Dr. Kieran Quinn

• 2021–present; Assistant Professor, Clinician-Scientist Track, Department of Medicine, Divisions of General Internal Medicine and Palliative Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto 
• 2021–present; Assistant Professor, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto   
• 2021–present; Full Scientist, ICES
• 2023–present; Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) College of Reviewers
• 2025–present; Associate Member, Institute of Medical Science (IMS)
• 2022–present; Co-Lead, Clinical Trials Committee, Sinai Health
• 2022–present; Scholarly Lead, University of Toronto General Internal Medicine Subspecialty Fellowship Program
• 2023–present; Co-Chair, Canadian Post COVID-19 Clinical Practice Guidelines  
• 2024–present; Founder and Co-Lead, National Clinical Trials for Pan-Canadian Palliative Care Research Collaborative
• 2024–present; Founder and Co-Lead, General Medicine Clinical Trials Network

Former appointments

• 2017–2022; Clinical Advisory Committee Member, Ontario Palliative Care Network  
• 2022–2025; Expert Member of the Chief Science Advisor’s National Task Force on the Post COVID-19 Condition
• 2022–2023; Assistant Scientific Director, Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table and Ontario Public Health Emergencies Science Advisory Committee
• 2023; Ministry of Health Advisory Committee for the provincial strategy on integrated care for people living with Post COVID-19 Condition

• FRCPC, Palliative Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto; 2023 
• PhD, Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research, University of Toronto, Toronto; 2017–2021 
• FRCPC, General Internal Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto; 2016–2018 
• FRCPC, Internal Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto; 2013–2016 
• MD, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada; 2009–2013 
• MSc, Cardiovascular Physiology, University of Toronto, Toronto; 2006–2008 
• BSc, Physiology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; 2001–2005 

• 2024–2029 – 2024 Ontario Early Researcher Award Ministry of Colleges and Universities - Recognizes promising, early career researchers to help build research teams of graduate students, undergraduates, post-doctoral fellows, research associates and technicians.
• 2024 – Canadian Society of Internal Medicine New Investigator Award - In recognition of excellence in the field of general internal medicine research by a new investigator.
• 2022 – John Charles Polanyi Prize in Physiology/Medicine - Recognizes truly outstanding researchers and scholars for their work during their doctoral program and, where relevant, in their research and scholarship after doctoral study.          
• 2021 – Governor General’s Gold Medal for Academic Excellence - Awarded to the top graduate student across the entire School of Graduate Studies at the University of Toronto.
• 2018 – CIHR Vanier Scholarship - Awarded to world-class doctoral students demonstrating leadership skills and a high standard of scholarly achievement in graduate studies.
• 2018 – Ministry of Health-Clinician Investigator Program Award
• 2018 – Michael Decter Scholarship for Health Leadership and Policy Studies
• 2017 – Eliot Phillipson Clinician Scientist Training Program Award

Improving and promoting palliative care for patients with advanced heart failure

Heart failure is one of the most common and costly chronic illnesses, yet people living with advanced heart failure often face major unmet needs near the end of life. My team is working to define the full spectrum of palliative care needs in this population and to understand how best to integrate palliative approaches alongside disease-directed therapies. 

We are studying and comparing the real-world use of SGLT2 inhibitors among adults with advanced heart failure in Canada and the United States, measuring both their benefits and potential harms. In parallel, we are investigating how quality of care varies for patients admitted to hospital with heart failure, with the goal of identifying gaps that can be addressed through future interventions and trials.

Improving and promoting palliative care for patients with advanced dementia

Dementia is now one of the leading causes of death, yet people with advanced dementia often receive medical care that may not align with their values. Our research is focused on measuring the impact of palliative care on healthcare use for this population and clarifying whether it helps improve quality at the end of life. 

We are also studying how people living with advanced dementia, and their families, perceive health states that may be considered “worse than death.” Another major strand of work examines the use of antibiotics in advanced dementia and suspected pneumonia, weighing their benefits and harms in real-world practice. Together, these studies are laying the foundation for clinical trials that can guide more compassionate, person-centered care.

Studying end-of-life care across high-income nations

End-of-life care practices vary widely around the world, and these differences can offer important insights for improving care at home. Through international collaborations, we are comparing patterns of treatment intensity and care near the end of life across high-income countries. 

By identifying which policies and practices lead to more equitable, patient-centred outcomes, this work will generate actionable recommendations for health policy and clinical care. These comparisons also help highlight opportunities to test new models of care in future multinational clinical trials.

Applying advanced data analysis methods and clinical trials to improve palliative care

The pace of progress in palliative care research has been slowed by challenges in conducting large, rigorous trials. To address this, we are developing a national palliative clinical trials platform—the first of its kind worldwide—that leverages innovative data strategies to accelerate knowledge creation. This platform will allow us to rapidly test new models of care, evaluate therapies, and answer urgent questions about how to best support patients and families. By creating a shared infrastructure, we aim to make Canada a global leader in palliative care trials and provide trainees with opportunities to contribute to cutting-edge research that directly informs clinical practice.

We are also developing and testing novel methods using large language models (LLMs) to recruit and get consent from prospective trial participants, efficiently collect their health data from existing sources, and disseminate our findings internationally. These novel tools will improve the efficiency of the recruitment process by saving researchers the time of performing this critical tasks and completing them at a fraction of the cost. The ability to deploy LLMs remotely and in multiple languages will broaden their reach and, therefore, the diversity of clinical trial participants, and enable trial participation by community hospitals that lack the rich research infrastructure found in large academic centers.

Improving health policy on end-of-life care

Policy decisions profoundly shape patient experiences at the end of life. One area of focus in our work is measuring how hospital CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) policies in Ontario influence equity and outcomes after cardiac arrest. In addition, we are developing the Code Status Companion, an artificial intelligence–based chatbot designed to guide patients and families through compassionate, values-based decisions about resuscitation. 

By supporting honest conversations, enhancing equity, and ensuring that care aligns with what matters most to patients, this research seeks to transform both policy and practice. These projects set the stage for future trials that test scalable, evidence-informed strategies to improve end-of-life care across healthcare systems. 

We are always looking for highly motivated researchers to join our team.

All trainees co-author papers on palliative and end-of-life care. They train across the full research pipeline, including in literature review, study design, ethics and consent, clinical trials, data analysis, statistics, and manuscript writing. We meet weekly, and trainees shadow me on the ward to ground their questions in real clinical care. I connect them to experts, courses, and conferences to support their professional growth — and we make time to talk about life, career, and family too.

Postdocs 
Our research group is always interested in recruiting highly motivated postdoctoral fellows with a strong publication record in end-of-life care or artificial intelligence. Please forward your CV, references and research interests to Dr. Kieran Quinn ([email protected]).

Graduate students  
Our research group is part of the Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation (IHPME) and the Institute of Medical Science at U of T, which requires that a supervisor be identified before admission to the graduate program. Graduate students interested in doing a degree must intend to apply to the Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research program at IHPME or Life Sciences program at IMS. Graduate students interested in doing an MSc or PhD with our team should first contact Dr. Kieran Quinn ([email protected]) directly.

Summer students 
Summer students are exclusively selected from successful applicants to the Research Training Center (RTC) at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute. Applications are available online and need to be filled by February 28th of each year.