Dr. Abhimanyu Sud is Assistant Professor at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto and Scientist at the Bridgepoint Collaboratory for Research and Innovation, Sinai Health. His clinical practice, education, and research focus primarily on the intersection of chronic pain, mental health, and opioid use. He leads work that uses a variety of research methods to investigate this area including systematic reviews, clinical trials, implementation evaluations, and bibliometric and media analyses. He is particularly interested in what the opioid crisis tells us about medicine as a field and how we can develop appropriate health policy responses.

Darren’s main role at the Subject Matter Lab is to coordinate a clinical trial investigating online non-pharmacological programs for treating depression in people with chronic pain. The trial is directly recruiting from six healthcare groups across the Greater Toronto Area and includes Women’s College Hospital, the Toronto Rehab Institute, and Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College clinics. Other work he’s involved in largely focuses on chronic pain and mental health, and includes conducting review papers, creating data visualizations, and fulfilling in-lab design needs. His past research has centred around outcome measures and physical therapy in people after stroke. He holds a BSc (Hons) with a specialization in Neuroscience and an MSc in Rehabilitation Science, both from the University of Toronto. In his free time, you can most likely find him gardening, rock climbing, or knitting.

Find out more about Darren here.

Kellia is a researcher conducting an international comparative policy analysis on opioid use disorder treatments in primary care settings. By drawing from key informant interviews and documentary sources, she aims to explore how different health system, cultural, and political factors may influence these models of care. She recently submitted her PhD at The University of Sydney, which examined the development of policies affecting community pharmacy practice, and the role of evidence in policymaking. She holds a BPharm(Hons), is a registered pharmacist in Australia, and has been practicing for the past five years in community pharmacy. When she’s not working, she’s an avid flautist and consumer of news, television, and musical theatre cast recordings.

Kasunka’s role at the Subject Matter Lab is to coordinate a mixed-method study analyzing the citations of a highly influential article on the French experience with primary care-based buprenorphine. Her previous work at the lab includes a qualitative meta-synthesis on the perspectives and experiences of healthcare providers on the extramedical use of buprenorphine.

Kasunka is currently completing a Master of Community Health in Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. She is an international medical graduate licensed to practice medicine in Sri Lanka. In her spare time, she enjoys baking, playing board games, and traveling.

Grahanya’s research at the Subject Matter Lab uses realist methods to elaborate on the functions and mechanisms of continuing education for opioid therapy prescribing. She is particularly interested in exploring the intersections between addiction medicine and chronic pain as well as understanding causal factors and policy efforts in the ongoing overdose crisis. Other qualitative research projects she’s involved in relate to sustainable healthcare education, interactional stigma at the clinical level, and clinical guideline use in opioid prescribing. Grahanya is currently working towards her MD at the University of Toronto. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, photography, and doing puzzles.

Jessica’s role is to coordinate a clinical trial investigating the effectiveness and implementation of a breathing-based meditation intervention called Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (SKY) for Canadian Military and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Veterans living with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The research study will compare the effects of the virtually delivered SKY (v-SKY) to a waitlist control with changes in PTSD symptoms as the primary outcome. Her work includes recruiting, screening, and completing necessary assessments with the participants. She holds a BSc (Hons) with a Health Research Specialization and a Gerontology minor from the University of Waterloo. In her free time, she enjoys reading, playing sports, and traveling. 

Arani’s primary role at the Subject Matter Lab is to develop funding applications for various clinical trials exploring the use of mind-body interventions for complex patient populations, such as older adults and individuals with chronic pain. The proposal she most recently worked on was for a pragmatic pilot trial evaluating the feasibility of implementing a breathing-based meditation program within primary and community care settings, to support benzodiazepine and Z-drug deprescribing among older adults. 

Arani holds an MPH degree from Brock University, and a BMSc degree with an honours specialization in the Interdisciplinary Medical Sciences from Western University. Her past research work was centred around the qualitative experiences of patients and clinicians within diabetes care settings, and implementing eHealth tools. In her free time, Arani enjoys strength training at her local gym, painting and learning new recipes from a diversity of cuisines.