Scarborough Health Network’s Summer of Vibes program has over 700 youth applicants, 17 were chosen
For the average teenager, a “Summer of Vibes” might consist of hanging out with friends, sleeping in until noon, and binging on Netflix. Jana Kalbasi, however, is not an average teenager and neither was her “Summer of Vibes.”
Kalbasi was one of 17 students chosen out of more than 700 applicants for the Scarborough Health Network’s (SHN) Summer of Vibes, a “hands-on health innovation experience.”
Dr. Samir Grover, Executive Vice President of Academics and Education at SHN explained to Mpulse that “Summer of Vibes” is a play on words referring to “vibe coding,” a style of software development that relies on AI and plain language prompts to write code.
Over the summer, these 17 students and 20 student volunteers, who ranged from pre-university to university level, worked at Scarborough’s Centenary Hospital in small interdisciplinary teams to identify a real world healthcare problem and design an AI based solution.
Students came from Scarborough and across Canada and even the United States. They were chosen from diverse fields including business, public health, engineering, computer science, medicine and art and design.
Their final projects included: ContextCare, an AI program that translates jargon-heavy discharge information into easier to understand instructions for patients without a family doctor or strong English skills; Virtual Standardized Patient: An AI “virtual patient” that replaces real human actors used for medical training, giving medical school students unlimited opportunity to practice certain skills; and Performance Assessment System, a device that uses cameras and microphones to observe real clinical encounters with patients and give feedback on areas of improvement.
The program then culminated in a “Grand Demo Day” on Friday August 7 where the students presented their projects at the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus’ Sam Ibrahim Centre in front of top SHN administration, staff, media and members of the community.
Kalbasi, who graduated from Havergal College this past spring and is headed to McMaster University to pursue health sciences in the fall, was one of the youngest students in the program. She told Mpulse, “It was awesome to be around older students. I got their advice, guidance and they helped me figure out what I want to do in the future.”
The Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health will bring “fundamental change” and a different “calibre of care”
Kalbasi credits her “insatiable curiosity and need for learning” for pushing her to join the program last year as a volunteer and work her way up to being chosen for one of the paid positions this year.
Kalbasi said she was “proud” to take part in the Summer of Vibes program and work alongside other talented and motivated students. “The future will be fine if these are the people leading change,” she said.
For Scarborough residents, the future of healthcare in the city is also looking bright. Dr. Grover told Mpulse that the University of Toronto’s new medical school, The Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health, will bring “fundamental change” and a different “calibre of care” to the area.
“We know that people often stay and work in the areas where they train,” Dr. Grover said. In the years to come, the expectation is that many of these Scarborough grads will stay and open more family practices, increasing the “human health resources” in Scarborough.
