Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Faculty Member

Nicholas Mitsakakis MSc, PhD, P.Stat.

Research Interests

• Heath Data Science and Machine Learning
• Clinical prediction modelling
• Statistical methods for health economics
• Clinical trials
• Graphical models

EDUCATION & TRAINING HISTORY

2016 Professional Statistician (P.Stat.) accreditation, Statistical Society of Canada

2010 PhD in Biostatistics, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto

1996 MSc in Information Technology: Knowledge Based Systems, Department of Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh, UK

1995 MSc in Mathematics, University of Athens, Greece

1991 BSc in Mathematics, University of Athens, Greece

Primary Role

Senior Biostatistician and Associate Scientist, Clinical Research Unit, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute

CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS

1. Sample size requirements for machine learning studies
2. Methods for determining the threshold for clinical risk prediction models
3. Machine learning models for neonatal hypothermia
4. Fairness and bias detection for clinical machine learning models

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

1. Ediae GU, White-Brown A, Chisholm C, Terekhov I, Seymour J, Guo J, Mitsakakis N, Sawyer SL, Boycott KM. ThinkRare: A search algorithm to identify patients with undiagnosed rare genetic disease in an electronic medical record. Genetics in medicine: official journal of the American College of Medical Genetics.;27(11):101570.
2. Kotrri E, Thipse M, Higginson A, Tessier M, Han M, Mitsakakis N, Strain J, Radhakrishnan D. Validation of an Asthma Knowledge Tool to Assess the Efficacy of Comprehensive Asthma Education. Pediatric pulmonology. 2025 Oct;60(10):e71271.
3. Healy SA, Nabavi-Nouri M, Toro-Perez J, Mitsakakis N, Andrade A, Whiting S, Muir K. Looking beyond epilepsy management: The impact of mental health, quality of life, and transition-readiness on transition-aged adolescents with epilepsy and varying cognitive abilities. Epilepsy & Behavior. 2025 Aug 1;169:110429. 
4. Alsaeed H, Bhatt M, Sucha E, Mitsakakis N, Bresee N, Bechard M. Disparities in use of a virtual pediatric emergency department in Ottawa, Canada. Paediatrics & Child Health. 2025 Apr 1:pxae075. 
5. Saeed YA, Mitsakakis N, Feld JJ, Krahn MD, Kwong JC, Wong WW. Health Utilities in People with Hepatitis C Virus Infection: A Study Using Real-World Population-Level Data. Medical Decision Making. 2025 Apr;45(3):332-43. 
6. El Kababji S, Mitsakakis N, Jonker E, Beltran-Bless AA, Pond G, Vandermeer L, Radhakrishnan D, Mosquera L, Paterson A, Shepherd L, Chen B, …, El Emam K. Augmenting insufficiently accruing oncology clinical trials using generative models: validation study. Journal of medical Internet research. 2025 Mar 5;27:e66821. 
7. Torres S, Bayoumi AM, Abrahao AB, Trudeau M, Pritchard KI, Li CN, Mitsakakis N, Liu G, Krahn M. Implementing routine collection of EQ-5D-5L in a breast cancer outpatient clinic. Plos one. 2024 Aug 27;19(8):e0307225. 
8. Lawrence SL, Nguyen L, Sucha E, Lemyre B, Mitsakakis N. Improving Admission Temperature in Infants≥ 34 Weeks’ Gestation: A Quality Improvement Initiative. Hospital Pediatrics. 2024 Nov 1;14(11):890-8  
9. Tsui TC, Torres SC, Bielecki JM, Mitsakakis N, Trudeau ME, Bremner KE, Davis AM, Krahn MD. A scoping review to create a framework for the steps in developing condition-specific preference-based instruments de novo or from an existing non-preference-based instrument: use of item response theory or Rasch analysis. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes. 2024 May 14;22(1):38. 
