Valeria E. Rac

Dr. Valeria E. Rac is a Senior Scientist and the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Lead within the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, Toronto General Hospital Research Institute (TGHRI), University Health Network. She holds the Canada Research Chair in Health System and Technology Evaluation, serves as the Director of the Program for Health System and Technology Evaluation (PHSTE), and is a member of the Collaborative Centre for Health System and Policy Research. Additionally, Dr. Rac holds an appointment as a Professor at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation within the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. Dr. Rac provides executive research leadership across several major networks. Within the CIHR SPOR Diabetes Action Canada Network, she co-leads two prominent programs: the Knowledge Mobilization, Implementation and Evaluation Program, and the Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Program. She also serves as the Lead for Early HTA within the federally funded NFRF MaVen Network. Her specialized expertise encompasses mainstream and early HTA, evaluation, health policy, and health services research. Dr. Rac’s research program focuses on complex interventions, health programs, and macro-level health system evaluations in chronic disease management, specifically targeting diabetes, heart failure, chronic kidney disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. To achieve this, her program employs rigorous quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods evaluative approaches. Under her direction, the PHSTE team collaborates closely with people with lived and loved experience and their caregivers, community stakeholders, innovators, researchers, clinicians, and policymakers. By delivering rapid, data-driven feedback to these stakeholders, Dr. Rac and her team actively contribute to the cultivation of a learning health system. Ultimately, her program generates robust scientific evidence and provides critical decision support to implement innovative, system-disruptive technologies that empower patients, optimize clinical outcomes, and foster high-performing, cost-effective healthcare systems.