91��ɫ Faculty of Health Archives - News@91��ɫ

91��ɫ U’s first nursing PhD grad to cross spring 2023 convocation stage

suhasini — Thu, 15 Jun 2023 19:09:02 +0000

After taking an unusual career path for a male in India in the 1980s, Tamil Canadian achieves the distinction of being 91��ɫ’s first PhD graduate in nursing.

For a male in India in the 1980s to choose to be a nurse was highly unusual, but four decades and three continents later, it led Ramesh Venkatesa Perumal to earn the distinction of being the first graduate of 91��ɫ’s PhD program in nursing. He crosses the spring 2023 convocation stage June 16 at 10:30 a.m.

Ramesh Venkatesa Perumal earns the distinction of being the first graduate of 91��ɫ’s PhD program in nursing

Venkatesa Perumal began practicing as a nurse right after completing the diploma program in nursing in India’s well-known Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, in 1987, as one of only four men in his class of 50 students. “Even while in the program, I had the opportunity to work in the emergency care unit and then in the community health nursing department, so I got to see not just a few patients but a multitude of people for preventive health care as a nursing student.”

He remembers his father bringing home an application for the program, telling him nursing is what he’ll study. As it was not uncommon for parents to choose their children’s career goals, or the children to go with it, Venkatesa Perumal agreed to pursue nursing.

He also remembers how his mother carried him to a nearby town from his village for treatment when he was little and compares nursing to that kind of motherly care. “I did not get to choose my mother, but I received much love and compassion from her throughout my life. Similarly, a patient doesn’t get to choose a nurse, but it becomes our responsibility to ensure they are provided the best care.”

Venkatesa Perumal adds, “I consider it my calling, and this profession has made me a more humane and compassionate person. Looking back, I do not regret one moment of my life as a nurse.”

He also does not regret having to go back to school for a bridging program as an internationally educated professional to qualify to practice in Canada when he arrived here in 2014 from India via the Middle East.

“That was a blessing in disguise,” he says. “I went to 91��ɫ, met wonderful professors who encouraged me to go for doctoral research … which had gates open for me.”

After completing the Post-RN Internationally Educated Nurses (IEN) BScN program offered by the School of Nursing in the Faculty of Health — which is approved by the College of Nurses of Ontario and is said to be one of a kind in the province. After being an RN for a few years, Venkatesa Perumal joined the PhD program’s first cohort in 2018 and completed it this February, ahead of other candidates.

It’s not surprising Venkatesa Perumal chose the impact of social support and mentorship on career advancement of internationally educated nurses for his doctoral study.

As many Indians working in the Middle East who make a permanent move, often to a western country for their children’s future, their education and a better quality of life, Ramesh Venkatesa Perumal and his wife decided to come to Canada with their young son and daughter

In his case, aside from his mentors at 91��ɫ, his wife, who is also a registered nurse, has been a great support. “My wife kept encouraging me throughout. ‘Go and explore what the opportunities are’.” And that support helped him go a long way. He not only dedicated most of his time to studies, but also to teaching, as an assistant professor in the School of Nursing, while mentoring immigrants and newcomers in his profession, as the School’s IEN coordinator.

Teaching is not new to Venkatesa Perumal. After completing his master’s degree in the medical surgical nursing field and a fellowship in Australia, he taught at CMC as a lecturer for five years, until he moved to Muscat, Oman with wife for brighter prospects. He was a lecturer and assistant dean of undergraduate studies at Sultan Qaboos University, where he helped establish a BScN program.

As many Indians working in the Middle East who make a permanent move, often to a western country for their children’s future, their education and a better quality of life, Venkatesa Perumal and his wife decided to come to Canada with their young son and daughter.

Based on his family’s successful immigration, and integration into the Canadian society, Venkatesa Perumal has a few words of wisdom for fellow immigrants: “It can be very frustrating and challenging as an Internationally Educated Professional, but there are support systems put in place, so hang in there. Network with people in your profession, connect with the right people and use the right strategy. You will succeed and yes everyone can and will succeed.”

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Multidisciplinary 91��ɫ U team tackles the widening digital divide

suhasini — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 16:30:00 +0000

While new technologies offer obvious benefits to humanity, concerns over who gets left behind as our world transforms need to be addressed, researchers warn

TORONTO, January 4, 2023 – From basic internet to high-end neurotechnology and everything in between, reliable access to technology is out of reach for millions of Canadians and billions across the globe, and for some equity-seeking communities this will pose new challenges, say 91��ɫ researchers, who have joined forces to tackle this pressing issue.

“Technology now influences the way we communicate with each other, and in many cases, we’re now interacting with artificial agents,” says Distinguished Research in the Faculty of Health.

Crawford is the director of 91��ɫ’s project that blends human science, computer science, humanities and arts for transdisciplinary research and applications.

As a neuroscientist, he sees how neurotechnology is implemented in medical diagnostics and rehabilitation, and as a means for direct communication between the brain and prosthetics to replace lost functions like vision and movement. He also sees how various apps and online platforms can both connect and divide us.

