Ian Stedman
School of Public Policy and Administration
Assistant Professor
Osgoode Hall Law School, Graduate appointment
Science and Technology Studies, Graduate appointment
Office: McLaughlin College 026
Email: istedman@yorku.ca
Primary website: Personal webpage
Secondary website: What motivates my work
Media Requests Welcome
Ian Stedman is an Assistant Professor, Canadian Public Law and Governance in the School of Public Policy and Administration. He is cross-appointed to the graduate programs at Osgoode Hall Law School, Science and Technology Studies and in Socio-Legal Studies. Professor Stedman serves on the Executive of both the Centre for AI & Society and Connected Minds (CFREF) at York University.
After being called to the bar of Ontario in 2009, Professor Stedman practiced law in the private sector before moving to the public sector where he advised public officials about their ethical and legal obligations. His expertise in public sector governance, particularly in relation to ethics and accountability, accordingly, underscores much of his academic work.
Professor Stedman's research program is focused both on the law of public sector governance and accountability and also on bringing that literature to bear on the regulation of innovative and emerging technologies (with a particular focus on healthcare).
Being a person who lives with a rare genetic disease, Professor Stedman also advocates for the rare disease community and has a growing research program focusing on the technologies and policies driving greater personalization in healthcare. He currently sits as Vice Chair of the CIHR Institute of Genetics' Institute Advisory Board and Chair of the Canadian Autoinflammatory Network / Réseau Auto-inflammatoire Canadien . Before joining the School of Public Policy and Administration, Professor Stedman held the inaugural research fellowship in Artificial Intelligence Law & Ethics at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children’s Centre for Computational Medicine and a post-doctoral fellowship researching the Governance of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare at Dr. Rebecca Pillai Riddell’s Opportunities to Understand Childhood Hurt (OUCH) Lab, at York University.
Professor Stedman serves as a legal member on two Research Ethics Board panels at SickKids (including the first-of-its-kind panel dedicated exclusively to data science) and was a member of York University’s A.I. and Society Task Force. His work in the area of law and technology earned him the IP Osgoode David Vaver Medal for Excellence in IP Law in 2020.
Graduate Research Supervision: Professor Stedman is willing to read preliminary proposals from strong students in the areas of interest listed above and to comment on his interest in supervision prior to the submission of an official application. He is broadly interested in supervising research in the areas of: 1) public sector ethics, and 2) the legal and ethical implications of technologies and policies relevant to personalization in healthcare, including current and potential uses of genomics and artificial intelligence.
Degrees
Honours B.A. (Philosophy), University of Western OntarioM.A. (Philosophy), York University
LL.B., University of Alberta
LL.M., University of Toronto
Ph.D. (Law), Osgoode Hall Law School
Professional Leadership
2023-present: Lead of Knowledge Mobilization Committee, Connected Minds (CFREF at YorkU)
2022-present: Chair of Public Relations Committee for The Centre for AI & Society (YorkU).
2021-present: Member of Health Nexus' Data Governance Committee, Temerty Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Education in Medicine at University of Toronto.
2020-present: Vice Chair of CIHR Institute of Genetics' Advisory Board.
Community Contributions
2023-present: Steering Committee Member, Canadian Rare Disease Network
2022-present: Board Chair, Canadian Autoinflammatory Network
2016-present: Research Ethics Board, Hospital For Sick Children (SickKids), Legal Member.
Research Interests
- David Vaver Medal for Excellence in IP Law - 2020
- Ontario Graduate Scholarship - 2017-18
- Harley D. Hallett Graduate Scholarship - 2015-16
- Hon. William Z. Estey Teaching Fellowship - 2015-16
- Robert Law Fellowship in Legal Ethics - 2014-15
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
- David Vaver Medal for Excellence in IP Law - 2020
- Ontario Graduate Scholarship - 2017-18
- Harley D. Hallett Graduate Scholarship - 2015-16
- Hon. William Z. Estey Teaching Fellowship - 2015-16
- Robert Law Fellowship in Legal Ethics - 2014-15
Despite Canada’s research capacity and many established genomics laboratories, there is no national database or strategy for how to capture, store, and access Canadian genomic data in an equitable, secure, and sustainable manner.
