Michael Ip Memorial Scholarship

To support a graduate student who is conducting research at the School of Epidemiology and Public Health in a field related to compassionate aging, including but not limited to palliative care or the application of advanced analytical techniques (ex: AI/ML) to improve care delivery.

This fund was generously created by Joseph and Amy Ip in memory of their son Michael, whose research is enabling access to home-based palliative care — a wish of most Canadians, including Michael himself.

Numerically oriented from childhood, Michael earned a bachelor of science in applied mathematics at Queen’s University. He had aspirations in big data and machine learning — both hot topics in epidemiology — so he took on a summer student position in the lab of Dr. Tanuseputro, a clinicianscientist with the Department of Medicine, the Ottawa Hospital and the Bruyère Research Institute. Dr. Tanuseputro and his team conduct health services research to improve the care provided to Canadians, particularly palliative care. 

As Michael worked, he contemplated additional studies that would best contribute to the lab’s research goals. He settled on a master’s in epidemiology, which he began at the School of Epidemiology and Public Health in 2017, supervised by Dr. Amy Hsu, Dr. Doug Manuel and Dr. Tanuseputro. 

Michael dove into his thesis, exploring machine learning and artificial intelligence to enhance the algorithm behind the team’s online RESPECT tool. Designed to give prognoses to frail individuals so they can make better decisions about end-of-life care, the tool promotes discussion about palliative issues that Canadians are not typically comfortable talking about. Four out of five Ontarians wish to have their end-of-life care at home, and yet only one in five patients receives it. Aware of these statistics, Michael worked hard to improve the tool’s algorithm, knowing the role it could play in opening up discussion. 

He could not have known the profound role his research would play in his own life. He was just polishing his thesis in preparation for his defence — he had planned to graduate in summer 2020 — when he received a diagnosis of leukemia. By now, well-educated on his options for adapting his care to a home environment, he worked with his family and caregivers to move his care home. No longer confined to a bed or facing visitor restrictions, he revelled in the comforts of home. After a 10-month journey with the disease, Michael died there. 

Michael’s family remembers him as a decent, beautiful human being, helpful and fun, and caring toward those close to him. He enjoyed life, and with his appetite for learning, threw himself into the activities he loved. He wanted his work to help people and found a great fit with the team at the Faculty of Medicine. In his life, Michael Ip experienced an incredible synchronicity of fates. Beloved by all who knew him, he now returns that love by offering to society the same opportunities he had: final days filled with friendship, humanity and dignity, and the chance to say a proper goodbye to those he loved.