Flannery JF. Ten Years of ECHO Chronic Pain and Opioid Stewardship in Ontario: Impact and Future Directions. Healthcare (Basel). 2025 Dec 8. doi: 10.3390/healthcare13243203.
A recent international, multi-centre study published in JAMA Neurology, coordinated by researchers from UHN’s Krembil Brain Institute (KBI), revealed that repeated head impacts (RHI) have more far-reaching effects that previously thought.
The last few years have seen a resurgence of discourse on the long-term effects of RHI, particularly for professional athletes such as football players and boxers. RHI is associated with an increased risk of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive neurodegenerative disease that can cause behavioural issues and cognitive decline.
CTE can only be diagnosed by examining the brain for CTE neuropathological change (CTE-NC) after an individual dies. CTE-NC is characterized by abnormal accumulations, called aggregates, of a misshapen form of the tau protein in neurons and astrocytes—cells that support neurons—in their brain’s cortex. However, until now, research has focused almost exclusively on the brain, overlooking another vulnerable part of the nervous system: the spinal cord.
Dr. Gabor Kovacs, a Senior Scientist at KBI, and his research team set out to address this gap by examining the effects of RHI on the spinal cord. In this postmortem study, the team analyzed brain and spinal cord tissue from 70 individuals for the presence and severity of CTE-related tau aggregates beyond the brain.
They found that individuals with CTE-NC in the brain showed significantly more frequent and severe tau aggregates in the spinal cord than those without CTE, regardless of RHI history. Notably, CTE cases also exhibited tau aggregates in spinal astrocytes, which is a feature not seen in other conditions with tau aggregates such as Alzheimer disease.
Among those with CTE, both neuronal and astrocytic tau pathology were more pronounced in individuals with a history of RHI, highlighting a cumulative effect of repeated trauma.
Age further amplified these changes with individuals over the age of 65 who had a both CTE and a history of RHI exhibiting the most severe tau aggregates. Other protein aggregates in the brain were also seen in the spinal cord, including α-synuclein, amyloid-beta, and TDP-43, which contribute to Parkinson disease, Alzheimer disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, respectively. These other protein aggregates were also more common in this group—suggesting that RHI may accelerate age-related neurodegeneration and contribute to the development of other conditions beyond CTE.
“For too long, the effects of repeated impacts on the central nervous system beyond the brain have been understudied,” says first author Dr. Hidetomo Tanaka. Dr. Kovacs adds, “It is time we shift the definition of CTE to encompass not only the brain but the spinal cord as well.”
By broadening the scope of CTE research, this work deepens our understanding of trauma-related neurodegeneration and underscores the need for protective strategies to safeguard the spine as well as the brain for those at risk of RHI. Ultimately, these insights may help reduce long-term neurological burden later in life and improve quality of life for those impacted by RHI—including former professional athletes long after their sport careers have ended.
The first author of this study is Dr. Hidetomo Tanaka, a neuropathologist and a Research Fellow at the Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Disease (CNRD) at the University of Toronto.
The senior author of this study is Dr. Gabor G. Kovacs, a Senior Scientist at UHN’s Krembil Brain Institute (KBI), a Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto, and a Principal Investigator at the Tanz CRND at the University of Toronto.
Drs. Carmela Tartaglia, a Clinician Investigator at KBI, and Charles Tator, a Senior Scientist at KBI, are co-authors of this study.
This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the United States Department of Defense, the Medical Research Council, and UHN Foundation.
Dr. Kovacs has a shared patent for 5G4 synuclein and a patent pending for diagnostic assays for movement disorders. He also reported royalties from Wiley, Cambridge, Taylor and Francis, as well as research support from the Rossy Family Foundation, Edmond Safra Foundation, Krembil Foundation, MSA Coalition, Michael J. Fox Foundation, Parkinson Canada, and the NIH outside of this work.
For a complete list of other authors’ conflicts, see the publication.
Tanaka H, Black LE, Forrest SL, Danics K, Sadia N, Khodadadi M, Tator C, Smith DH, Tartaglia MC, Stewart W, Kovacs GG. Spinal Cord Tau and Protein Copathologies Associated with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. JAMA Neurol. 2026 Jan 26. DOI: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2025.5421.
I am a Scientific Associate III at the University Health Network (UHN), where I conduct translational cancer research focused on understanding how colorectal cancers adapt to therapy and recur.
I have been at UHN for 10 years, progressing through research roles that have expanded in scope and responsibility. I started as a postdoctoral researcher in Catherine O’Brien’s lab and, with her support, transitioned to the Scientific Associate position after returning from my second maternity leave in 2022. Since then, I have grown from a bench-focused scientist into a mentor, and emerging leader, while remaining deeply engaged in hands-on research.
My day-to-day work spans experimental design, data analysis, and mentoring trainees, with a strong emphasis on collaborative, patient-informed research that bridges discovery and clinical relevance. My primary focus is translational oncology and cancer biology.
Although I spend much of my time engrossed in laboratory research, I also contribute to institutional initiatives that support inclusive research excellence and trainee development, such as Project Chrysalis and the Biosciences Oncology Leadership Development (BOLD) program.
