Dr. Venkat Bhat is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. He is a staff psychiatrist at St. Michael’s Hospital (Unity Health Toronto) and at University Health Network. At St. Michael’s Hospital, he is the Director of the AI in Mental Health Research Program and leads clinical and research initiatives focused on three intersecting domains: (i) novel psychopharmacological interventions, including intravenous ketamine and related anesthetic agents; (ii) neurostimulation therapies, including repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and emerging neuromodulation modalities; and (iii) digital therapeutics, including mobile- and sensor-based monitoring and intervention platforms for mood and related disorders.

Within University Health Network, Dr. Bhat is based at KITE Research Institute and Toronto Western Hospital, is affiliated with the CRANIA network, and has a research focus on advanced neurostimulation and neurotechnology, including deep brain stimulation, invasive brain mapping, and functional electrical stimulation, in collaboration with neurology, neurosurgery, and engineering teams.

Dr. Bhat is an affiliate faculty member in the Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science at Toronto Metropolitan University and leads the Mental Health Community of Practice within the Temerty Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM) at the University of Toronto. He is also a faculty affiliate of the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society at the University of Toronto. He works closely with collaborators across engineering, anesthesia, imaging, informatics, neurology, and neurosurgery to develop and evaluate emerging procedural and technology-enabled interventions for psychiatric disorders. His research program is focused on understanding mechanisms of treatment response and optimizing outcomes using these emerging interventions. He strongly believes that interdisciplinary approaches are essential for advancing understanding of the human mind, and his work consistently sits at the intersection of biomedical engineering and medicine with the social sciences and humanities.

Email: venkat.bhat@utoronto.ca