Plinio Morita

Research interests

As the Director of the Ubiquitous Health Technology Lab (UbiLab), I have focused my research on population level surveillance, remote patient monitoring (RPM), and personalized medicine technologies to be used to prevent unnecessary visits to hospitals and drive our healthcare system toward community care and telehealth. The current state of the technology limits how clinicians can use data collected from RPM and IoT systems as the quality, frequency, and reliability of the data is normally lower than clinical standards.

The UbiLab expands the area of population-level surveillance, remote patient monitoring, and precision medicine by developing algorithms and systems of systems that combine data from mHealth and IoT sensor technology that can satisfy clinical standards while also providing meaningful use for the patient to the ocean of data currently collected by these smart technologies.

In a nutshell, my research interests are in the areas of population-level surveillance using IoT data, mHealth and wearable technology design, ubiquitous sensors for smart homes, usage data and health data analytics, precision medicine, and technology for aging. All technologies that will help us live longer independent lives.

Graduate supervision and student opportunities

I am currently accepting applications from graduate students with research interests related to:

• Technology-driven population-level surveillance
• Precision medicine and data science
• mHealth and wearable technology design
• Ubiquitous sensors for smart homes
• Usage data and health data analytics
• Technology for aging
• Persuasive technology

Graduate studies application details

Teaching interests

• Health informatics
• eHealth and mHealth design
• Remote patient monitoring and telehealth
• Qualitative methods
• User-centered design
• Human factors methods

Education

BEng Electrical Engineering, University of Campinas, Brazil

MSc Biomedical Engineering, University of Campinas, Brazil

PhD Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo

Postdoctoral Fellowship, Healthcare Human Factors, Techna Institute, University Health Network

Selected publications 

See Google Scholar for full list of publications.

Shier, A., Morita, P.P., Mujica, E., Uddin, A., Dickie, C., Islam, M., Burns, C.M., and Cafazzo, J.A. (2018). Design and Evaluation of a Safety-Centered User Interface for Radiation Therapy. Practical  Radiation Oncology, in press – available online.

Morita, P.P., Weinstein, P.B., Flewwelling, C.J., Bañez, C.A., Chiu, T.A., Iannuzzi, M., Patel A.H., Shier, A.P., and Cafazzo, J.A. (2016). The usability of ventilators: A comparative evaluation of safety and user experience. Critical Care.

Morita, P.P., and Cafazzo, J.A. (2016). Challenges and Paradoxes of Human Factors in Health Technology Design. JMIR Journal of Human Factors, 3(1), e11.

Weinstein, P., Kurahashi, A., Jamieson, T., Stinson, Cafazzo, J.A., Lokuge, B., Morita, P.P., Coehn, E., Goldman, R., Bezjak, A., and Hussain, A. (2016). In the Loop: The Organization of Team-Based Communication in a Patient-Centered Clinical Collaboration System. JMIR Journal of Human Factors, 3(1), e12.

Goyal, S., Morita, P.P., Picton, P., Zbib, A., Seto, E., and Cafazzo, J.A. (2016). Uptake of a Consumer-Focused mHealth Application for the Assessment and Prevention of Heart Disease. JMIR mHealth uHealth, 4(1), e32.

Uddin, A., Morita, P.P., Tallevi, K., Armor, K., Li, John, Nolan, R., and Cafazzo, J.A. (2016). Development of a mHealth System for Behavioural Neurcardiac Training. JMIR mHealth uHealth, 4(2), e45.

Herlihey, T.A., Gelmi, S., Flewwelling, C.J., Hall, T.N.T., Bañez, C., Morita, P.P., Beverley, P., Cafazzo, J.A., and Hota, S. (2016). On Selecting Personal Protective Equipment for Ebola Infectious Disease Preparedness: A Human Factors Evaluation. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.

Goyal, S., Morita, P.P., Lewis, G., Yu, C., Seto, E., and Cafazzo, J.A. (2016). The Systematic Design of a Behavioural Mobile Health Application for the Self-Management of Type 2 Diabetes. Canadian Journal of Diabetes, 40(1), 95-104.

Professional activities and networks

• COACH: Canada's Health Informatics Association 
• Editor of the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JHF and JMIR uHealth and mHealth)
• Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
• IEC/SCC SyC Active Assisted Living, Standards Council of Canada
• Professional Engineer, Professional Engineers of Ontario