In the lab, my current research focuses on understanding how cancer cells contribute to colorectal cancer progression, relapse, and metastasis. By combining experimental models with advanced analytical approaches, my work aims to uncover mechanisms of treatment resistance that can help improve future treatment strategies. Specifically, my current research is dedicated to addressing the ongoing challenge of metastasis by defining the non-genetic mechanisms that enable tumour spread.
Previously, as a post-doctoral researcher, I helped identify a population of cells, called Drug Tolerant Persisters (DTPs), responsible for cancer relapse. These findings contributed to the development of a prognostic relapse signature—a set of markers that clinicians can use to identify the likelihood that a patient will relapse in colorectal cancer patients. As an extension of these findings, I built a biotherapeutic venture focused on treatments targeting DTPs through the Health Innovation Hub (H2i), the University of Toronto Accelerator. The venture earned significant seed funding from investors, including the prestigious FACIT Falcons’ Fortunes Ernsting Entrepreneurship Award.
Integrating inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility (IDEA) principles into both my scientific work and mentorship is a core value for me. I have worked to establish research practices that consider gender and ethnic diversity where appropriate; CIHR’s Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence (REDI) Early Career Transition Award has allowed me to formalize and strengthen this approach.
Mentorship and training are also central to how I approach my work. Catherine’s mentorship over the years has significantly shaped my approach and perspectives—particularly the practice of approaching everything with grace and curiosity—which I strive to implement daily and encourage through my mentorship efforts.
I have mentored students, postdoctoral researchers, and emerging innovators through H2i. Additionally, under UHN’s Education programs, I am a founding member of UHN’s Biosciences and Oncology Leadership Development (BOLD) Program, a leadership course supporting early-career scientists, where I serve on the advisory committee and mentor trainees. I am also a core member of the Project Chrysalis team, whose mission closely aligns with my commitment to embedding IDEA principles across research practices at UHN. Through these efforts, I aim to advance impactful science while helping to foster research environments that are supportive, transparent, and people-centred.
I am deeply motivated by research that leads to tangible improvements in patient outcomes. Health research, to me, means seeing discoveries move beyond the lab to directly influence how patients are treated. It has been incredibly meaningful to see my team's work progress from foundational research to informing a clinical trial and ultimately serving as a cornerstone for a therapeutic development aimed at preventing cancer relapse.
As my role has evolved, so has my sense of responsibility—not only to advance the science, but to help guide projects, mentor trainees, and build pathways that accelerate translation. I am passionate about leading research that keeps patients at the centre while supporting the next generation of scientists to think boldly about impact.
My work contributes to UHN’s vision by addressing one of the most critical challenges in cancer care: disease relapse. By developing molecular signatures that predict tumour relapse and identifying key vulnerabilities—the “Achilles’ heel”—of recurring tumours, my team’s research aims to inform earlier interventions and better treatment strategies that will, hopefully, help reduce the global burden of cancer.
Beyond the science I do, my leadership and educational program involvements, including Project Chrysalis and the BOLD program, help strengthen the research ecosystem by embedding IDEA principles into training and mentorship. Together, these efforts support UHN’s vision of A Healthier World by advancing both patient outcomes and the inclusive research environments needed to sustain innovation.
UHN has provided an exceptional environment to grow as both a scientist and a leader. The institution’s collaborative culture has enabled meaningful partnerships across disciplines, giving me access to world-class expertise, patient-derived resources, and cutting-edge research infrastructure.
Equally important, UHN has created opportunities to translate discovery into impact—from advancing clinically relevant research to engaging in entrepreneurial initiatives and leadership programs. These experiences have allowed me to pursue innovative science while developing the skills needed to lead, collaborate, and advance research toward real-world solutions.
Outside of work, I enjoy spending time with my children and working on community-focused projects through Essentials First Canada, a non-profit I co-founded with my family. At home, I enjoy gardening and doing creative projects with my kids. These activities help keep me grounded and constantly remind me of the value of creativity, curiosity, and balance.
I see the future of health research moving toward more predictive, personalized, and prevention-focused care. Advances that enable us to anticipate disease relapse, understand tumour adaptation, and intervene earlier in the disease process are especially exciting to me. I am also energized by a future where research pathways are more fluid—where discoveries can move seamlessly from the lab to the clinic and, when appropriate, into entrepreneurial ventures.
Equally important is the growing recognition that inclusive leadership and mentorship are essential to scientific progress. Programs like REDI, Chrysalis, and BOLD signal a future where excellence in research is paired with excellence in training, leadership, and culture—and that is what excites me most.
You @TeamUHN is a campaign to highlight the important scientific contributions that research lab staff, trainees and learners, administrative staff, core facilities staff, Research Solutions & Services staff, and volunteers make towards A Healthier World through discovery and innovation. If you’re interested in sharing your story, we invite you to complete this form here (Open to UHN staff, trainees and volunteers).
Research at UHN takes place across its research institutes, clinical programs, and collaborative centres. Each of these has specific areas of focus in human health and disease, and work together to advance shared areas of research interest. UHN's research spans the full breadth of the research pipeline, including basic, translational, clinical, policy, and education.
See some of our research areas below:
Research at UHN is conducted under the umbrella of the following research institutes. Click below to learn more:
