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.

Lawrence Guo

Technical Lead, Data Sciences Unit

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.

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.

Laagi Yoganathan

Data Engineering Analyst

Laagi Yoganathan

Laagi completed his BSc. & MSc. in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour at McMaster University. His work involved analyzing and creating data pipelines for MRI data. He also spent some summers at CAMH analyzing MRI, fMRI, & MEG data. After his degree he worked in industry as both a data analyst and data engineer at companies like SiriusXM & Opendoor.

Laagi joined the Sung Research Team in 2025 to assist with modernizing data engineering pipelines for EHR data and contributing to the SEDAR project. He is enthusiastic about leveraging his experiences from both industry and academia to improve SEDAR operations. He is also excited about deepening his understanding of how EHR data is utilized in both research and clinical applications.

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.

Joseph Lee

Data Analyst

Joseph Lee

Joseph completed his Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering at TMU. During his studies, he completed a Data Operations internship at Oncoustics, where he developed an interest in utilizing clinical data analytics to improve machine learning applications in oncology. He subsequently completed a Medventions Fellowship at Sunnybrook, where he collaborated with physicians and engineers to ideate and prototype medical devices designed to address unmet clinical needs in interventional cardiology.

Joseph joined the Sung Research Team in 2025, where he is excited to apply his clinical and technical experience to assist hospital staff and researchers in making meaningful advancements in pediatric care.

Kristin Feng

Data Analyst

Kristin Feng

Kristin completed her Bachelor of Applied Science and Master of Engineering degrees in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto, with a focus on Healthcare Engineering. During her graduate studies, she worked on a research project that aimed to improve the efficiency and performance of chemotherapy using Discrete Event Simulation modeling. Kristin joined the Sung Research Team in 2025 and is dedicated to using her data analysis skills to support data-driven insights for oncology patients and help improve their healthcare outcomes.

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.

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.