CARO Lecturer

Julian Hong

Julian Hong is Head of AI at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer and Associate Professor in Radiation Oncology and Computational Health Sciences at UCSF. He graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Biomedical Computation and MS in Bioengineering. He earned his medical degree from the University of Wisconsin and completed residency training in Radiation Oncology at Duke University.

Dr. Hong is a board-certified radiation oncologist and clinical informaticist whose work focuses on the development, validation, and implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning approaches to improve cancer care delivery. He led one of the first randomized controlled trials evaluating clinical machine learning, demonstrating that AI-guided supportive care interventions reduced acute care visits and healthcare costs during radiation therapy. His research spans clinical AI implementation, natural language processing, real-world evidence, digital health, and computational approaches for oncology.

Clinically, Dr. Hong specializes in genitourinary malignancies, with a particular focus on prostate cancer and oligometastatic disease. An active educator and mentor, Dr. Hong has mentored more than 70 trainees across medicine, engineering, informatics, and computational health sciences. His work has been recognized with the Radiation Oncology Institute (ROI) Publication Award, Bio-IT World Innovative Practices Award, and the Symposium on Artificial Intelligence for Learning Health Systems New England Journal of Medicine Travel Award. He was named a fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association (FAMIA) in 2026.

Gold Medal and Gordon Richards Lecture

Rebecca Wong

Dr. Rebecca KS Wong is a radiation oncologist, Director of Radiotheranostics, Radiation Medicine Program, Princess Margaret; Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Toronto. She completed her MB ChB at Sheffield University (UK), Radiation Oncology residency at Queen’s University and MSc (Clinical Epidemiology) at McMaster University. Her research and clinical interests are in the areas of patients living with metastatic cancer, gastrointestinal malignancies and radiotheranostics. She has led multiple practice changing initiatives including multicenter clinical trials, evidence-based guidelines as well as innovations in education & training. She has served in various leadership roles with the Canadian Cancer Trials Group including serving as the Symptom Control Chair (2001-2018). In the area of education, she was the past Vice Chair Education UTDRO (2014-2020) and Director of Education, Radiation Medicine Program at Princess Margaret. She is the founder and co-director of the AORTIC – Princess Margaret – MD Andreson Clinical Research Mentorship Program (CRMP). Her accomplishments have been recognized by multiple awards including the Canadian Nuclear Isotope Council Academic Leadership Award, Canadian Clinical Trials Group Joseph Pater Founder’s Award for Excellence in Clinical Trials Research and Fellow of the American Society of Radiation Oncology.

Jean Roy Lecturer

Te Vuong

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Theme Symposium Speakers

Andrew Pearce

Andrew Pearce graduated medical school at the University of Toronto and completed radiation oncology residency at the University of Calgary. He has been serving Northeastern Ontario as the head of radiation oncology at Health Sciences North in Sudbury and the Algoma District Cancer Program in Sault Ste. Marie since 2017.

Lee MacDonald

Lee MacDonald is a clinical medical physicist at Nova Scotia Health and an assistant professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Dalhousie University. His research interests include adaptive radiotherapy, dynamic non-coplanar trajectories, plan robustness in stereotactic radiotherapy, and dose optimization algorithms. Clinically, he has several years of experience implementing adaptive radiotherapy on multiple platforms and serves as a co-investigator on multiple clinical trials on CBCT-based adaptive modalities. His research has translated into industry application, including the licensing of intellectual property on treatment planning optimization algorithms to commercial partners.

Caitlin Gillan

Caitlin Gillan has close to 20 years of experience as a radiation therapist. She has an established academic and practical interest in quality and safety in radiotherapy care, and in interprofessional collaboration in the introduction of novel technologies. In 2022, she completed her doctoral studies through University of Toronto’s Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation, focusing on how healthcare professions are considering the impact of artificial intelligence on their practice. Pursuant to this work, she is a founding member of the Canadian Artificial Intelligence and Big Radiotherapy Data Alliance (CADRA), co-chairs the AI Professional Practice Advisory Council for the CAMRT, and was the Instructional Lead for the Digital Health and Data Analytics Program at the Michener Institute of Education at UHN.

Dr Gillan is a Clinical Associate Professor with the Division of Radiation Oncology in the University of British Columbia’s Department of Surgery, and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto.

Nicole Harnett

Nicole Harnett is the Director of the Accelerated Education Program of the Radiation Medicine Program at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, the continuing education arm of the Radiation Medicine Program where she focuses on the development and implementation of innovative, immersive and accessible continuing education for radiation medicine professionals locally and around the world.

She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto (UTDRO), and the Director, Curriculum for the Institute of Medical Science, Faculty of Medicine, also at UT, where her remit is to optimize educational impact for master and doctoral biomedical research students. She previously built and implemented the first baccalaureate program and the first master’s program for radiation therapists in Canada.

Nicole was the principal investigator for the Clinical Specialist Radiation Therapist Project Series at Cancer Care Ontario (2004 – 2016), which garnered over $5M in financial support over 12 years to support the development of advanced radiation therapy practice in Ontario, Canada.

Through her various leadership posts, she continues to advocate for the permanent, evidence-based integration of APRT into radiation medicine practice through a variety of initiatives including grant-funded research, chairing the national committee for advanced practice and co-chairing the international community of practice focusing on international standardization efforts.

Women in Radiation Medicine

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