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A B C D E F J K L M N P Q R S T V W Y Z

Dr. Juan Antonio Avina-Zubieta

Photo of Dr. Juan Antonio Avina-Zubieta
Research Scientist/Assistant Professor Arthritis Research Centre of Canada/University of British ColumbiaDivision of Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine Work 5591 No. 3 Road Richmond British Columbia V6X 2C7 Canada Work Phone: 604-207-2021
Biography

Dr. Antonio Aviña-Zubieta completed medical school (1989) and his internal medicine training (1990-91) at the University of Guadalajara before pursuing a rheumatology fellowship at the Autonomous National University of Mexico (1991-93). After his formal training in Mexico, Dr. Aviña undertook a Clinical Research Fellowship at the University of Alberta (1993-95), and subsequently completed a Master’s Degree in Experimental Medicine at the same university (1997). He returned to Mexico City in 1998 where he established the first clinical epidemiology research unit at La Raza National Medical Center.  Here, Dr. Avina was appointed as its first head, in addition to serving as an active staff member within the department of rheumatology at the same hospital.

In 2004, Dr. Aviña received a scholarship from both the National Council for Science and Technology (CONACyT-MEXICO) and the Mexican Institute of Social Security to pursue his PhD at the University of British Columbia (UBC), which he completed in 2010. Following graduation, Dr. Aviña began a faculty appointment as an Assistant Professor with the Faculty of Medicine at UBC, and was granted a Network Scholar research training award from the Canadian Arthritis Network-The Arthritis Society to start his career as a new investigator. He was also named the first ever BC Lupus Society Scholar (2010), a title he continues to hold. Dr. Aviña currently mentors one PhD student, three master students, and six clinical trainees.

Dr. Aviña’s current research interests include the disease burden of systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (SARDs) including cardiovascular disease, costs, overall and cause specific mortality in individuals with SARDs. In order to conduct his research, Dr. Aviña has put together an administrative data cohort that includes all individuals in British Columbia with SARDs. This data includes all hospital, outpatient physician billing claims, all dispensed medications, vital statistics information, and cancer registry. It also includes laboratory test results and self-report data from survey, unique features of Dr. Aviña’s cohort that are not found in any other similar cohort across the world. Access to this one of a kind data set will allow Dr. Aviña to explore research questions that were not feasible before, leading to a deeper understanding of these diseases, the development of new strategies to prevent SARDs and their associated complications, as well as the creation of tools to help both patients and health care providers better manage SARDs. Dr. Aviña has co-authored more than 115 publications in refereed journals, book chapters, and peer reviewed abstracts, and has given presentations at a number of national and international conferences. To recognize his research program, Dr. Aviña was awarded a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar award for the maximum term of 5 years (2014-19). Currently, he is also the lead of the SARDs component of a team grant funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

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Dr Claire Ellen Barber

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Research Scientist, Rheumatology; Assistant Professor, Division of Rheumatology Department of Medicine, Cumming School of Medicine, University of CalgaryMedicine
Biography

 

Dr. Barber completed an honors degree in microbiology and immunology (2002), a medical degree (2006), and internal medicine training (2009) at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She then pursued subspecialty medical training in rheumatology at the University of Toronto (2011). She then moved to Calgary to pursue additional research training in epidemiology and graduated with a PhD in Epidemiology from the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary in 2016.

During her PhD she was supported by continuous funding from Alberta Innovates Health Solutions and she was also awarded a prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. Her PhD research was also supported by CIHR funding. For her PhD thesis she developed the first set of quality indicators (QIs) for cardiovascular care for RA.

Dr. Barber has developed nationally recognized expertise in quality measure development and over the last 5 years has been working extensively with the Arthritis Alliance of Canada to develop a framework for evaluating models of care for inflammatory arthritis (see key publications below).

In October 2015, Dr. Barber was hired as an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine, Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. She is also affiliated with the O’Brien Institute for Public Health, the McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint Health and Arthritis Research Canada.

