PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Fahad Razak

Fahad Razak is an internist and researcher whose work addresses AI safety, fairness, healthcare and medical imaging. Trained in Engineering Science and medicine at the University of Toronto, he studied population-level chronic-disease risk factors as a Harvard Bell Fellow from 2013 to 2015 and co-founded the GEMINI hospital data network with Amol Verma by 2018. After becoming associate director of Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table in 2021 and its scientific director in May 2022, he coauthored a 2024 paper on the DeCaPH framework for privacy-preserving machine learning across hospitals. Named to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists in September 2026, he co-leads the pan-Canadian VITAL health data platform, serves as Vice President for Vital Health System and Data Innovation at Unity Health Toronto, and holds a Canada Research Chair at the University of Toronto.

Badges

Timeline

  1. 2013–2015

    Harvard Bell Fellowship

    He joins Harvard's Center for Population and Development Studies as a Bell Fellow in the 2013–2015 cohort, becoming the first physician appointed as the David E. Bell Fellow at Harvard University. His research examines population-level changes in chronic-disease risk factor distributions, with a focus on body weight; his training includes a degree in Engineering Science and a Medical Doctorate from the University of Toronto.

  2. By 2018

    Co-founding the GEMINI network

    By 2018, he and internal medicine physician Amol Verma co-found GEMINI, the General Medicine Inpatient Initiative, a physician-led hospital data network across Ontario that returns patient-outcome and resource-use measures to doctors to support care improvement. By January 2018, the team collects, standardizes and analyzes data from internal medicine hospitalizations across seven participating hospitals from 2010 to 2015, covering 140,000 visits and about 80,000 patients.

  3. 2021

    Hospital COVID-19 studies and advisory role

    After serving as a core scientific member of Ontario's COVID-19 Science Advisory Table from its beginning, he becomes the table's associate director in fall 2021. His research group also leads some of Canada's largest studies on patients hospitalized with COVID-19.

  4. May 2022

    Leading Ontario's science table

    In May 2022, he becomes scientific director of Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table under Public Health Ontario oversight, succeeding Peter Jüni and stepping away from clinical work for a year. At the time, he is an assistant professor in medicine at U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine and in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, as well as an internist and epidemiologist at St. Michael’s Hospital.

  5. 2024

    Multi-hospital machine learning

    In 2024, he coauthors a paper on DeCaPH, decentralized, collaborative and privacy-preserving machine learning for multi-hospital data. The framework lets hospitals train a machine learning model together without transferring or directly sharing their private datasets.

  6. April 2025–June 2026

    Expanding GEMINI into VITAL

    In April 2025, VITAL receives a $30 million, three-year launch investment from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada to build infrastructure connecting electronic health records in Ontario, Alberta and Quebec. By June 2026, the platform receives $100 million in new federal investment to expand across Canada as a cornerstone of the national AI strategy, and his team deploys a large-scale Canadian AI randomized trial to identify delirium.

  7. September 2026

    Royal Society of Canada college

    In September 2026, representing Unity Health Toronto and the Department of Medicine in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, he is named to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists.

  8. As of October 2026

    Leading clinical data innovation

    He is Vice President for Vital Health System and Data Innovation at Unity Health Toronto, an internist at St. Michael’s Hospital, and a Canada Research Chair in data-informed health-care improvement at the University of Toronto. Alongside Amol Verma, he co-leads VITAL, and as a Faculty Affiliate at the Vector Institute his research interests include AI safety, fairness, healthcare and medical imaging.

Career

  1. NowUniversity of TorontoAssistant professor in medicine
  2. NowUnity Health TorontoVice President for Vital Health System and Data Innovation
  3. NowVector InstituteFaculty Affiliate
  4. From 2022Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory TableScientific director
  5. From 2018GEMINICo-founder
  6. 2013–2015Harvard UniversityBell Fellow
  7. Dalla Lana School of Public HealthAssistant professor
  8. St Michael’s HospitalInternist and epidemiologist

Education

  1. University of TorontoEngineering Science

From the biography.

  1. Of 216 AI researchers who entered public life, 83 held advisory seats and 58 took public rolesIncludes Fahad Razak. Of 216 AI researchers who entered public life, 83 held advisory seats and 58 took public roles. Another 97 people moved from public careers into AI organizations or research, with 62% of dated records starting from 2020 on.
  2. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes University of Toronto. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  3. Of 943 people shaping AI who worked at Google, 446 work there nowIncludes Vector Institute. Our estimates of where the 943 people shaping AI who worked at Google and Google DeepMind work now: 446 at Google and 452 across 278 other organizations.
  4. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes University of Toronto. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Fahad Razak yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Bell Fellow Profiles – Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies popcenter.harvard.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. Fahad Razak – Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies popcenter.harvard.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. Fahad Razak - Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence vectorinstitute.ai. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. Using Big Data to improve patient care - GEMINI geminimedicine.ca. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. Fahad Razak research.unityhealth.to. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. Ontario Science Advisory Table Leadership Update | Public Health Ontario publichealthontario.ca. Checked 22 October 2026.
  7. Fahad Razak on why he's passionate about the Ontario Science Advisory Table – and the important work ahead | University of Toronto utoronto.ca. Checked 22 October 2026.
  8. Toronto physician named new scientific director of provincial COVID-19 advisory group cbc.ca. Checked 22 October 2026.
  9. Decentralised, Collaborative, and Privacy-preserving Machine Learning for Multi-Hospital Data arxiv.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  10. Vital - GEMINI geminimedicine.ca. Checked 22 October 2026.
  11. Health data initiative led by Unity Health, U of T researchers to expand across Canada with $100-million in federal support | University of Toronto utoronto.ca. Checked 22 October 2026.
  12. Six faculty members named to Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists | U of T Celebrates utoronto.ca. Checked 22 October 2026.