sentences:  Patel was born in Fiji and obtained a degree in biochemistry and microbiology from University of Otago in New Zealand, and MA and PhD in Educational Psychology (Medical Cognition,1980,1981) from McGill University in Montreal, where she also served as professor of Medicine and Psychology and director of the Centre for Medical Education.She was a founding member of HEALnet (Health Evidence Application and Linkage Network), which made seminal contributions furthering informatics research and application in Canada.She was also a member of the InterMed Collaboratory, which developed guidelines for medical decision support, and has done extensive work in India, Africa, and Colombia in cross-cultural cognition research.