Key Publications:

  1. Brophy J, Marshall DA, Badley EM, Hanly JG, Averns H, Ellsworth J, Pope JE, Barber CE. Measuring the Rheumatology Workforce in Canada: A Literature Review. J Rheumatol. 2016 Apr 1. pii: jrheum.151174. URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27036382
  1. Barber CE, Marshall DA, Mosher DP, Akhavan P, Tucker L, Houghton K, Batthish M, Levy DM, Schmeling H, Ellsworth J, Tibollo H, Grant S, Khodyakov D, Lacaille D; Arthritis Alliance of Canada Performance Measurement Development Panel. Development of System-Level Performance Measures for Evaluation of Models of Care for Inflammatory Arthritis in Canada. J Rheumatol. 2016 Mar;43(3):530-40. URL: http://www.jrheum.org/content/43/3/530
  1. Barber CE, Patel J, Woodhouse L, Smith C, Weiss S, Homik J, LeClercq S, Mosher D, Christiansen T, Squire Howden J, Wasylak T, Greenwood-Lee J, Emrick A, Suter E, Kathol B, Khodyakov D, Grant S, Campbell-Scherer D, Phillips L, Hendricks J, Marshall D. Development of Key Performance Indicators to Evaluate Centralized Intake for Patients with Osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis. Arthritis Research & Therapy 2015,17:322. 
URL: http://arthritis-research.com/content/17/1/322
  1. Barber CE, Marshall D, Alvarez N, Mancini GB, Lacaille D, Keeling S, Avina-Zubieta JA, Khyodyakov D, Barnabe C, Faris P, Smith A, Noormohamed R, Hazlewood G, Martin LO, Esdaile JM. Development of Cardiovascular Quality Indicators for Rheumatoid Arthritis: Results from an International Expert Panel Using a Novel Online Process. Journal of Rheumatology. 2015, 42(9):1548-55. URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26178275
  1. Barber C, Smith A, Esdaile J, Barnabe C, Martin L, Faris P, Hazlewood G, Noormohamed R, Alvarez N, Mancini GBJ, Lacaille D, Keeling S, Avina-Zubieta A, Marshall D. Best Practices for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Systemic Review of Guideline Recommendations and Quality Indicators. Arthritis Care & Research 2015; 67(2): 169-179. URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/acr.22419/epdf
  1. Barber C*, Lacaille D, Fortin PR. A Systematic Review of Validation Studies of the use of Administrative Data to Identify Serious Infections. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2013 65(8):1343-573. URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/acr.21959/epdf
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Cheryl Barnabe

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Dr. University of CalgaryAssistant Professor, departments of Medicine and Community Health Sciences Work 3330 Hospital Dr NW Calgary AB T2N 4N1 Canada
Biography

Dr. Cheryl Barnabe is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Community Health Sciences in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. She is a CIHR New Investigator and holds a CIHR Foundation Scheme Grant for her research program that is addressing arthritis care disparities for Indigenous populations in Canada. With a multidisciplinary team, collaborative and transformative health research initiatives that benefit Indigenous patients and communities, and strengthen care systems in their capacity to provide patient-centered care, are performed.

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Dr. Sasha Bernatsky

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Professor McGill University, Research Institute of the McGill University Health CentreDivisions of Rheumatology and Clinical Epidemiology, Centre for Outcome Research & Evaluation (CORE) Add to Address Book.


Lina Burgos Liz

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Research Associate/Project Manager University of CalgaryCommunity Health Sciences Work Health Research Innovation Centre, 3280 Hospital Drive NW Calgary AB T2N 4Z6 Canada Add to Address Book.


Ms Gisele M. Carriere , MA

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Senior Social Science Researcher Health Analysis DivisionStatistics Canada Work Statistics Canada Western Region and Northern Territories 600 Library Square Tower 300 West Georgia Street Vancouver BC V6B 6C7 Canada Work Phone: 604-666-5907
Biography

Gisele M Carriere is a member of the Londitudinal Health Administrative Data (LHAD)  research team within the Health Analysis Division of Statistics Canada. Gisele primarily conducts health services utilization research using administrative health data, with a focus on utilization among the Aboriginal identity populations. Gisele has most recently been  involved in several cancer-related research projects that use different combinations of linked administrative data.

Gisele completed a Masters of Arts ( Experimental Psychology) degree at Simon Fraser University in 1991 after completing her research to develop measures of physical indices of cognition.

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Jeffrey R Curtis

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Associate Professor of Medicine University of Alabama at BirminghamClinical Immunology/Rheumatology Work 510 20th Street South FOT 802D Birmingham AL 35294 USA Work Phone: 205-975-2176
Notes

Dr. Jeffrey Curtis is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He is the Co-Director of the UAB Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics (CERTs) of Musculoskeletal Disorders, which has a major emphasis on evaluating the safety and comparative effectiveness of medications for rheumatic diseases. Additionally, as the Director of the UAB Arthritis Clinical Intervention Program, he leads the clinical trials unit for the rheumatology division at UAB, with a particular focus on rheumatoid arthritis (RA). He is the Co-Director of the UAB Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics Research (PEER) Unit. He also is an Associate Scientist for the UAB Center of Metabolic Bone Disease.

Dr. Curtis received a Medical Degree (MD) and a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from Oregon Health & Sciences University in Portland. He subsequently completed a residency in internal medicine at Oregon Health & Science University and a fellowship in rheumatology at UAB. He received his Master of Science (MS) degree in epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is board-certified in rheumatology.

 The evaluation of the efficacy, comparative effectiveness, and safety of the medications used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other forms of inflammatory arthritis are among Dr. Curtis’s research interests. He served on the Core Expert Panel for the ACR’s 2008 and 2012 Recommendations for the Use of Nonbiologic and Biologic Disease Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs in RA. He currently is the Deputy Director for a collaborative project between the FDA, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and a number of academic centers studying the safety of biologic agents using multiple, pooled national data sources.

 Dr. Curtis also studies risk factors for and outcomes of osteoporosis, particularly among men and non-Caucasians. He was a member of the ACR’s task force to update recommendations for the management of glucocorticoid induced osteoporosis (GIOP). He also served on the ASBMR Task Force on Atypical Subtrochanteric and Diaphyseal Fractures.

 Dr. Curtis is a member of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology (ISPE), and the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR). He has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. He is on the editorial board for Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety (PDS) and Arthritis Care and Research (AC&R).

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Ms. Bryany Denning , M.Sc.

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Chronic Disease Epidemiologist Government of the Northwest TerritoriesDepartment of Health and Social Services Work P.0.Box 1320, 5022-49th Street, 6th Floor Yellowknife Northwest Territories X1A 2L9 Canada Work Phone: (867) 920-8867 Add to Address Book.


Ms. Wendy Denise Doig

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Data Analyst University of Manitoba Add to Address Book.


Dr. Caroline Doyon

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Epidemiologist Public Health Agency of CanadaCentre for Surveillance and Applied Research Work PHAC, 785 Carling Ave Ottawa ON K1S 5H4
Biography

Caroline Doyon is an epidemiologist for the Centre for Surveillance and Applied Research of the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). She has a Bachelor’s degree in kinesiology, a Master’s degree in Exercise Sciences from Université de Sherbrooke and pursued doctoral studies in kinesiology at Université Laval. Since 2020, she is leading the national surveillance of musculoskeletal conditions, including arthritis and osteoporosis, within PHAC’s Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance System (CCDSS).

The CCDSS monitors trends as well as the impacts of various chronic conditions in the Canadian population using linked administrative data from every province and territory to estimate the incidence and prevalence of chronic conditions, all-cause mortality and in the case of arthritis, the use of health services for arthritis.

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Lihi Eder

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Dr University of TorontoCentre for Prognosis Studies in the Rheumatic Diseases Work Centre for Prognosis Studies in the Rheumatic Diseases Toronto Western Hospital 399 Bathurst Toronto ON Add to Address Book.


Dr. Debbie Feldman

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Professor Université de MontréalSchool of Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine Home Université de Montréal, École de réadaptation Pavillon 7077 du Parc C.P. 6128, Succ. Centre-ville Montréal Québec H3C3J7 Canada Home Phone: 514-343-6111 extension 1252 Add to Address Book.


DR. Paul R. Fortin

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Tenured Professor Université LavalMedicine Home Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec CHUL 2705, boulevard Laurier, R00-763 Québec QC G1V 4G2 canada
Biography

Dr. Fortin obtained his medical degree from ‘Université Laval’ in Quebec City and graduated from McGill University in Rheumatology.  He then obtained a Master’s in Public Health from Harvard University School of Public Health.  He followed three years of special training in clinical epidemiology as a Harvard post-doctoral research fellow under the direction of Dr. Matthew H. Liang at the RobertBreckBrighamMulti-PurposeArthritisCenter of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  He returned as an Assistant and then Associate Professor of Medicine at McGillUniversity and to the Montreal General Hospital/McGill University Health Centre and Research Institute between 1992 and 2000, where he was funded uninterruptedly by operating grants from The Arthritis Society (TAS) and/or the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).  Dr. Fortin joined the staff of Toronto Western Division/University Health Network (UHN) and Research Institute in 2000 as a Clinician Scientist and Director of Clinical Research for the Arthritis Centre of Excellence.  He became Full Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto in 2007 and held cross-appointments as staff at the Hospital for Sick Children and as Associate Professor at the Institute of Medical Sciences and the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation of the University of Toronto.   In August 2011, he moved to Quebec City, Canada and became Full Professor with tenure at Université Laval and Clinicial Researcher at the ‘Centre de Recherche du CHU de Québec’. In February 2012, he was appointed Assistant Director for Clinical Research at the research centre.

Dr. Fortin has been working on a better understanding of the bio-psycho-social impact of chronic rheumatic diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), the antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (APS), systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (SARD), osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. He is particularly interested in developing interventions for the treatment of SLE, APS and SARD.

His methodological interests cover the development and validation of health status measures and other clinical tools such as measures of disease activity or damage in SLE.  His other methodological interests include the development of risk profiles for arterial or venous thrombosis in APS, the testing of treatments of disease activity or cardiovascular disease in SLE, or the validation of biological markers in osteoarthritis. 

In 1995, he created the Canadian Network for Improved Outcomes in SLE (CaNIOS) with the specific goal of running a multi-centre, randomized, and controlled Study of Methotrexate in Lupus Erythematosus (SMILE).  CaNIOS brought together many lupus experts who, despite their limited individual cohorts, were able to pool information for the completion of SMILE.  CaNIOS is now conducting several CIHR and TAS funded national studies, including the recently funded project on ‘Empowering Patients as Active Partners in Their Care: Lupus Interactive Navigator (LIN)’, ‘The Dissemination of the Lupus Health Passport’, ‘Health Improvement and Prevention Program for Persons with SLE’ (HIPP study), and ‘Lupus Nephritis New Emerging Team’ (LuNNET), ‘

Dr Fortin received the Kirkland Scholar Award in 2007, and he received the prestigious Distinguished Senior Research Investigator Award from The Arthritis Society of Canada.  In 2010, he received the Hope Award from the Lupus Ontario to recognize his outstanding leadership in improving the lives of people with lupus. In July 2012, he received a tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Systemic Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases.

Notes
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Sonia Jean , PhD

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Epidemiologist National institute of public health of QuebecChronic disease surveillance division Home 945, avenue Wolfe Québec Qc G1V 5B3 Canada Home Phone: 418-650-5115 #5538 Add to Address Book.


Jacek Kopec , MD, MSc, PhD

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Professor Work Phone: 604–822–9462
Biography

Dr. Jacek Kopec is a professor in the School of Population and Public Health, UBC, and Head, Division of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Public Health Practice. He is also a Senior Scientist at Arthritis Research Canada and is affiliated with the UBC Department of Medicine, Centre for Hip Health and Mobility, Institute for Work and Health in Toronto, and NRG Oncology in the US.

Dr. Kopec earned his MD degree from the Pomeranian Medical University in Poland and his PhD from the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McGill University. His scholastic achievements have been recognized with the National Health Research Scholar Award from Health Canada and the Senior Scholar Award from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research.

Dr. Kopec has published over 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals. His main areas of research are musculoskeletal epidemiology, quality of life studies, and population health. Dr. Kopec has taught courses in epidemiology, measurement methods and survey design. He has supervised or co-supervised more than 30 graduate students.

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Dr. Bindee Kuriya

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Staff Rheumatologist Mount Sinai Hospital, University of TorontoMedicine Home Mount Sinai Hospital 60 Murray Street, Room 2-224 Toronto Ontario M5T3L9 Canada Home Phone: 416-586-4800 ext 2217
Biography
Dr. Bindee Kuriya is a rheumatologist in the Division of Rheumatology at Mount Sinai Hospital, and Assistant Professor within the Department of Medicine, University of Toronto. She completed her Master of Clinical Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, which focused on developing skills and expertise in health services research and cohort studies. The major questions she has pursued involve rheumatoid arthritis (RA) epidemiology, evaluating long-term RA outcomes such as remission and serious adverse events, and a special expertise in reproductive outcomes for women with rheumatic conditions. She is the 2015 recipient of the the Arthritis Society Clinician Investigator Award and hopes to enhance our knowledge about multi morbidity in RA by examining the prevalence/incidence of depression and anxiety, cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome using administrative health data.
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Dr. Diane Lacaille

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Professor University of British ColumbiaDivision of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine Work 5591 No 3 Rd Richmond BC V6X 2C7 Canada Work Phone: 604-207-4019
Biography

Diane Lacaille MD MHSc FRCPC

Diane Lacaille is a Professor in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of British Columbia, and a senior scientist at Arthritis Research Canada, in Vancouver. She is affiliated with Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Center and she has a rheumatology practice in Richmond, BC. She holds the Mary Pack Chair in Arthritis Research from UBC and The Arthritis Society of Canada. She completed medical school and internal medicine training at Mc Gill University in Montreal, and her Rheumatology training and a Master’s in Health Sciences, clinical epidemiology, at the University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on two areas: 1) Studying the impact of arthritis on employment and preventing work disability. 2) Evaluating the quality of health care services received by people with RA, using a population-based cohort of RA for the province of BC. Her research has been supported by peer reviewed grants from the Canadian Institute for Health and Research, the Canadian Arthritis Network, The Arthritis Society of Canada and the Canadian Rheumatology Association. She was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal in 2013 for her research contributions.

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Dr. Deborah M Levy

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Assistant Professor, Pediatrics Hospital for Sick ChildrenRheumatology Work Hospital for Sick Children Division of Rheumatology 555 University Avenue Toronto ON M5M 2C8 Canada Work Phone: 416-813-7654 x228108
Biography

I am a pediatric rheumatologist at SickKids Hospital, with a primary interest in childhood-onset SLE.  I am utilizing administrative health databases in my research examining the long-term outcomes of childhood-onset SLE in a population-based cohort from Ontario.  I am also interested in pediatric rheumatologic disease surveillance across Canada, and the long-term burden (throughout the lifespan) of chronic disease that has its onset in childhood. 

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Dr. Lisa Lix

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Professor University of ManitobaCommunity Health Sciences Work S113-750 Bannatyne Avenue Winnipeg MB R3E 0W3 Work Phone: 204-789-3573
Biography

Dr. Lisa Lix is Professor and Manitoba Research Chair and Director of Data Science within the George and Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation at the University of Manitoba. She was Centennial Chair in the School of Public Health at the University of Saskatchewan prior to this (2008 – 2012).

Dr. Lix’s areas of research expertise include health services research methods, statistical methods for evaluation of the quality of administrative health databases, the analysis of repeated measures and longitudinal data, and robust statistical methods for patient-reported outcomes. She collaborates widely on projects about population health and the association between chronic disease and quality of life. Dr. Lix has extensive experience working with administrative health databases from multiple provinces and this has provided her with unique insights into new methodological research opportunities. She is currently leading a three-year Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)-funded project that will conduct comparative investigations of the quality of physician billing claims databases from Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.

The excellence of Dr. Lix’s research program has been recognized through the following provincial and national awards: Manitoba Research Chair (2012 – 2017), University of Saskatchewan Centennial Chair (2008 – 2012), Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation Top New Socio-Health Investigator (2009), and CIHR New Investigator Award (2006 – 2011).

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Dr Deborah Marshall

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Professor University of CalgaryCommunity Health Sciences Work University of Calgary 3280 Hospital Drive NW HRIC Building, Room 3C56 Calgary AB T2N4Z6 Canada Work Phone: 403-210-6377
Biography

As a Canada Research Chair, Health Services and Systems Research, Dr Marshall focuses her research program on methods to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of health care services. This includes measurement of patient preferences, cost-effectiveness analysis, and dynamic simulation systems modeling of health care delivery. She is a founding co-investigator of the innovative Patient and Community Engagement Research (PaCER) Program at the University of Calgary which trains patients to design and conduct health research, using specific adapted methods of qualitative inquiry.

 

She holds a faculty appointment as a Professor at the University of Calgary (Department of Community Health Sciences and Department of Medicine) and also holds the Arthur J.E. Child Chair of Rheumatology Outcomes Research in the McCaig Institute of Bone and Joint Health. She is the Director of Health Technology Assessment at the Alberta Bone and Joint Health Institute, a Senior Scientist of the Arthritis Research Canada, and a member of the O’Brien Institute of Public Health. Dr Marshall is the recipient of the Distinguished Achievement Cochrane Award for Research recognizing her outstanding success in research grants, publications and student mentorship, and the Award for Early Career Excellence in Graduate Education from the University of Calgary.

Dr. Marshall’s academic training includes a PhD from the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill as an Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Scholar, an MSc in Health Services Research (University of Alberta) and a BSc in Biochemistry (University of Toronto).

She has experience in government (national technology assessment agencies in Canada and Sweden), academia and pharmaceutical and diagnostics industry research settings in Canada, the United States, and Europe. She was previously Vice President, Global Health Economics and Outcomes Research at i3 Innovus, managing health economic projects globally for diagnostic and pharmaceutical products.

Dr. Marshall’s research program, funded through grants from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Genome Canada, United States National Institute of Health (NIH), the Canadian Arthritis Society, and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research is focused on measuring preferences using conjoint analysis, personalized medicine, cost-effectiveness analysis and health system modeling. She was the Project Lead for a NIH Program Grant on Translational and Policy Research in Personalized Medicine, which develops evidence to assess how personalized medicine can improve health outcomes.

Dr. Marshall is an active member of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) as the Past President of the Board of Directors, the Chair of the Dynamic Simulation Modeling Applications in Health Care Delivery Research Task Force and as a member of the Patient Preferences Special Interest Group and co-author of related ISPOR Task Force Reports. She led the development of the Guidelines on Budget Impact Analysis for the Canadian Patented Medicine Prices Review Board. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Health Technology Assessment International (HTAi) and the Editorial Boards of the International Journal for Technology Assessment in Health Care and The Patient.

 

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Dr. Bindu Nair

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Professor University of SaskatchewanMedicine Work Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine Royal University Hospital, 103 Hospital Drive University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon Saskatchewan S7N 0W8 Canada Add to Address Book.


Michael Paterson

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Scientist Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences Work ICES, G106-2075 Bayview Ave Toronto ON M4N 3M5 Canada Work Phone: 416.480.4055, 3869
Biography

Michael joined the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) as an Epidemiologist in 1992 and became an ICES Scientist in 2008. He currently leads the ICES Chronic Disease and Pharmacotherapy Research Program and serves as the Ontario Site Lead for the Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies (CNODES). Michael is an Assistant Professor in both the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Human Biology from the University of Guelph and a Master’s degree in Physiology from the University of Toronto. His current research interests include health services research methods, drug insurance policy, and pharmacoepidemiology.

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Hude Quan

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Professor University of CalgaryDepartment of Community Health Sciences
Biography
Dr. Hude Quan is a Professor at the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary and Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre in Classification, Terminology and Standards at the O’Brien Institute for Public Health. He is also the Lead for the Alberta’s Strategies for Patient Oriented Research SUPPORT Unit – Methods Support & Development Platform, known as the “Methods Hub” (http://www.themethodshub.com).

Dr. Quan has received training in medicine, public health, epidemiology, and health services research. A major theme of Dr. Quan’s research is to develop novel methods for analyzing big data and improving its quality to enable its optimal use for health research, precision medicine, disease surveillance, and healthcare system performance assessment. The methods could advance population and health services research in quality of care and disease surveillance for policy-makers and health care providers.

Dr. Quan is a leader in health services research methodology. He is leading an international research group of health information – the International Methodology Consortium for Coded Health Information (http://www.imecchi.org), an international collaboration of health services researchers who aim to improve methodological development and use of coded health information to promote the quality of care and quality health policy decisions. Dr. Quan has published over 250 papers in peer-reviewed journals; in 2014 and 2015, Thomson Reuters listed him as one of the world’s most highly cited researchers.

Research Interests: health services research methods; chronic disease surveillance and outcomes; health services utilization; outcomes among ethnic populations

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Dr. Elham Rahme

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Associate Professor McGill University Health CentreMedicine Work 687 Pine Avenue West V Building, Rm V2.11 Montreal Quebec H3A 1A1 Canada
Biography

Dr Elham Rahme is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine and Associate Member in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics of McGill University. She is also Medical Scientist in the Division of Clinical Epidemiology of the McGill University Health Centre. She is a member of the executive committee of the Réseau Québécois de recherche sur l’usage des médicaments and a member of the  Réseau Québécois de recherche sur le suicide. She is an Editorial Board member of the Open Rheumatology Journal, World Journal of Gastrointestinal Pharmacology and Therapeutics, BMC Geriatrics and Current Drug Safety. She holds a PhD in statistics and has extensive expertise in pharmacoepidemiology and health services research. Her research interests include the evaluation of the safety, effectiveness, and economic implications of prescribed medications. She has conducted population-based studies on the utilization, adverse events, and cost of NSAIDs; risks and benefits of extended outpatient anticoagulant use following total hip and knee arthroplasty; home care following hospital discharge from hemiarthroplasty, use of serotonin re-uptake inhibitors in association with suicide; rate of infection and the development of multi-drug resistance in patients undergoing dialysis; estimation of the prevalence of diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes in Quebec; utilisation, safety and cost of anti-TNF-alpha drugs; and assessment and development of biostatistical methods for pharmacoepidemiology research.

 

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Benham Sharif , PhD

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Postdoctoral fellow University of CalgaryDepartment of Community Health
Biography

Behnam Sharif is a Mitacs-Elevate and Eyes High postdoctoral fellow at University of Calgary, Department of Community Health under supervision. He completed his PhD at School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia in 2014 and worked at Statistics Canada, Health Analysis Division for his postdoctoral research from December 2013 to September 2014. Behnam’s research focuses on simulation models and their applications in health economics

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Dr. Natalie J Shiff

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Assistant Professor University of FloridaDepartment of Pediatrics, Division of Immunology /Rheumatology Add to Address Book.


Mr Mark Smith

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Associate Director Manitoba Centre for Health PolicyCommunity Health Sciences Work Manitoba Centre for Health Policy Faculty of Medicine 408, 727 McDermot Avenue Winnipeg MB R3E 3P5 Canada
Biography
Mark Smith, is the Associate Director at the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy. He has extensive experience in health research with expertise in business intelligence, analytics & privacy, as well as in  developing  & managing  health & social data repositories.  He participates  in several national chronic disease surveillance committees.
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Dr. Elizabeth Stringer

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Pediatric Rheumatologist IWK Health Centre and Dalhousie UniversityDivision of Pediatric Rheumatology Work IWK Health Centre 5850 University Avenue Halifax Nova Scotia B3K 6R8 Canada
Biography

Dr. Stringer is a pediatric rheumatologist at the IWK Health Centre and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Dalhousie University.  Her research has focused on the use of administrative data to estimate the prevalence and incidence of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases in children in Nova Scotia.  Dr. Stringer has completed a preliminary validation study of administrative data case definitions for JIA and has surveyed the pediatric rheumatology community in Canada regarding their billing practices to determine this may impact the use of administrative data for surveillance and research purposes.

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Larry Svenson

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Director, Epidemiology and Surveillance Alberta Ministry of HealthSurveillance and Assessment Work 10025 Jasper Avenue Edmonton AB T5Z 3K9 CANADA Work Phone: 780-422-4767
Biography

Larry Svenson is the Director of Epidemiology and Surveillance for the Alberta Ministry of Health. He also is an Adjunct Associate Professor with the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary and with the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta.  Larry is a member of numerous advisory committees to the Public Health Agency of Canada in the areas of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, mental health, chronic respiratory diseases, and neurological conditions.  

Larry’s current research interests are focused on the development of surveillance systems for communicable and non-communicable diseases and the application of evidence to the development and evaluation of policies and programs.

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Dr. Regina M. Taylor-Gjevre

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Professor of Medicine University of SaskatchewanDivision of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine Work Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine Royal University Hospital, 103 Hospital Drive University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon SK S7N 0W8 Canada Work Phone: 306-966-8271
Biography

Dr. Taylor-Gjevre is an Adult Rheumatologist and Professor of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan. She completed her undergraduate medical education and Rotating Interneship at Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1988. She then went on to do an Internal Medicine residency in Winnipeg at the University of Manitoba and subsequently completed her Rheumatology training at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota in 1995. She has practiced Rheumatology in various centres in Canada and for the last decade has been in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She is Co-ordinator/Program Director for the undergraduate and post-graduate rheumatology education programs in Saskatchewan. Dr. Taylor-Gjevre holds a MSc in Clinical Epidemiology, her research has been largely in people with rheumatoid arthritis with a particular focus on sleep disorders in this group.

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Dr. Carter Thorne

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The Arthritis Program Research Group Inc. Work 43 Lundy\’s Lane Newmarket Ontario L3Y 3R7 Canada Work Phone: 905 895-1666 Website: website
Biography

Dr. Thorne is on the Consultant Staff at Southlake Regional Health Care in Newmarket, Ontario, and Director of The Arthritis Program; this is a unique inter/trans-disciplinary program established to optimize outcomes for people who have arthritis and other rheumatic disorders. He is active in patient education, having established an Inflammatory Arthritis Program, Osteoarthritis Program, Fibromyalgia Program, JRA Program, as well as an Osteoporosis Program.  He has worked extensively with the Arthritis Society including on the Web Site “arthritis.ca”. He has been involved in establishing Outreach Programs (Kenora, Ontario) and instrumental in setting up Arthritis Care Programs in other Centers; including The Barrie Arthritis Program at Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie ON.

