Feb.4,2025 MUHC Hybrid Medical Grand Rounds by Dr. Nitika Pai MD, MPH PhD, Professor

Title: Diagnostics 4.0 for STI/HIV infections: the now & the envisioned future Speaker: Dr. Nitika Pai MD, MPH PhD, Professor
MUHC Hybrid Medical Grand Rounds Tuesday, 2/4/2025 at 12h00-13h00, D02.1312
Educational objectives
1. Showcase Digital diagnostics and AI solutions that are poised to transform the future of digital Diagnostics for HIV/STI, called Diagnostics 4.0 2. Address ethical, legal and security concerns in deploying Digital diagnostics.
3. Share Insights on evolving guidance, and frameworks, aligned with One Health relevant to diagnostics 4.0.
Biosketch of Dr. Nitika Pai MD, MPH Ph:
Dr Nitika (Nikki) Pant Pai is a tenured Professor in the Department of Medicine at McGill University and a Senior Scientist at MUHC Research Institute, Montreal, Canada. She runs the Smart Unlearning labs at McGill. Nikki’s global implementation research program on connected digital diagnostics Dx (Diagnostics 4.0) for marginalized equity-deserving populations is based in Canada, India, and South Africa. She is also working with the US-based NIH Portent Center for Dx, which operates in Uganda, Ecuador, and India. She is a recognized global expert in point-of-care diagnostics, digital diagnostics, implementation science for HIV/ STIs (i.e., Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B, HPV, bacterial STIs) & more broadly, transitioning to sexual and reproductive health issues and digital health. She integrates digital health solutions to plug gaps in health service delivery in access, linkage, and retention. Her passion for Equity, Inclusion, Diversity, and social justice is evident in the programs she co-creates with her patient participants and stakeholder partners. She is an innovator, has nine patented programs tailored to different contexts/populations worldwide, and uses predictive analytics to impact service delivery and clinical care. She has been recognized with prestigious awards, including the ASAP award from Google, Plos & Wellcome Trust in 2013, the Chanchalani McMaster Award for research excellence, the Maude Abbott Award for research excellence, the Haile Debas Award for EDI, and the Research Excellence Awards at McGill. She has also received CIHR New Investigator, FRSQ Merite awards, FRSQ Senior and Junior 2 awards, Grand Challenges Canada Stars in Global Health Awards, and Transition to Scale awards, reaffirming her expertise and credibility in the field. She serves on the Editorial Board, is the Section Editor for six biomedical journals, and is a grant reviewer for global/national health agencies. She has published in the Lancet, Lancet HIV, Lancet Microbe, JAMA Internal Medicine, PloS Medicine, Annals, BMJ STI, and BMJ Global Health, among others, showcasing her wide-ranging contributions to the field of diagnostics, digital health, and global health. She has presented her innovative research at the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, USA, and has been featured in PNAS. She has also served on & currently serves on technical and scientific working groups for global health agencies (i.e., WHO, Geneva, FIND, Geneva, the Gates Foundation, Seattle, Path Foundation, in Seattle, Clinton Health Access Initiative, UNAIDS DAI initiative, CDC/PEPFAR, and national agencies, CIHR/CHASRAC, PHAC, CATIE, NCCID), among others. She has advised the US Congress, Canadian, Indian and French Governments on diagnostics, and digital health. She is currently serving on the Executive Committee for the upcoming STI /HIV Congress in Montreal, 2025. For her contributions, she was elected a member of the Cohort of the College of New Scholars in Arts & Sciences of the Royal Society of Canada in 2018. She was featured twice in the list of Canadian women leaders in Global Health (2018, 2020). Major media outlets covered her work, including MacLeans, The Globe and Mail, BBC, The Economist, Al Jazeera, CTV, CBC, Radio Canada, The Times, and The Wall Street Journal. She was featured in the Change-makers Section of the Economist in 2018. She is a proud cohort Member of Women Lift Health, North America-Cohort A, 2024- 2025, a Gates-funded Initiative for the leadership training of women in Global Health.