“These advances have many benefits for society, health, and the economy, however, they come with serious concerns,” points out Crawford, who has partnered other 91��ɫ researchers in the fields of neuroscience, technology, law, arts and social science to come up with solutions.

“For example, social media, while connecting people, is also driving them apart into bubble like 'echo chambers'. And now, with the advent of brain-machine interfaces, we face new ethical concerns that were the stuff of science fiction until only a few years ago.”

Faculty of Health , Mi'kmaw scholar from the Qalipu First Nation and a member of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, shares the same view based on his research and personal experiences.

“A lack of access to internet for Indigenous Peoples in Canada exacerbates long-standing inequities in areas such as health, employment and education,” says Hillier, 91��ɫ Research Chair in Indigenous Health Policy & One Health. He highlights the fact that while the threats posed by technology are of concern to everyone, the most impacted are low-income and rural communities. “Highspeed and reliable internet connection are not accessible to many Indigenous community members, both in rural and urban settings.”

A lack of reliable internet creates many barriers, including the inability to work from home as employees, conduct transactions within and outside of their communities as business owners, successfully complete post-secondary education, and access health-care services, whether primary care or mental health supports, particularly for those in remote locations, according to Hillier.

“How can you be examined or share your health concerns or receive counselling when you live in a household with no privacy and your internet connectivity is unstable? You will be forced into public spaces to do these calls.”

Hillier also points out there are concerns about how Indigenous sovereignty and data are presented that need to be answered. “While information flows more reliably online, what does it mean for Indigenous Peoples' traditional knowledges, how are these knowledges shared and who gets access to them and subsequently use it? How do we effectively implement principals of data ownership and control when communities do not have the recourses or expertise to oversee this?”

When it comes to Artificial Intelligence (AI), there is a lack of ethical designing, says Hillier. “AI designs are created with a western bias, so they are limited in their imagination, frameworks, and effective use of language with diverse Indigenous knowledge systems and our Peoples."

Theatre & Performance Studies , whose research focus is on digital justice for diverse groups, believes the need of the hour is to collectively conduct research to determine how social injustices are embedded in digital technologies, such as virtual reality (VR), and find impactful solutions.

“Researching barriers to access for those in historically marginalized groups around the world — from the cost of using certain equipment, to having to don normative avatars, to experiencing surveillance on various platforms — will ensure that virtual communities can assemble, self-organize, and connect, allowing them to imagine alternative past, presents, and futures,” she says.

“How these technologies — which enable new kinds of interactivity and storytelling — shape collective thinking, affective experiences, and community care, will be another aspect to explore to better understand social issues produced by interactions between humans and computers. This is especially important in the context of art and educational projects that use immersive features of VR to teach empathy,” says Levin, who is the associate dean of research at the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design at 91��ɫ.

Levin adds that it is crucial to consider the ethical and political implications of using immersive technologies to give spectators an experience of someone culturally different from themselves (for example, experiencing a migrant’s or a homeless person’s perspective), as this can often reinforce Eurocentric, colonial, and capitalist ideologies.

Another challenge such marginalized communities face as technology evolves, shifting toward integration of AI, is access to the legal justice system.

“With the onslaught of emerging technologies, the law is ever playing catch up and many in society get left behind,” says Intellectual Property Law , who has been researching IP innovation for more than a decade. To tackle this issue, “information and services should remain available and accessible to those who need it most to empower them from the ground up, through education and access to information and resources that should be public knowledge.”

Removing monopolies on public knowledge will help foster more innovation and entrepreneurship at the grassroots level, allowing local economies to prosper and growing made-in-Canada companies to better manage and leverage their resources, says D’Agostino. “At the same time, special care should be taken to ensure that remote communities and those without stable or consistent internet access are still able to access these resources. This can work through strategic and carefully cultivated partnerships which build trust between knowledge-holders and community members.”

For her part, in 2010 D’Agostino founded the at 91��ɫ’s Osgoode Hall Law School, which helps under-resourced entrepreneurs and start-up companies to commercialize their intellectual property. “My current IP Innovation Clinic research is targeting barriers disproportionately affecting women and Indigenous communities, two of the most underrepresented among patent holders in Canada,” she says.

“Through our new AI-powered chatbot at the Clinic, we are trying to engage with organizations supporting these communities to identify barriers, research answers to their most pressing questions, and refine this AI tool to better respond to these concerns,” says D’Agostino. “Bottomline, AI will disrupt all aspects of society, so learning how to embrace and interact with it is the best way to keep up with this shift.”

The common element of all these examples is that new technologies, while providing advances in some areas, also create barriers of threats for some communities, the researchers say, emphasizing that a more proactive approach to understanding the potential consequences of novel technological perturbations.

Having this collective goal of narrowing the digital divide that is intensified by the shift in the interaction between human science and machine science, these researchers and others from research centres at the University have come together to plan programs with real-world impact, while making a positive change in the global arena.