Building on investments from the Government of Canada’s National Strategy for Drugs for Rare Diseases, the Pan-Canadian Human Genome Library, led by Dr. Guillame Bourque, Director of Bioinformatics at the McGill Genome Centre, will provide researchers and health care professionals with a centralized database that reflects the rich diversity of people living in Canada. A core principle of the Genome Library is Indigenous control over genomic datasets of Indigenous Peoples to ensure autonomy and respectful use of Indigenous health data. With this investment in the Genome Library, Canada remains a leader in genomic research that is diverse and equitable and ready to be used by health care professionals.
Description:Government of Canada press release
Start Date:
- Month: Sep Year: 2023
End Date:
- Month: Sep Year: 2028
Funders:
CIHR Institute of Genetics
-
Summary:
A large amount of digital information is now documented during regular clinical care. This information, or data, could be used to better understand what makes people sick and how to make them better. The data could also be used to create artificial intelligence algorithms which help care providers during their work. When the data pertains to children, we do not know the circumstances under which it is acceptable to use it for research. Our project will figure out the context under which research using this data is acceptable to the public, and how people's opinions vary according to their identity. We believe there are many circumstances in which everybody is supportive of research using this data, but it can be hard as the data were not collected for research. To fix this, we will build a special data format with software that makes it easier to use the data for research. We will build an actual dataset from patients at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) to test out our new data format and show that it works well. Finally, we will work with the groups which oversee ethical research at SickKids to create a new process for using our dataset in research. We hope our process makes it safer for already collected data to be used in improving the care of future patients.
Description:The project's principal investigator is Alistair Johnson, and the other co-investigators are Dr. Mjaye Mazwi and Dr. Melissa McCradden. More information and the project funding decision can be found here.
Start Date:
- Month: Sep Year: 2021
End Date:
- Month: Sep Year: 2025
Funders:
CIHR
“Public Officials and Conflicts of Interest” in Gerry Ferguson, ed., Global Corruption: It's Regulation under International Conventions, US, UK, and Canadian Law and Practice. (Victoria, BC: University of Victoria Press, 2022), pp. 834-875.
“Regulation of Lobbying”, with Gerry Ferguson in Gerry Ferguson, ed., Global Corruption: It's Regulation under International Conventions, US, UK, and Canadian Law and Practice. (Victoria, BC: University of Victoria Press, 2022), pp. 877-926.
Stedman, I. (2021). Colleen M. Flood, Vanessa MacDonnell, Jane Philpott, Sophie Thériault, and Sridhar Venkatapuram, eds. Vulnerable: The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19. Ottawa, ON: University of Ottawa Press, 2020. 630 pp. Canadian Journal of Law and Society / Revue Canadienne Droit Et Société, 36(1), 185-187. doi:10.1017/cls.2021.1
"Health Care Professionals’ and Parents’ Perspectives on the Use of AI for Pain Monitoring in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: Multisite Qualitative Study" (co-authored with Racine N, Chow C, Hamwi L, Bucsea O, Cheng C, Du H, Fabrizi L, Jasim S, Johannsson L, Jones L, Laudiano-Dray M, Meek J, Mistry N, Shah V, Wang X, Riddell R.) Journal of Medical Internet Research - AI (2024;3:e51535), DOI: 10.2196/51535
"Next generation of free? Points to consider when navigating sponsored genetic testing" (co-authored with Bartels K, Afonso S, Brown L, Carriles C, Kim R, Lazier J, Mercimek-Andrews S, Nelson TN, Thain E, Vanneste R, Chad L.) Journal of Medical Genetics (2023 Nov 6), DOI: 10.1136/jmg-2023-109571.
