KITE scientist receives funding to help design digital health platform to predict behaviors

Dr. Sherhroz Khan receives $30,000 in funding as part of 2023 AMS Healthcare Compassion and Artificial Intelligence Grant.

KITE scientist Dr. Shehroz Khan has been named recipient of the 2023 Associated Medical Services (AMS) Healthcare Compassion and Artificial Intelligence Grant.

The purpose of the grant is to support projects that deepen understanding of compassion through the lens of technology to better ensure that technologies are enabling of healthcare’s compassionate purpose. 

Only eight early to mid-career health professionals are bestowed this grant each year.

A large portion of people living with dementia in the community exhibit responsive behaviors that could lead to injuries and distress to them and their caregivers.

Responsive behaviours is a term commonly used to refer to actions, words or gestures presented by a person living with dementia as an expression of an unmet need (pain, hunger, stress) and response to a stimulus in their environment (overstimulation).

Dr. Khan is co-designing a cloud-based digital health platform (MAISON) that will predict these behaviors.

“I thank AMS for providing this opportunity to work with key stakeholders in designing a digital health system and understanding key challenges in deploying it,” said Dr. Khan who is a member of KITE’s Aging team and assistant professor at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto.

“This project not only incorporates compassion while building AI solutions, but it also empowers and enables voices of people living with dementia and their caregivers in the design of digital health solutions for improving accessibility and adoption.” 

Recipients of the grant receive up $30,000 in funding for one year.