Kumanan Wilson is a scholar with the O’Neill Institute.
Wilson is a specialist in general internal medicine and senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital and professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa. He holds the faculty of medicine clinical research chair in Digital Health Innovation. He is the chief executive officer/chief scientific officer of the Bruyère Research Institute and the vice president research & academic at Bruyère Continuing Care. The Bruyère Research Institute focuses on finding the next generation of care for aging Canadians and vulnerable populations. He is also the co-founder and chief scientific officer of CANImmunize Inc., a digital immunization solutions company that combines science with technology to improve vaccination programs.
Wilson’s research focuses on digital health, immunization, blood safety, pandemic preparedness, and public health policy and innovation. His research on immunization has explored social media’s impact on vaccine hesitancy and the evaluation of vaccine safety using health services data and vaccine policy, including contributing to the development of Canada’s Vaccine Injury Support Program. His work has also included examinations of the role of federalism on public health policy in Canada and internationally, and of the implementation of the International Health Regulations.
Wilson has received support from multiple organizations including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the World Health Organization, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Canada’s Immunity Task Force. His work with the Gates Foundation has focused on developing novel metabolomic approaches to identifying pre-term births in low and middle income countries.