Our Team
SED Lab Director
Myrtede Alfred is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. Prior to joining University of Toronto, she served as a research assistant professor at the Medical University of South Carolina where she spent the past three years applying her expertise as a human factors engineer to improve the delivery of care through both research and practice. She obtained her PhD in industrial engineering from Clemson University (2017). During her tenure at Clemson, she held the SREB Dissertation Fellowship and Janine Bowen Graduate Fellowship and earned multiple awards for teaching and outreach including the College of Engineering, Computing, and Applied Science’s Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant and MLK Jr. Excellence in Service Award. She is also the executive director of Marie's Kids STEAM education nonprofit.
Professor Alfred’s research examines the role of sociotechnical systems factors in supporting or hindering safety in clinical systems, with specific interests in surgical instrument reprocessing, robotic-assisted surgery, anesthesia medication delivery, and retained foreign objects. Complementing the social determinants of health framework, her research also leverage human factors and systems engineering to examine clinical systems contributions to healthcare disparities.
Soyun Oh
Research Assistant
Soyun is an MSc student in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. Before her master's program, she completed her two bachelor’s degrees at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and The Cyber University of Korea and worked in UX research/design for a year. Soyun is interested in the intersection of Healthcare, Human Factors, & Universal Design. She is currently working on the ‘interpreter Utilization Project’ at St. Michael Hospital to enhance care quality and health outcomes of patients with limited English proficiency. Her ultimate research goal is to serve an underserved population both in healthcare and Information Technology like older adults and patients with limited English proficiency.
Research assistant
Hongbo Chen is a Ph.D. student in the Industrial Engineering program for human factor application in improving patient safety. Prior to joining the University of Toronto, he completed bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Alberta. Hongbo’s research focus is to utilize artificial intelligence and systematic analysis to improve patient safety.
Matthew Chambers
Research Assistant
Izhaan Junaid
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Izhaan is a second year Industrial Engineering Student at the University of Toronto. Within the Safety, Equity and Design (SED) Lab, Izhaan’s research focuses on compiling healthcare checklists and literature on effective checklist designs, as well as refining an algorithm to assist healthcare teams in determining which checklists to utilize. He will also assist in the systematic review of literature regarding computer-aided detection of retained foreign objects, or RFOs, for the purpose of improving their overall detection rate.
Bella Yang
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Bella Yang, a third-year Computer Engineering student specializing in Software Development and Artificial Intelligence, will be participating in a research term at the SED lab. As part of her research, Bella will be joining the team working on the application of Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR) in medical settings. Her project involves developing an advanced and revolutionary process that utilizes AR/VR technology to enhance the patient consent process.
Max Bao
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Max Bao is a 3rd year Industrial Engineering student at the University of Toronto. Within the Safety, Equity, and Design (SED) lab, Max’s research focuses on developing and testing a dashboard using historical maternal health data. She will create a prototype in visualization tools, represent the findings of the statistical and qualitative data analysis, conduct usability testing and iterative refinement.
Francesca Fortino
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Francesca is a 1st year Mechanical Engineering Student at the University of Toronto, interested in the Biomedical Engineering field. Within the Safety, Equity and Design (SED) lab she is working on the CPR project to conduct testing and ultimately complete a pilot study to determine the efficacy of tactile feedback devices in improving Bystander CPR quality.
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Layla Atallah
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Layla is a 2nd year Mechanical Engineering student at the University of Toronto. Within the Safety, Equity, and Design (SED) lab, Layla’s research is focused on data analysis in understanding experiences of pregnant and postpartum women in the healthcare system within the Maternal Health and Disparities project. Secondarily, Layla will be supporting the Extended Reality project.
Jasmine Zhan
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Jasmine is a second year industrial engineering student who is interested in the intersection between healthcare and technology. Her research within the Safety, Equity and Design (SED) Lab focuses on examining the effectiveness of checklist designs in different settings, and determining how healthcare workers can select the most practical design.
Nicole Scala
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Nicole is a first-year Industrial Engineering student at the University of Toronto. Within the SED lab, Nicole's research focuses on the effectiveness of command and control centres within hospitals.
Nicole Hicks
Research Assistant
Nicole is a MASc student in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. She recently completed her BASc in Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto (2022). Within the SED lab, her research is focused on identifying data analysis approaches to uncover racial/ethnic inequities and process deviations in the maternal health process.
Tosin Akintunde
Research Assistant
Tosin Akintunde is a PhD student in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. She had her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Tosin is interested in applying human factor's engineering tools in improving maternal patient safety and equity in the healthcare system.
Shelina Terrance
Research Assistant
LinQiao Zhang
Undergraduate Research Assistant
LinQiao is a second-year Industrial Engineering student at the University of Toronto.
Within the Safety, Equity, and Design (SED) lab, LinQiao’s research focuses on the Retained Foreign Objects (RFO) Project, aiming to enhance patient safety through refining the Borealis database and assisting with systematic reviews on computer-aided detection of RFOs.
Additionally, LinQiao supports the Patient Journey Mapping (PJM) Project, addressing latent threats in maternal care and identifying practices to enhance safety, equity, and patient-centred care.
Fiona Sun
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Fiona Sun is a 3rd year Industrial Engineering student at University of Toronto. Within the Safety, Equity, and Design (SED) lab, Fiona’s research focuses on developing and testing a visual feedback mechanism to monitor system equity in maternal health. She will develop a prototype that visually represents the findings of the statistical and qualitative data analysis related with maternal health data, and carry out related usability testing.
Zeina Shaltout
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Zeina Shaltout is a 3rd year Industrial Engineering student at the University of Toronto. Within the Safety, Equity, and Design (SED) lab, Zeina's research focuses on exploring the potential of extended reality (AR/VR) to enhance patient education and consent processes in healthcare. She will lead a student project to develop a VR demo and study XR tools' efficacy, aiming to revolutionize patient understanding of surgical procedures.
Halle Teh
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Halle Teh is a 2nd year Industrial Engineering student at the University of Toronto. Within the Safety, Equity and Design (SED) lab, Halle's research concentrates on utilizing extended reality (AR/VR) to enhance the informed consent process in healthcare. This aims to allow patients to understand their treatment options, such as surgical procedures, better through immersive learning.
Yasmeen Smadi
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Yasmeen is a second year Industrial Engineering Student at the University of Toronto. Within the Safety, Equity, and Design (SED) lab, Yasmeen’s research focus is on examining hospital command and control centers. She will be evaluating their effectiveness, the investment costs involved, and the range of operations monitored to help better support the design of these centers.
Kate Ker
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Kate is a 1st year electrical engineering student at the University of Toronto. Within the Safety, Equity and Design (SED) lab, Kate's research focus is on examining the effectiveness of hospital command and control centers.
Joey Lu
Undergraduate Research Assistant