Dr. Sara Ling is the Director of Clinical Informatics and Health Information Services at CAMH and an Associate Scientist with the Digital Mental Health Lab at the Krembil Centre for Neuroinformatics. A Registered Nurse by training, she previously served as Interim Chief Clinical Informatics Officer and, before that, as an Advanced Practice Clinical Leader within CAMH’s Medical Withdrawal Service. Dr. Ling’s work focuses on connecting clinical informatics, privacy, and health information services to enable secure, patient-centred care across the organization. She partners with clinical programs and corporate teams to streamline documentation and strengthen privacy-by-design practices that support care, research, and education. Dr. Ling earned her PhD from the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto, where she is also an Assistant Professor (status-only) in the Department of Psychiatry.
Areas of Research
Dr. Ling’s research focuses on how digital health interventions and clinical informatics can improve mental health and addictions care. She co-designs and evaluates electronic health record (EHR) tools that streamline clinical documentation and support decision-making in mental health and addiction settings. Her work also examines how patients understand and experience privacy and health information exchange, with the goal of informing ethical and patient-centred data practices. Through these studies, Dr. Ling aims to advance practical, evidence-based approaches that enhance the quality of clinical documentation and strengthen trust in the use of health information for care and system improvement.
Publications
View Dr. Ling's publications on PubMed.