Ob-gyn faculty member, the CEO of a tech nonprofit, receives innovation award and earns substantial research grant

Roopan Gill, an assistant professor in the ob-gyn department, has won an Innovation and Impact Award in Honour of Lewis Perinbam. Gill is the CEO of Vitala Global, a Canadian nonprofit organization that uses digital sexual and reproductive health solutions to address women’s health inequities.

In addition, her latest research project, which explores services for remotely provided medication abortion among Latinx patients, has received $US499,200 from the Society of Family Planning.

“Dr. Gill has turned her passion into an impactful company in the health care digital space, taking advantage of technology’s reach and accessibility to help underserved populations,” says Kellie Murphy, chair and professor of the ob-gyn department and on staff at Sinai Health. “The generous funding secured by her latest project on remote abortion services is an indication of how valuable this work is at this moment. Congrats to Roopan on her recent success.”

We touched base with Gill for her thoughts on innovation, role models, and what the near future holds for her company.

How do you incorporate innovation into your work?

At Vitala Global, I think about innovation and impact every day, particularly through an equity lens, as well as through a user and community-centric design research perspective. It’s necessary to have an expansive view considering the scale of initiatives that I lead — developing and implementing digital solutions to improve health care access across Latin America, Canada and the United States.

An example of this would be our award-winning digital companion, Aya Contigo, which is an app with in-app and WhatsApp chat that provides real-time informational, emotional and navigational support for people who require abortion and contraception care. 

What are the challenges you need to overcome to implement a new perspective?

My work is dedicated to addressing the needs of the most underserved, who sometimes live in areas of the globe with problematic and complex bureaucracies. So the main challenges are related to the changing legal and political landscapes in which I work. I believe we won’t move the needle forward on maternal mortality and morbidity if we don't address the needs of the most underserved, even here in Canada. 

What does it mean to you to win the Lewis Perinbam award?

I am honoured to be recognized as a Canadian leader for the work I have done and committed my career to.

My path has been unconventional, and not many role models come to mine where I could say that they modelled this type of career trajectory for me. This has emboldened me to support young women of colour to blaze their own paths, as I would have loved the younger me to have the older me as someone to look up to! That kind of inspiration is invaluable, that anything is possible if you keep your mind and heart to it. 

What’s next for Vitala Global?

Vitala Global is growing and with growing attacks on reproductive rights globally our work is needed now more than ever. We are committed to deepening our impact in the United States and Latin America.

We most recently launched a rebranded version of Aya and are going to expand our offerings to miscarriage and other areas of sexual and reproductive health. We also have plans to adapt Aya for Canada and launch in early 2026 — so keep an eye out for that. I’m also excited about the potential of AI and how we can incorporate that into our work.