"The promises and challenges of clinical AI in community paediatric medicine" (with co-authors: Devin Singh, Sujay Nagaraj, Ryan Daniel, Colleen Flood, Dina Kulik, Robert Flook, Anna Goldenberg, Michael Brudno, Ian Stedman) Paediatrics & Child Health, 2023, pxac080.
“Distinctive or not, our Canadian model of parliamentary ethics is in need of modernization” Canadian Public Administration, March 2022, Vol 64, Iss 1, pgs 1-7.
"Trust, Tort Law and The Integration of Black Box Artificial Intelligence into Clinical Care" (co-authored with Michael Brudno) Health Law in Canada Journal, November 2021, Vol 42, No 2, pp 57-79.
"From Clinic to Computer and Back Again: Practical Considerations When Designing and Implementing Machine Learning Solutions for Pediatrics" (co-authored with Sujay Nagaraj, Vinyas Harish, Liam G McCoy, Felipe Morgado, Stephen Lu, Erik Drysdale, Michael Brudno, and Devin Singh) Current Treatment Options in Pediatrics
“Human Germline Genome Editing is Illegal in Canada, But Could it be Desirable for Some Members of the Rare Disease Community?” (50/50 with Erika Kleiderman, Centre of Genomics and Policy, McGill University, Canada) Journal of Community Genetics
“A Call to Action: Moving Forward with Canadian Artificial Intelligence Policy” (50/50 with Aviv Gaon, Professor, IDC Herzliya, Israel) Alberta Law Review, July 2019, Vol 56, Iss 4, p. 1137.
Interview: "Igniting an autoinflammatory disease community: an interview with Ian Stedman." Dis Model Mech 1 June 2024; 17 (6): dmm050642. doi: https://doi.org/10.1242/dmm.050642
Opinion piece: "Lost in the haze: has the need for ethics law reform been overshadowed by Trump and COVID?", The Hill Times (19 January 2022) on pages 15 and 17 of The Lobbying & Ethics Policy Briefing.
Opinion piece: "Maybe artificial intelligence will drastically change health care, but who will benefit?", The Hill Times (8 February 2021) on page 30 of Health Policy Briefing.
PhD Dissertation: "Resisting Obsolescence: A Comprehensive Study of Canada's Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner and the Office's Efforts to Innovate While Strategically Asserting Greater Independence", Osgoode Hall Law School.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2024 | AP/PPAS4130 6.0 | M | Politics, Law and the Courts | SEMR |
Ian Stedman is an Assistant Professor, Canadian Public Law and Governance in the School of Public Policy and Administration. He is cross-appointed to the graduate programs at Osgoode Hall Law School, Science and Technology Studies and in Socio-Legal Studies. Professor Stedman serves on the Executive of both the Centre for AI & Society and Connected Minds (CFREF) at York University.
After being called to the bar of Ontario in 2009, Professor Stedman practiced law in the private sector before moving to the public sector where he advised public officials about their ethical and legal obligations. His expertise in public sector governance, particularly in relation to ethics and accountability, accordingly, underscores much of his academic work.
Professor Stedman's research program is focused both on the law of public sector governance and accountability and also on bringing that literature to bear on the regulation of innovative and emerging technologies (with a particular focus on healthcare).
Being a person who lives with a rare genetic disease, Professor Stedman also advocates for the rare disease community and has a growing research program focusing on the technologies and policies driving greater personalization in healthcare. He currently sits as Vice Chair of the CIHR Institute of Genetics' Institute Advisory Board and Chair of the Canadian Autoinflammatory Network / Réseau Auto-inflammatoire Canadien . Before joining the School of Public Policy and Administration, Professor Stedman held the inaugural research fellowship in Artificial Intelligence Law & Ethics at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children’s Centre for Computational Medicine and a post-doctoral fellowship researching the Governance of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare at Dr. Rebecca Pillai Riddell’s Opportunities to Understand Childhood Hurt (OUCH) Lab, at York University.