10. Stojanova A, Harrison MA, Mitsakakis N, Thawer Z, Kirolos N, Stevens L, Paul J, et al. Implementation of the Mind Youth Questionnaire (MY-Q) for routine health-related quality of life screening of adolescents with type 1 diabetes in a large tertiary care centre. Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism. 2024 May 1;37(5):462-6. 
11. Dharma C, Liu E, Grace D, Logie C, Abramovich A, Mitsakakis N, Baskerville B, Chaiton M. Factors associated with the use of psychedelics, ketamine and MDMA among sexual and gender minority youths in Canada: a machine learning analysis. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2024 Jan 23. 
12. Perlas A, Arzola C, Portela N, Mitsakakis N, Hayawi L, Van de Putte P. Gastric volume and antral area in the fasting state. A meta-analysis of individual patient data. Anesthesiology. 2024 Jan 19. 
13. AlSaeed H, Sucha E, Bhatt M, Mitsakakis N, Bresee N, Bechard M. Rates of pediatric emergency department visits vary according to neighborhood marginalization in Ottawa, Canada. CJEM. 2023 Dec 20. doi: 10.1007/s43678-023-00625-9. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38117415. 
14. El Kababji S, Mitsakakis N, Fang X, Beltran-Bless AA, Pond G, Vandermeer L, Radhakrishnan D, Mosquera L, Paterson A, Shepherd L, Chen B. Evaluating the Utility and Privacy of Synthetic Breast Cancer Clinical Trial Data Sets. JCO clinical cancer informatics. 2023 Sep;7:e2300116. 
15. Pong S, Fowler RA, Fontela P, Gilfoyle E, Hutchison JS, Jouvet P, Mitsakakis N, Murthy S, Pernica JM, Rishu AH, Seto W. Association of delayed adequate antimicrobial treatment and organ dysfunction in pediatric bloodstream infections. Pediatric Research. 2023 Oct 16. 
16. Yossofzai O, Stone SS, Madsen JR, Wang S, Ragheb J, Mohamed I, Bollo RJ, Clarke D, Perry MS, Weil AG, Raskin JS, …., Mitsakakis N, Widjaja E Machine learning models for predicting seizure outcome after MR-guided laser interstitial thermal therapy in children. Journal of neurosurgery. Pediatrics.:1-11. 
17. Brulé D, Landau-Halpern B, Nastase V, Zemans M, Mitsakakis N, Boon H. A Randomized Three-Arm Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Study of Homeopathic Treatment of Children and Youth with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Journal of Integrative and Complementary Medicine. 2023 Sep 6. 
18. Singh I, Valavil Punnapuzha V, Mitsakakis N, Fu R, Chaiton M. A Machine Learning Approach Reveals Distinct Predictors of Vaping Dependence for Adolescent Daily and Non-Daily Vapers in the COVID-19 Era. In Healthcare 2023 May 18 (Vol. 11, No. 10, p. 1465). MDPI. 
19. Yossofzai O, Biswas A, Moineddin R, Ibrahim GM, Rutka J, Donner E, Snead C, Mitsakakis N, Widjaja E. Number of epilepsy surgeries has decreased despite an increase in pre-surgical evaluations at a tertiary pediatric epilepsy center in Ontario. Seizure. 2023 May 1;108:1-9. 
20. Zuijdwijk C, Courtney J, Mitsakakis N, Hayawi L, Sutherland S, Newhook D, Ahmet A, Goldbloom EB, Khatchadourian K, Lawrence S. Control-IQ Technology Positively Impacts Patient Reported Outcome Measures and Glycemic Control in Youth with Type 1 Diabetes in a Real-World Setting. Pediatric Diabetes. 2023 Apr 12;2023. 
21. Karnam RS, Punchhi G, Mitsakakis N, Chen S, Saracino G, Lilly L, Asrani SK, Bhat M. Predicting the outcome of liver transplantation in patients with non‐alcoholic steatohepatitis cirrhosis: the nash lt risk‐benefit calculator. Clinical Transplantation. 2023 Feb 10:e14930. 
22. Speckert M, Ramic L, Mitsakakis N, Bijelić V, Liebman M, Leung E. Severe iron deficiency anemia in the paediatric emergency department: A retrospective study. Paediatrics & Child Health. 2023 Feb;28(1):30-6.