Team

Dr. Lillian Sung MD, PhD

Dr. Sung joined the staff at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in September 2004 after completing fellowships in Haematology, Infectious Diseases and Clinical Investigation and receiving a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Toronto.

She is a Paediatric Oncologist and Clinician Scientist with an independent research program focused on supportive care for children with cancer. Her overall goal is to optimize supportive care for children with cancer, with an aim to maximize quality of life, survival, and cost-effectiveness. She is the Chair of Cancer Control and Supportive Care for the Children’s Oncology Group (COG). This group oversees all studies of supportive care including studies related to symptom management and patient-reported outcomes.

Her clinical focus is on the inpatient care of children and adolescents with leukemia and lymphoma. She also has a major focus on research education. She has taught graduate courses for the School of Graduate Studies, University of Toronto since her faculty appointment and she currently co-directs an advanced randomized trials course. In addition, she has contributed to the development of the Clinical Research Training Institute supported by the American Society of Hematology and developed a research training course in Latin America and Qatar.

Research staff

Sadie Cook

Clinical Research Project Manager

Sadie Cook

Sadie completed her Honours Undergraduate degree in Children’s Education and Development from Wilfred Laurier University focusing her studies on children’s psychology and human rights.

She started working at the Juravinski ICU in 2012 where she completed her Medical Terminology and Behavioral Science certificates. Sadie joined the SickKids team in 2014, and here she is able to combine her hospital experience and passion for working with children.

Emily Vettese

Clinical Research Project Manager

Emily Vettese

Emily completed her undergraduate degree at Ryerson University where she obtained a Bachelors of Applied Science in the field of Nutrition and Food. This passion for health and wellness inspired her to become a certified yoga instructor, where she has gained over 800 hours of training and education.

As part of the Sung Research Team at SickKids, Emily is able to combine these interests to create impactful and long-term change within the field of health.

Agata Wolochacz

Clinical Research Project Coordinator

Agata Wolochacz

Agata completed her Honours Bachelor of Medical Sciences from Western University with a double major in Microbiology, Immunology, and Biochemistry. There she gained an interest in medical research and now hopes to extend that onto making a difference in the lives of children and families. Agata joined the Sung Research Team in 2023. She is eager to make a lasting impact and be involved in the advancement of health care.

Julia Shannon

Clinical Research Project Assistant

Julia Shannon

Julia completed her Honours degree in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at Western University, where she did research on sensory perception in children with autism and ADHD. Through her research, she developed a strong passion for improving the wellbeing of children and their families. In 2024, Julia joined the Sung Research Team, where she combines her research passion with hospital-based work to make a meaningful impact in the care of children with cancer. She hopes to contribute to advancing the field of paediatric oncology and supportive care through her work.

Emily Saso

Clinical Research Project Assistant

Emily Saso

Emily completed her Honours Bachelor of Science in Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of Toronto in 2022, where she received the University of Toronto Student Leadership Award for her contributions to improving student mental health resources on campus. She subsequently completed her Masters of Science in Applied Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Toronto in 2024, focusing on safety outcomes for radiofrequency ablation in low-risk thyroid cancer.

Emily is passionate about improving patient outcomes in oncology, particularly by enhancing quality of life and minimizing avoidable adverse events.

Dima El Hassanieh

Clinical Research Project Assistant

Dima El Hassanieh

Dima completed her Honours Bachelor of Science with a specialization in Health and Disease and a minor in Immunology at the University of Toronto. During her undergraduate studies, she conducted clinical research focused on improving care delivery and quality of life for oncology patients. Alongside her research, she volunteered with children with special needs, fostering her commitment to making a difference in paediatric healthcare. Dima joined the Sung Research Team in 2025 to pursue her passion for oncology research and contribute to advancements in paediatric cancer care. She is dedicated to improving outcomes for paediatric cancer patients and their families through impactful research.

Lawrence Guo

Machine Learning Specialist

Lawrence Guo

Lawrence completed his PhD at the University of Toronto where he used multivariate analysis methods including machine learning to research how neural processes drive action planning. Lawrence is passionate about leveraging techniques from data science and machine learning to aid decision making. Being part of the Sung Research Team allows Lawrence to use his passion to make a meaningful impact on the health-care system.

Jiro Inoue

Systems Analyst

Jiro Inoue

Jiro leads development of SEDAR and manages a team of analysts in delivering SEDAR data to end-users. He joined the Sung Research Team in 2022 to help develop SEDAR to be a general-purpose, curated data repository for a wide range of data use-cases at SickKids.

He completed his PhD at Queen’s University where he applied computational geometry methods to orthopaedic surgery planning, and trained as a postdoc in cardiology imaging at the Robarts Research Institute. Prior to working at SickKids, Jiro was a methodologist at The Ottawa Hospital, helping hospital staff and researchers access and analyze data. His current focus is to facilitate data use by creating workflows and data architectures that enable the rapid delivery of high quality data and analytics to data end-users.

