News
Paula Voorheis, “Kevin J. Leonard Award” 2022 Recipient
October 6, 2022
By: Sandra Dalziel
Sandra Dalziel and Centre for Digital Therapeutics Senior Investigator Dr. Joseph Cafazzo join Paula Voorheis, 2022 recipient of the “Kevin J. Leonard Award” in the Leonard Library on September 28, 2022.
About Kevin J. Leonard
Before his death on July 15, 2013, Dr. Kevin J. Leonard was an Associate Professor at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME), University of Toronto, a Research Scientist at what was then the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, now the Centre for Digital Therapeutics, University Health Network, and a passionate and dedicated patient advocate.
Diagnosed at the age of 14, Kevin lived with Crohn’s disease for more than 40 years which involved frequent and extensive interactions with the healthcare system and resulted in a strong belief in patient empowerment. Kevin was committed to furthering his vision of a more inclusive system, one in which patients are active partners in their own care. He believed the healthcare system could be transformed if patients had electronic access to their own health information, allowing them to be more effective in managing their care in partnership with their health providers. In his own life, Kevin was able to access some of his health information and was an active partner with his care team.
Paying tribute to Kevin’s tireless advocacy on behalf of patients, the “Kevin J. Leonard Award” was established at IHPME in 2013 and first presented in May 2014. It is presented annually to an outstanding graduate, masters or PhD, student whose work will engage and empower patients through the use of technology to become partners in their own healthcare.
As Kevin’s widow and proud member of the Award Selection Committee. I am pleased to announce Paula Voorheis as the 2022 and ninth recipient of the “Kevin J. Leonard Award”. Paula is a PhD candidate in Health Services Research with an emphasis on Outcomes and Evaluation at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto.
Throughout his career, Kevin always had a laser focus on outcomes and evaluation so he would have been pleased with Paula emphasizing these areas of research. A primary area of research for Kevin was the implementation of electronic health records along with issues surrounding the development and implementation of patient-focused information technology. With the growth in digital health, Paula’s PhD research broadens this focus to optimizing the development and implementation of patient-facing mobile health (mHealth) technologies.
Recent evidence shows that mHealth applications are failing to effectively engage patients. With a drive to empower patients through digital health technologies, Paula seeks to improve their design processes so that mobile health applications better meet patients’ needs. This requires intentional efforts not just to gather patient input but also to understand and recognize the value of the patients’ experiences in the design process. Kevin always emphasized and promoted the involvement of patients in the development of eHealth tools from design all the way through to implementation.
Phase one of Paula’s PhD was a systematic scoping review examining the integration of behavioural science and design thinking in the development of mobile health interventions which led to a 2022 published article and presentations at three conferences this year. Paula then proceeded to review the building processes of mHealth interventions designed to engage patients in their own health self-management of 75 design teams, both national and international. Some interventions were tethered to the healthcare system while others were standalone. Paula’s review identified challenges in the teams’ approaches to patient-centred mHealth design. First, they lacked a framework for an effective design process in engaging patients for mHealth interventions, and second, they were uncertain about how to effectively engage patients in the design process. To delve deeper, Paula undertook 30 individual interviews with design team members, including both design experts and patient partners, and asked them to share their experiences. Notably, patient partners described the design process as positive when they sat at the same table and felt included in the process.
Paula added that recruiting patient interviewees was hard. This is not unique as the challenge of recruiting patients is common across healthcare sectors and health research.
The final phase of Paula’s PhD is to produce an mHealth design toolkit which improves design processes and creates more patient-centred digital health applications. The goal is to find the balance between design and the application’s uptake and use. How can the design process be re-conceptualized such that it is valuable to design leaders and valuable and meaningful to patient partners? And with strides in technology, it is now less about the technology and more about the co-design of the mHealth intervention.
In addition to her PhD research, Paula has had practical experience with patient-centred mHealth design through her studentship at Hamilton Health Sciences’ CentRE for dAta science and digiTal hEalth (CREATE). Her most recent work brought together patients, caregivers, and clinical partners to collaborate on an mHealth application design to support and empower breast cancer patients experiencing lymphedema.
Paula gained international academic experience by completing a BSc degree in Biology and Society (Minor in Nutrition and Health) at Cornell University in the US, and an MSc in Public Health (Health Economics Stream) at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in the UK. Associated with both universities were also practical work positions in Paula’s fields of study.
Paula is also an athlete who played goalie for Cornell’s Women’s Ice Hockey team and now plays goalie for the Senior A Women’s Hockey Team, part of the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association (OWHA), and for the University of Toronto Tri-Campus Men’s Ice Hockey Team where she is the only woman. During the past few years, Paula has also been a goaltending coach for several OWHA teams. With Kevin’s lifelong passion for hockey beginning with his days growing up in Montreal cheering for the Canadiens to a highlight of his life working as a video coach with the Vancouver Canucks in 1994, the year the team went to the seventh game of the Stanley Cup finals and fell just short of a win, I know Kevin would have very much enjoyed talking hockey with Paula.
As is my tradition with recipients, Paula and I met shortly after her Award selection. She reminded me of Kevin during our conversation for when Paula sees something needs to get done, she forges ahead, fearless in reaching out to others to network and collaborate on taking action. As an example, Paula is currently collaborating on the development of a new app to help athletes transition into retirement.
Finally, Paula has set a career goal of not only becoming a leader in the design and evaluation of patient-centred mHealth technologies, but also put them into practice as a family physician-scientist with her plans to attend medical school after her PhD studies.
I congratulate Paula on being selected the 2022 recipient of the “Kevin J. Leonard Award”. I have every confidence Paula will achieve all that she sets out to do and will have a significant impact on mobile health design and evaluation and patient care.