New centre for digital health research opens

KINGSTON, Ont. – Providence Care officially opened its new Centre for Digital Health Research (CDHR). Said to be the first of its kind in southeastern Ontario, the CDHR will serve as a regional hub for collaboration, research and innovation at the intersection of healthcare and digital technology.

Providence has partnered with Queen’s University and Kingston Health Sciences Centre on the project. It’s being led by inaugural director Dr. Nazanin Alavi (pictured), and it will explore and implement evidence-based digital tools to improve patient care across all health disciplines.

At a kickoff event in Kingston, Dr. Alavi said the centre will bring together experts from across the province to do this. “This will make healthcare more scalable, accessible and tailored to the needs of patients, while giving clinicians more time to connect meaningfully with those they serve.”

“It could be in mental health, radiology, cardiology. They are often aligned so we work together,” Alavi said. “We have learned that mental health impacts us in so many ways, that it is related to other disorders like cardiac diseases.”

Dr. Alavi is a staff psychiatrist and associate professor at the department of psychiatry at Queen’s University and currently the co-program medical director of mental health and addiction care at Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC)

She is a nationally recognized leader in digital mental health innovation and has led over 15 clinical trials in online psychotherapy modules for anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

“We have done 20 trials and there are six ongoing, which are province wide,” Alavi told the Kingston Whig-Standard.

Dr. Alavi’s work also explores artificial intelligence (AI) for patient triage, clinical decision-making and tools to support better patient-doctor relationships.

“For the last three or four years, AI has been a big part of my research. A big part of that has been triage,” Alavi said. “AI has also helped to decrease wait-lists for treatment, and to determine the level of care for each person’s needs.”

Dr. Alavi is the founding director of the Queen’s Online Psychotherapy Laboratory (QUOPL) and co-founder of OPTT Inc., a health technology platform providing AI-powered clinical solutions.

Her work has also been recognized internationally — she was selected for the Mayo Clinic Platform Accelerate program, where she collaborates on AI-driven strategies to improve pharmacological treatments and advance mental health care.

The Centre for Digital Health Research (CDHR) will focus on:

• Advancing AI-powered tools to support clinical decision-making, including treatment optimization
• Developing digital platforms that improve access, equity, and efficiency for diverse populations
• Creating a robust research ecosystem through academic, clinical, industry, and patient partnerships
• Training future digital health leaders through mentorship, education, and knowledge translation
• Promoting ethical, evidence-informed digital innovation aligned with Providence Care’s mission