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’.