Charles Kassardjian

I am a neurologist at St. Michael's Hospital, and I have a Masters in quality improvement and patient safety. My main clinical area of interest is in genetic and autoimmune neuromuscular diseases. Individually, these diseases are rare, but as a group they are not uncommon. However, rare diseases and their complications are difficult to track prospectively. Clinical databases are expensive and time-consuming to update, preventing many physicians from contributing, and limiting the quality and breadth of research. Administrative databases are flawed because there are no reliable diagnostic codes to pick out specific patient populations. This hinders important QI work, such that we cannot reliably answer critically important clinical questions. 

I have a track of record of successful research and QI work, looking at novel questions that have been rarely asked in the literature but are of practical importance (such as how to manage infections or fractures in immunosuppressed neuromuscular patients). I believe that using AI methods such as natural language processing, would allow us to answer these questions, in turn improving patient safety, reducing wasted time and unnecessary testing, and allowing for more individualized care for patients with rare diseases. I am keen to contribute and learn these techniques.