Kristel Leung

Dr. Kristel Leung is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at Queen's University, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Medicine. Her academic and clinical work centers on autoimmune and rare liver diseases, with a strong focus on improving care for patients with decompensated cirrhosis through innovative use of clinical cohorts, administrative data, and patient-reported outcomes.

• Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Queen's University
• Site Lead, Canadian Autoimmune Liver Disease Network (CaNAL), Queen’s University
• Core Faculty, Health Services and Policy Research Institute (HSPRI)
• Member, Canadian Gastro-Intestinal Epidemiology Consortium (CanGIEC)

Education:

• PhD (candidate) in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto (Expected: July 2025)
• MD, University of British Columbia (May 2016)
• BSc (Hons) in Physiology, University of British Columbia (June 2012)

Dr. Leung’s research interests lie at the intersection of hepatology, epidemiology, and health services research. She specializes in immune-mediated liver diseases such as Primary Biliary Cholangitis (PBC) and Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC), applying advanced statistical methods including joint modeling, multistate analyses, and mixed modeling to assess disease progression and patient outcomes. Her work emphasizes health equity and patient-centered care, particularly through the integration of patient-reported outcomes into clinical research. She is deeply engaged in building and validating large-scale clinical registries to improve understanding and management of rare liver conditions.

The analysis of her recent publications reveals a consistent focus on autoimmune liver diseases, cirrhosis, transplant outcomes, and gender equity in gastroenterology. Her research employs a mix of systematic reviews, meta-analyses, original clinical studies, and case reports, often leveraging multi-center and administrative datasets. A recurring theme is the application of robust epidemiological and statistical methods to answer clinically significant questions in hepatology and gastroenterology.

Scientific Awards:

• CIHR Vanier Canada Graduate Scholar

Dr. Leung serves on the Research Committee of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (CAG) and is an active member of several international consortia, including the International Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis Study Group (IPSCG) and the Global PBC Study Group. Her work is supported by affiliations with leading liver disease societies such as the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), and the Canadian Association for the Study of the Liver (CASL). She has contributed to major collaborative research initiatives and is involved in advancing data-driven models for external validation of clinical prediction tools.

Labs and Research Teams:

• Canadian Autoimmune Liver Disease Network (CaNAL) – Site Lead at Queen’s University
• Canadian Gastro-Intestinal Epidemiology Consortium (CanGIEC)
• Queen’s Liver Research Group
• Collaborator with Toronto Centre for Liver Disease and University of Toronto research teams