The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is continuing to strengthen its leadership in brain science and the responsible development and implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) in mental health care with the addition of two new scientists. Drs. Fiona Coutts and Ariel Rokem, whose work sits at the intersection of neuroscience, data science, and clinical care, have joined one of Canada’s largest and most active computational mental health research ecosystems through the Krembil Centre for Neuroinformatics (KCNI).
“CAMH and KCNI are about building both the people and the platforms needed to transform mental health care. Drs. Coutts and Rokem’s arrival is a concrete example of how we are already attracting the kind of talent required to turn advanced analytics into better care,” says Dr. Tristan Glatard, Scientific Director of KCNI.
Dr. Coutts joins CAMH as a Scientist from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience at King's College in London where she completed her Masters, PhD and postdoc. Her recruitment was facilitated through the North Star Initiative, CAMH’s strategy to make Canada a global destination for brain and mental health research by attracting world-leading talent, investing in cutting-edge research infrastructure, and fostering collaboration across Toronto’s research ecosystem to accelerate discoveries that transform care.
Dr. Rokem joins CAMH as a Senior Scientist from the University of Washington in Seattle, where he was a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology. Prior to this, he completed his PhD in neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley, followed by a postdoc in computational neuroimaging at Stanford University.
Meet Drs. Coutts and Rokem
What drew you to Canada, and to CAMH and the Krembil Centre for Neuroinformatics, as the place to build the next phase of your work?
Dr. Fiona Coutts: “I really liked how closely research is integrated with clinical care at CAMH. Translating AI tools into real clinical impact requires collaborations between data scientists, psychiatrists, patients, and many other experts to ensure these tools are methodologically sound but also grounded in the realities of mental illness, and CAMH is the perfect place to do that. More specifically at KCNI, I saw a research space with skills that contrast and complement what I am already doing.”
Dr. Ariel Rokem: “I always had my eye on the Canadian neuroscience ecosystem. Canada punches well above its weight in neuroscience research with lots of amazing researchers, many of whom I have collaborated with in the past, doing incredible work. As someone interested in open-source technology development, CAMH and specifically KCNI is the perfect place to be. I’m looking forward to being surrounded by individuals who share the same passions and interests.”
How does your research aim to improve understanding, prediction, or care in mental health?
Dr. Fiona Coutts: “Several amazing AI-based predictive tools have been developed to help solve problems in psychiatric care, but so far none of those models have made it into clinical practice, partly because we don’t know how. My research focuses on developing predictive tools with real-world translation potential that help clinicians find the right treatment for the right patient at the right time, as well as developing frameworks and methods for implementing AI-based tools into clinical practice.”
Dr. Ariel Rokem: “We’re at a moment where we have unprecedented amounts of data about individuals—from brain imaging to other biological and behavioural measures—that we can use to improve prediction, diagnosis and personalized care. Unfortunately, these datasets are extremely complex and it is still challenging to extract meaningful data. My work focuses on developing tools and methods that are widely available and easy to use to help researchers extract meaningful patterns from this data. Additionally, I want to empower individuals through training and education to become members of a new generation of researchers who combine expertise in mental health with strong data science skills.”
What excites you most about doing this work in close connection with clinical care at CAMH?
Dr. Fiona Coutts: “I am really excited to get input from psychiatrists, carers, and people with lived experience of mental illness on the tools that I am developing. As researchers, we often design projects or clinical tools that we think will be beneficial from our research-based understanding of the disorder, but this is not always representative of real-world patient experiences. I am very glad to have so many different valuable perspectives available at CAMH to discuss key areas of research focus, and the feasibility and tolerability of potential interventions.”
Dr. Ariel Rokem: “It is a real challenge to take new research methods or tools into clinical spaces. One of the things I’m excited about coming to CAMH is to be able to closely collaborate with individuals who do clinical research to determine where tools might be able to have a great impact. For example, some of my previous research has shown that brain connectivity measurements are especially powerful in tracking how the brain changes during development and aging. Throughout childhood and adolescence, brain connections evolve dramatically and by measuring these changes, we can see how brain development varies between individuals. When these patterns deviate from typical developmental trajectories, they may signal underlying differences linked to mental health conditions. I’m looking forward to be able to do similar work at CAMH thanks to the close collaboration with clinical care.”
What are you most looking forward to now that you’re here—or what’s on your Canadian bucket-list?
Dr. Fiona Coutts: “I’m really excited to see a side of Toronto that you don’t get to experience as a casual visitor. Now that the weather is finally warm, I’ve been enjoying exploring hiking trails with my husband and our dog, making new friends, and trying a lot of the different restaurants that Toronto has to offer – especially ones with patios!”
Dr. Ariel Rokem: “I've visited Toronto a total of three times by now and it seems like a wonderful city with lots to explore. It's just so big and diverse. So, I look forward to exploring the city and getting to know all of its different aspects in terms of people, culture, and food with my wife and my two young daughters.”
