Gustavo is a Professor of Medicine, Neurologist, Senior Scientist, and Healthcare Consultant at the University of Toronto. He holds a Master’s in Public Health (Epidemiology, Statistics) from Harvard and Buenos Aires Universities, a PhD in Neuroeconomics from the University of Zurich, and Leadership Certification from the Rotman School of Management and the Ontario Medical Association. With over 25 years as a clinician-scientist, educator, and team leader, he has become a recognized expert in his field.
Academic Work: Gustavo’s international acclaim is reflected through 30 grants as a principal investigator, 12 personal awards, 300+ peer-reviewed publications, keynote speaking invitations, contributions to 10 international best-practice guidelines, and service on advisory boards (e.g., World Stroke Organization, American Heart Association, Ontario Ministry of Health). His research integrates different disciplines: physiological methods, behavioral sciences, clinical research, psychology, and decision neuroscience to conduct research across observational studies, randomized trials, and meta-analyses.
Academic Interests:
- Leveraging new technologies to improve patient outcomes and address knowledge-to-action gaps
- Developing innovative tools to facilitate complex diagnostic and therapeutic decisions (e.g., traffic light system)
- Integrating behavioral economics concepts into clinical practice
Impact: Gustavo’s work has a substantial international impact, evidenced by a Google Scholar h-index of 83 and over 33,000 citations. His team has successfully completed over 150 research projects, and he consistently ranks in the top 20th percentile in teaching evaluations across Canadian universities.
Leadership: Gustavo founded and serves as President of NeuroEconSolutions, which studies physicians' decision-making and biases. His platform offers standardized experiments and assessments for therapeutic decision support, with modules adaptable for randomized trials. His educational innovations have achieved a 70% reduction in therapeutic inertia and introduced visual aids to support patient decision-making.
As the former Editor-in-Chief of the World Stroke Academy (WSA), he led transformative initiatives, creating a robust educational portfolio with a 4.7/5.0 average rating across 150 countries, a 1000% increase in engagement, and sustainable funding through special projects. He also led the concept of customized solutions in medical education.
Gustavo also leads workshops on Decision Making and Precision Medicine, delivering lectures worldwide (60 invited speaker to over 25 countries in the last 2 years) and serves as the Editor of the Emerging Therapies Section for Stroke and as a board member of several stroke journals.
At a personal level, Gustavo is a creative thinker, transformational leader, and enthusiastic collaborator.
Currently, he is dedicated to empowering teams and colleagues through his expertise and mentorship. His recent initiatives include a humanitarian stroke education mission to China, a faculty appointment at Mahidol University in Thailand, active participation as a faculty member in the World Stroke Organization's Future Leaders Program, among others. He also collaborates internationally, guiding residents, stroke fellows, allied health professionals, and junior faculty to strengthen global stroke care and education.
He can be reached at Gustavo.saposnik@unityhealth.to or via LinkedIn (Gustavo-saposnik)