91��ɫ is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change and prepare our students for success. 91��ɫ's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. 91��ɫ’s campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contact: Gloria Suhasini, 91��ɫ Media Relations and External Communications, 647-463-4354, suhasini@yorku.ca

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Global spotlight on AI’s impact on health care, law and urban development

suhasini — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 19:52:42 +0000

Innovative 91��ɫ conference to focus on how interdisciplinary collaborations can help shape a more just, equitable, healthy and sustainable future

TORONTO, Nov. 8, 2022 – Researchers and scholars from across Canada and around the world will come together tomorrow, Nov. 9, to examine the burgeoning impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on health care, legal practice and urban design during a day-long conference at 91��ɫ’s Osgoode Hall Law School and here.

The Bracing for Impact Conference: The Future of AI for Society, organized by IP Osgoode in partnership with Reichman University and Microsoft Corporation, will include three panel sessions:

AI for the Future of Urban Development – Smart Cities, Transportation and Sustainability will explore the growing concerns about ubiquitous surveillance as municipalities increasingly employ digital technology and sensors to collect data.
AI for the Future of Legal Practice: Self-Regulation, Access to Justice and the Importance of Legal Data will explore how we can maximize this potential within the unique context of lawyers’ professional self-regulation that has been so meticulously interrogated in recent years.
AI for the Future of Health: Data, IP and Equitable Access to Personalized Healthcare will highlight how the emerging paradigms of data-driven healthcare systems can and will shape the future.

“We are so excited to welcome a fantastic panel of experts contributing their diverse insights for this signature conference,” says 91��ɫ , the conference chair. “It’s the first time I have seen this done at any AI law conference in Canada. The future of AI is here,” she says, adding that SPOT – the famous AI robot dog – will be in attendance to greet students and other participants, igniting experiential opportunities.

In addition to keynote speeches and other activities, the conference will include a special ceremony to officially launch the 91��ɫ Centre for AI & Society. D’Agostino and of 91��ɫ’s Lassonde School of Engineering and the Faculty of Health, will serve as the inaugural co-directors of the centre.

For more panel details, including a full list of guest speakers,

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Media Contact:

Gloria Suhasini, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 647.463.4354, suhasini@yorku.ca

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91��ɫ U expert: COP27 can help step up global environmental commitments

suhasini — Wed, 02 Nov 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Social epidemiologist can also discuss what pandemic treaty negotiators can learn from international environmental law

TORONTO, Nov. 2, 2022 – The world will be watching as global leaders start to convene this weekend at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP27, to review their countries’ commitments to environmental protection in accordance with the .

But are such agreements and treaties effective? Often, the answer is “no,” says Social Epidemiologist , an associate professor in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health who has extensively researched international treaties and their effectiveness.

“Policymakers should consider adopting binding enforcement mechanisms and researchers can make use of global legal epidemiology to produce rigorous research on the international laws, policies and norms,” says Poirier, co-director of 91��ɫ’s Global Strategy Lab, who co-authored a on the topic.

While he speaks in this video – full clip available upon request – about why international treaties are often ineffective and how the issue can be addressed, Poirier is also available to comment on:

Whether international treaties are helpful in addressing global challenges
What can make treaties impactful and successful?
What can pandemic treaty negotiators learn from international environmental law?
How can enforcement mechanisms help to create more effective environmental and other treaties?
How, and why, trade and finance treaties are more effective than environmental, human rights, humanitarian, maritime and security treaties?

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Media Contact:

Gloria Suhasini, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 647.463.4354, suhasini@yorku.ca

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Intercultural romantic relationships aid personal growth, 91��ɫ U researcher says

suhasini — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 14:05:44 +0000

Research by Social Psychologist Amy Muise and her team offers first look at how cultural differences can facilitate personal growth and relationship success

91��ɫ U Social Psychologist

TORONTO, Oct. 6, 2022 – Couples in intercultural romantic relationships benefit from each other’s cultural differences, as they are exposed to new perspectives, knowledge and identities, three recent studies conducted by 91��ɫ researchers indicate.

“Intercultural romantic relationships are increasingly common and although the obstacles such couples face are well-documented, the factors that facilitate their success are less studied,” says Social Psychologist, in the Faculty of Health at 91��ɫ, who is the senior author of a new paper. “Our current study results show that personal growth was associated with relationship quality and identity outcomes.”

” published today in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, is a research paper based on studies using cross-sectional, dyadic, over time, and experimental methods to understand the opportunities for growth through cultural sharing in a relationship.

The studies indicate that personal growth through a partner’s culture was uniquely related to identity outcomes, such as a greater cultural awareness, beyond general growth through the relationship. “Also, actively sharing cultures and discussing their differences was linked to more cultural and relational self-expansion, which in turn, differentially predicted partners’ relationship quality and cultural identities,” points out Muise, who is also the 91��ɫ Research Chair in Relationships and Sexuality.

These studies provide a first look at the role of self-expansion in intercultural relationships – demonstrating that the way couples negotiate their cultures is linked to both relational and personal outcomes.

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Media Contact:

Gloria Suhasini, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 647.463.4354, suhasini@yorku.ca

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