Professor Stedman serves as a legal member on two Research Ethics Board panels at SickKids (including the first-of-its-kind panel dedicated exclusively to data science) and was a member of York University’s A.I. and Society Task Force. His work in the area of law and technology earned him the IP Osgoode David Vaver Medal for Excellence in IP Law in 2020.
Graduate Research Supervision: Professor Stedman is willing to read preliminary proposals from strong students in the areas of interest listed above and to comment on his interest in supervision prior to the submission of an official application. He is broadly interested in supervising research in the areas of: 1) public sector ethics, and 2) the legal and ethical implications of technologies and policies relevant to personalization in healthcare, including current and potential uses of genomics and artificial intelligence.
Degrees
Honours B.A. (Philosophy), University of Western OntarioM.A. (Philosophy), York University
LL.B., University of Alberta
LL.M., University of Toronto
Ph.D. (Law), Osgoode Hall Law School
Professional Leadership
2023-present: Lead of Knowledge Mobilization Committee, Connected Minds (CFREF at YorkU)
2022-present: Chair of Public Relations Committee for The Centre for AI & Society (YorkU).
2021-present: Member of Health Nexus' Data Governance Committee, Temerty Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Education in Medicine at University of Toronto.
2020-present: Vice Chair of CIHR Institute of Genetics' Advisory Board.
Community Contributions
2023-present: Steering Committee Member, Canadian Rare Disease Network
2022-present: Board Chair, Canadian Autoinflammatory Network
2016-present: Research Ethics Board, Hospital For Sick Children (SickKids), Legal Member.
Research Interests
Awards
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
Despite Canada’s research capacity and many established genomics laboratories, there is no national database or strategy for how to capture, store, and access Canadian genomic data in an equitable, secure, and sustainable manner.
Building on investments from the Government of Canada’s National Strategy for Drugs for Rare Diseases, the Pan-Canadian Human Genome Library, led by Dr. Guillame Bourque, Director of Bioinformatics at the McGill Genome Centre, will provide researchers and health care professionals with a centralized database that reflects the rich diversity of people living in Canada. A core principle of the Genome Library is Indigenous control over genomic datasets of Indigenous Peoples to ensure autonomy and respectful use of Indigenous health data. With this investment in the Genome Library, Canada remains a leader in genomic research that is diverse and equitable and ready to be used by health care professionals.
Description:Government of Canada press release
Project Type: FundedRole: Lead, Patient Partnership Team & Member of PCHGL Executive Committee
Start Date:
- Month: Sep Year: 2023
End Date:
- Month: Sep Year: 2028
Funders:
CIHR Institute of Genetics
-
Summary:
A large amount of digital information is now documented during regular clinical care. This information, or data, could be used to better understand what makes people sick and how to make them better. The data could also be used to create artificial intelligence algorithms which help care providers during their work. When the data pertains to children, we do not know the circumstances under which it is acceptable to use it for research. Our project will figure out the context under which research using this data is acceptable to the public, and how people's opinions vary according to their identity. We believe there are many circumstances in which everybody is supportive of research using this data, but it can be hard as the data were not collected for research. To fix this, we will build a special data format with software that makes it easier to use the data for research. We will build an actual dataset from patients at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) to test out our new data format and show that it works well. Finally, we will work with the groups which oversee ethical research at SickKids to create a new process for using our dataset in research. We hope our process makes it safer for already collected data to be used in improving the care of future patients.
Description:The project's principal investigator is Alistair Johnson, and the other co-investigators are Dr. Mjaye Mazwi and Dr. Melissa McCradden. More information and the project funding decision can be found here.
Project Type: FundedRole: Co-Investigator
Start Date:
- Month: Sep Year: 2021
End Date:
- Month: Sep Year: 2025
Funders:
CIHR
All Publications
“Public Officials and Conflicts of Interest” in Gerry Ferguson, ed., Global Corruption: It's Regulation under International Conventions, US, UK, and Canadian Law and Practice. (Victoria, BC: University of Victoria Press, 2022), pp. 834-875.