Santiago Arciniegas

Machine Learning Specialist

Santiago Arciniegas

Santiago completed his Bachelor’s degree in Honours Neuroscience at McGill University followed by a Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto. He has long been passionate about the intersection of health, wellbeing, and technology. His past experience includes developing various applications that leverage digital signal processing, traditional computational models, and machine learning (ML) models to study of the human nervous system and create brain-computer interfaces.

As a member of the Sung Research Team at SickKids, Santiago works on a range of clinical ML projects, managing the entire technical lifecycle from data exploration to deployment and maintenance. To support these efforts, he also focuses on MLOps, contributing to the development, maintenance, and optimization of standardized ML pipelines for improved efficiency and scalability.

Martin Yi

Data Analyst

Martin Yi

Martin completed his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science at Queen’s University, followed by a Master’s degree in Data Analytics at Western University. Martin has a passion for leveraging modern data technology to inform decision-making and research. As a member of the Sung Research Team, Martin is excited to apply his prior experience and skills to make an impact on improving the well-being of others.

Alex Kulik

Data Analyst

Alex Kulik

Alex is a graduate of York University with a degree in Finance and of the University of Waterloo with a degree in Data Science. He is passionate about machine learning engineering and developing algorithms for deep learning. As a Data Analyst at SEDAR, he has gains exposure to various aspects of data management, further honing his expertise in the field.

Ida Mehrdadi

Clinical Research Project Assistant

Ida Mehrdadi

Ida completed her Honours Bachelor of Science with a double major in Neuroscience and Psychology from the University of Toronto. She joined the Sung Research Team as a Research Student in 2021 where she was working on a quality improvement initiative to harmonize paediatric cancer infection care. After graduating, she rejoined the Sung Research Team as a Clinical Research Project Assistant and looks forward to continuing her contributions to paediatric supportive care.

Nicole Crellin-Parsons

Clinical Research Project Coordinator

Nicole Crellin-Parsons

Nicole completed her Honours Bachelor of Medical Sciences from Western University. There she became interested in the benefits of yoga while running varsity track. During her undergrad, Nicole developed a passion for improving the lives of children and their families. She spent 6 years working with children with autism and special needs in her community.

Nicole joined the Sung Research Team in 2022. She is excited to integrate her research skills and improving children’s health through supportive care.

Neeraj Dhaliwal

Clinical Research Project Coordinator

Neeraj Dhaliwal

Neeraj graduated from the University of Toronto in 2020, where she completed her Honours Bachelor of Science with a major in human biology along with a double minor in physiology and immunology. She developed a passion for working with children after volunteering at SickKids in Child Life and clinical research roles. Neeraj joined the Sung Research team in 2020, and she hopes to use her prior experiences to contribute to the field of supportive care in paediatric oncology.

Yujie Chen

Doctoral Student

Yujie Chen

Yujie Chen is a PhD student in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on applying machine learning to develop prediction models for Clostridioides difficile infection using electronic health record data. Since joining the Sung Research Team in 2020, she has enjoyed the journey of improving her research skills and gained valuable insights from this supportive and talented team.

Before starting her PhD, Yujie completed an M.Sc. in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Western University. Her time with the team has further deepened her passion for clinical research.

Dr. Adam Yan

Staff Oncologist

Dr. Adam Yan

Dr. Adam Yan is a Staff Oncologist at SickKids and an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Yan completed his residency in Paediatric Hematology/Oncology at SickKids. Dr. Yan then went on to complete a Clinical Informatics Fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital and a Masters of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Yan practiced at Boston Children’s Hospital prior to joining the faculty at SickKids. Dr. Yan is one of the few Canadian physicians with formal training in Clinical Informatics and is the Oncology Informatics lead at SickKids. Dr. Yan is working to improve the use of digital health tools to enhance child care in Canada.

Dr. Hadeel Hassan

Clinical Research Fellow in Artificial Intelligence in Paediatric Oncology

Dr Hadeel Hassan MBChB, MSc (Thesis), PhD

Dr. Hassan joined the Sung Research Team in July 2023 as a GFCC-funded Clinical Research Fellow in Artificial Intelligence in Paediatric Oncology, after completing a clinical fellowship in paediatric hematology and oncology at SickKids. Prior to moving to Toronto, Dr. Hassan trained in Leeds, UK, where she also completed a PhD in paediatric oncology supportive care at the University of Leeds in 2020.

Dr. Hassan’s research focuses on applying machine learning to address challenges in paediatric oncology care which includes clinical decision-making and patient management. Joining the Sung Research Team has enabled her to build on the expertise gained during her PhD and develop new skills in machine learning. Dr. Hassan is excited about applying the knowledge and experience gained during her fellowship to integrate machine learning into paediatric oncology research.

Dr. Amy Lu

Clinical Research Fellow

Dr. Amy Lu

Amy Lu completed her medical degree at the University of Toronto, and her paediatric residency and paediatric haematology/oncology subspecialty residency at The Hospital for Sick Children and the University of Toronto. She has also completed an MScCH (HPTE) from the University of Toronto. Amy began a Garron Family Cancer Centre Research Fellowship under the supervision of Dr. Sung in 2023. Her research focuses on understanding non-English language preference (NELP) and its impact on paediatric oncology care and outcomes.