The Graham Seed Fund is structured to support research that is closely connected to the realities of health-care delivery. By fostering direct collaboration between University of Waterloo researchers and community-based providers, the program creates a shared environment for identifying needs, shaping research questions and developing evidence that is relevant to practice.
As part of the CareNext Coalition (CareNext), the Graham Seed Fund plays a key role in connecting academic research with health system priorities across the Waterloo Region. CareNext, established in 2024 as a partnership between Waterloo and the Waterloo Regional Health Network (WRHN), provides a platform that aligns system needs, clinical insight and research capability.
This round of the Graham Seed Fund invited projects that examine the factors shaping responsible AI adoption in community care, generate evidence on readiness and develop approaches that can inform both policy and implementation.
Two Systems Design Engineering researchers have each received $35,000 to support this work. The funded projects and their team leads are:
Dr. Catherine Burns (Researcher) and Brightshores Health System (Partner)
Human-AI teaming in rural hospitals: Human factors evaluation and readiness assessment for the co-design of an AI system for a patient access and flow unit
Patient access and flow units manage the movement of patients within and through healthcare systems. There has been greater emphasis on developing technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) to serve as potential catalysts to optimize patient flow and address current issues faced in this area. New workflows or inefficiencies can be some of the largest barriers to the successful adoption and deployment of AI tools in healthcare. This project will generate insights on readiness for the adoption of AI tools to improve patient access and flow at Brightshores. More broadly, this project will demonstrate and develop a case study for workflow prediction with AI tools, a key component of estimating AI-readiness.
Dr. Moojan Ghafurian (Researcher) and Waterloo Regional Health Network; Skopien (Partners)
Community-Care AI Readiness: Data, Ethics, and Culture for Patient Monitoring in the Waterloo Region
This project brings together the University of Waterloo, Waterloo Regional Health Network (WRHN), and Skopien with the goal of building a scalable foundation for responsible AI in community healthcare. By integrating academic research, clinical expertise, and Skopien’s monitoring platform, the initiative aims to improve patient monitoring, strengthen data readiness, embed privacy and fairness into governance, and test real-world applications in remote triage and alert escalation. The project will deliver practical tools, governance frameworks, and pilot insights that help regional health systems adopt AI responsibly and sustainably.
For the full list of recipients, visit Advancing AI readiness in community care across Waterloo Region. The Graham Seed Fund is made possible by the J.W. Graham Trust Endowment Fund. Visit the Transformative Health Technologies website to learn more about the fund.