“Regulation of Lobbying”, with Gerry Ferguson in Gerry Ferguson, ed., Global Corruption: It's Regulation under International Conventions, US, UK, and Canadian Law and Practice. (Victoria, BC: University of Victoria Press, 2022), pp. 877-926.
Stedman, I. (2021). Colleen M. Flood, Vanessa MacDonnell, Jane Philpott, Sophie Thériault, and Sridhar Venkatapuram, eds. Vulnerable: The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19. Ottawa, ON: University of Ottawa Press, 2020. 630 pp. Canadian Journal of Law and Society / Revue Canadienne Droit Et Société, 36(1), 185-187. doi:10.1017/cls.2021.1
"Health Care Professionals’ and Parents’ Perspectives on the Use of AI for Pain Monitoring in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: Multisite Qualitative Study" (co-authored with Racine N, Chow C, Hamwi L, Bucsea O, Cheng C, Du H, Fabrizi L, Jasim S, Johannsson L, Jones L, Laudiano-Dray M, Meek J, Mistry N, Shah V, Wang X, Riddell R.) Journal of Medical Internet Research - AI (2024;3:e51535), DOI: 10.2196/51535
"Next generation of free? Points to consider when navigating sponsored genetic testing" (co-authored with Bartels K, Afonso S, Brown L, Carriles C, Kim R, Lazier J, Mercimek-Andrews S, Nelson TN, Thain E, Vanneste R, Chad L.) Journal of Medical Genetics (2023 Nov 6), DOI: 10.1136/jmg-2023-109571.
"The promises and challenges of clinical AI in community paediatric medicine" (with co-authors: Devin Singh, Sujay Nagaraj, Ryan Daniel, Colleen Flood, Dina Kulik, Robert Flook, Anna Goldenberg, Michael Brudno, Ian Stedman) Paediatrics & Child Health, 2023, pxac080.
“Distinctive or not, our Canadian model of parliamentary ethics is in need of modernization” Canadian Public Administration, March 2022, Vol 64, Iss 1, pgs 1-7.
"Trust, Tort Law and The Integration of Black Box Artificial Intelligence into Clinical Care" (co-authored with Michael Brudno) Health Law in Canada Journal, November 2021, Vol 42, No 2, pp 57-79.
"From Clinic to Computer and Back Again: Practical Considerations When Designing and Implementing Machine Learning Solutions for Pediatrics" (co-authored with Sujay Nagaraj, Vinyas Harish, Liam G McCoy, Felipe Morgado, Stephen Lu, Erik Drysdale, Michael Brudno, and Devin Singh) Current Treatment Options in Pediatrics
“Human Germline Genome Editing is Illegal in Canada, But Could it be Desirable for Some Members of the Rare Disease Community?” (50/50 with Erika Kleiderman, Centre of Genomics and Policy, McGill University, Canada) Journal of Community Genetics
“A Call to Action: Moving Forward with Canadian Artificial Intelligence Policy” (50/50 with Aviv Gaon, Professor, IDC Herzliya, Israel) Alberta Law Review, July 2019, Vol 56, Iss 4, p. 1137.
Interview: "Igniting an autoinflammatory disease community: an interview with Ian Stedman." Dis Model Mech 1 June 2024; 17 (6): dmm050642. doi: https://doi.org/10.1242/dmm.050642
Opinion piece: "Lost in the haze: has the need for ethics law reform been overshadowed by Trump and COVID?", The Hill Times (19 January 2022) on pages 15 and 17 of The Lobbying & Ethics Policy Briefing.
Opinion piece: "Maybe artificial intelligence will drastically change health care, but who will benefit?", The Hill Times (8 February 2021) on page 30 of Health Policy Briefing.
PhD Dissertation: "Resisting Obsolescence: A Comprehensive Study of Canada's Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner and the Office's Efforts to Innovate While Strategically Asserting Greater Independence", Osgoode Hall Law School.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2024 | AP/PPAS4130 6.0 | M | Politics, Law and the Courts | SEMR |
