About

Who We Are

SORC is an independent research collaborative that focuses on underexplored topics in medicine and health: questions that lack a robust synthesis or have not been examined using available evidence. We gather and synthesize that evidence using publicly available data, working alongside domain experts to ensure rigour and clinical relevance. Our work is investigator-initiated, self-funded, and designed to be reproducible. We prioritise bringing junior researchers into substantive roles from study design through to publication. Our authorship and collaboration standards are available for review.

Contact us at info@sorc.ca

01

Question selection

We focus on clinical and methodological questions where published evidence is sparse, scattered, or unsynthesised. Topics are investigator-initiated and chosen for their potential to add meaningful signal to the literature.

02

Open data methods

All SORC studies use publicly available data sources, enabling rigorous research without institutional funding or patient recruitment infrastructure. This model is intentionally sustainable across career transitions.

03

Expert collaboration

Senior researchers and clinicians contribute domain expertise and supervisory input on relevant projects. Study design, analysis, and writing are carried out by SORC members.

Team
Members

Members are the core researchers of SORC. They lead and execute projects, take on primary authorship, and are responsible for the collaborative's research output and methodological standards.

AT
Arthur Tung
Arthur is a Research Analyst at North York General Hospital and MD student at the University of Alberta, with six years of research experience in patient safety, human factors, and simulation. He founded SORC to pursue investigator-initiated research independently from institutional lab structures. His work includes systematic reviews, original studies, and astronomical research under the Starry Overhead Observatory (SOO).
University of Alberta · North York General Hospital
MM
Michael Melchiorre
Michael is an educational clinician with a background in cognitive and learning science. He co-authored SORC's founding systematic review on debiasing and educational interventions in medical diagnosis, and continues to contribute to manuscript development and peer review.
University of Guelph
JT
Jack Thornton
Jack is an MASc student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at McMaster University, focusing on electric vehicles and energy systems. His engineering background contributes a technical perspective to SORC projects at the intersection of device safety and clinical outcomes, including the ongoing systematic review of injuries associated with lithium-ion battery fires.
McMaster University
DW
Daniel Wolfman
Dan is an MD student at the University of Alberta with three years of research experience focused on concussion and alcohol use disorders. He is particularly interested in acute care clinical research and medical education. He contributes to ongoing SORC projects through study selection and critical appraisal.
University of Alberta
SA
Saurav Acharya
Saurav is an MD student at the University of Alberta with a background in financial technology and a strong interest in health technology, clinical research, and medical education. He contributes data collection and analytical support to ongoing SORC projects.
University of Alberta
VN
Vinh Nguyen
Vinh is an MD student at the University of Alberta with a background in oil and gas, where he worked in data visualization and analytics. He is interested in bridging business and medicine through thoughtful, data-driven approaches to healthcare. At SORC, he contributes to ongoing projects as a data analyst, with a particular focus on quality control and research data support.
University of Alberta
EN
Elvira Nurmambetova
Elvira is an MD student at the University of Alberta with prior research experience in health informatics and surgery. She is interested in clinical research and evidence-based medicine. She contributes to ongoing SORC projects through quality assessment and critical appraisal.
University of Alberta
AT
Alice Tung
Alice is a sociology student at the University of Toronto and Managing Editor of The Society, an academic journal in sociology and criminology. As a writer and editor, she contributes manuscript editing and writing support to SORC projects.
University of Toronto