The Perry Family Chair will connect artificial intelligence and advanced technology research with patient-care challenges at Lakeridge Health, following the appointment of Ontario Tech University researcher Dr. Mehran Ebrahimi as its first holder.
Lakeridge Health Foundation’s announcement describes a five-year commitment of $135,000 annually from the Perry family. The role is intended to support research and education in artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data analytics and quality systems, with a focus on patient experiences and health-care quality in Durham Region.
The foundation’s page is dated November 5. Its release says Lakeridge Health, the foundation and Ontario Tech announced the appointment on October 30. Those dates refer to the announcement and its publication, rather than a newly completed patient-care trial.
A research role linked to clinical practice
The full position is the Perry Family Chair in Advanced Technology and Quality Systems. According to the foundation, it is Lakeridge Health’s second research chair and the first established through philanthropic support channelled through the foundation.
Ebrahimi’s work is meant to bring university expertise closer to hospital teams. The announcement identifies clinical decision-making and practical responses to health-care needs as areas where researchers and clinicians can work together.
That is a research mandate, not an announcement that a particular AI tool has been approved, installed across the hospital network or shown to improve a measured patient outcome. The release does not name a first clinical product, set a deployment date or provide trial results.
Building on an existing partnership
The chair builds on the Partnership for Advanced Technology in Health Care, known as PATH, between Ontario Tech and Lakeridge Health. It adds dedicated academic expertise to a collaboration connecting researchers, clinicians and health-system leaders.
Lakeridge Health’s leaders describe the role as a way to investigate real clinical and operational challenges and evaluate new approaches in health-care settings. Ontario Tech frames the collaboration as an opportunity to translate university research into tools that can support care.
For Durham residents, the local connection is the work taking place between their regional health system and an Oshawa-based university. The intended benefit is research shaped by the needs of patients and care teams close to home, rather than technology development detached from clinical practice.
Donor support over five years
The Perry family commitment provides a defined funding period for the chair’s work. The annual figure and five-year duration are the terms stated in the foundation announcement; the release does not provide a year-by-year research budget or a list of projects funded through the position.
The foundation identifies philanthropy as a means of attracting research talent and creating opportunities for collaboration. It also distinguishes the chair from the foundation’s wider fundraising for hospital equipment, capital projects and other regional priorities.
The appointment brings the research partnership a named inaugural chair. Further announcements would be needed to establish which individual studies, tools or evaluated changes emerge from the programme.