He is sought for his expertise in developing Outcome Based clinical Programs, not only in Arthritis Care, but also Shared Care in a Comprehensive Musculoskeletal Program, Wound Management and NeuroRehab/Stroke Care. These programs have resulted in measured improved standardized outcomes for patients, and for the improved reduction in hospital utilization  and Length of Stay (Best Practice)

He is active in Clinical Research as Principal Investigator with The Arthritis Program Research Group Inc., assisting in Canadian as well as International Studies of new therapeutic agents as well as projects to better describe types of arthritis and their care. As part of a strategic interest in identifying ‘Best Practices’, he has established an Early Arthritis Clinic, collaborating with a national initiative (CATCH), and an Osteoporosis Intervention Clinic, establishing a unique collaboration with Osteoporosis Canada and the Ontario Osteoporosis Strategy. He sits on the Steering  and Scientific Ctte of the Ontario Biologic Research Initiative, a collaborative attempt among stakeholders to describe and disseminate outcomes and best practices, in the management of Rheumatoid Arthritis. He is past-President of the Canadian Rheumatology Association (2012-2014) and is past-Secretary-Treasurer of the Canadian Rheumatology Association (1995-2004); and past Treasurer of PANLAR (Pan American League of The Association of Rheumatologists (2002-2006); founding member of the Ontario Rheumatology Association and past-President (2008); and past Chair of the Simcoe York District Health Council.  He is a lecturer in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto.  He holds a Fellowship with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology, and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and American College of Rheumatology.

Dr. Thorne has had the opportunity to provide advice on Arthritis Care to Governmental Agencies, The Arthritis Society and the Pharmaceutical Industry, including but not exclusive with today’s sponsor. He has participated in Guidelines development and co-authored the chapter on Rheumatoid Arthritis in the third edition of Therapeutic Choices (2000).

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Dr. Karen Tu

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Professor University of TorontoFamily and Community Medicine Work Central DFCM, 500 University Avenue, 3rd floo Toronto Ontario M5G 1V7 Canada Work Phone: 416-946-5938 Website: https://www.dfcm.utoronto.ca/faculty/karen-tu
Biography

Dr. Karen Tu is a Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at University of Toronto, with a cross appointment in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto and a staff family physician at the University Health Network-Toronto Western Hospital Family Health Team. She received her MD from the University of Toronto and her MSc in Health Policy, Planning and Financing in a joint degree from the London School of Economics and the London School of Tropical Medicine.

 

Research Interests:

Health Informatics, Health Service Delivery, Electronic Medical Records, Administrative Databases, Quantitative Data Analysis, Chronic Diseases, Observational Studies

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Lori Tucker , M.D.

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Associate Professor of Pediatrics BC Children’s HospitalPediatric rheumatology Work Division of Rheumatology Rm K4-120 4480 Oak Street Vancouver BC V6H 3V4 Canada Work Phone: 604-875-3678
Biography

Dr. Tucker is a pediatric rheumatologist and clinical researcher at the BC Children’s Hospital.   Her research interests include physical activity in juvenile arthritis, long term outcomes of childhood onset rheumatic diseases, transition of youth with rheumatic diseases to adult health care, and juvenile onset systemic lupus.  She plays a leading role in the Canadian pediatric rheumatology research network, CAPRI, and collaborates with other pediatric rheumatology research networks in the US and Europe.

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Dr Evelyne Vinet

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Assistant Professor McGill University Health CentreDivision of Rheumatology Work 1650 Cedar Avenue, room A6 162.2 Montreal Quebec H3G 1A4 Canada Work Phone: 514-934-8037
Biography

 Dr Evelyne Vinet is a rheumatologist and an assistant professor at McGill University with a PhD from the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McGill University. The main focus of her research relates to reproductive issues in women with rheumatic diseases.

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Jessica Widdifield

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Post doc fellow Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences; University of Toronto; Ontario Best Practices Research Initiative; Toronto General Research Institute
Biography

Jessica Widdifield is a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University in Montreal and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto. She received her PhD in 2013 in Health Outcomes & Evaluations in Health Services Research at the University of Toronto, Institute of Health Policy, Management, & Evaluation. She is a Banting Scholar and also funded by The Arthritis Society.

 

Her research to date has focused on population-based epidemiological assessments of autoimmune diseases, including pharmacoepidemiology and evaluating processes of care and quality care (such as timely access to specialists & access to treatments). Much of her work involves improving methods for rheumatology research and surveillance using health administrative databases, electronic medical records and data linkages.

 

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Karen Yee

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Senior Data Analyst Alberta Health ServicesResearch Facilitation Add to Address Book.


Michel Zummer

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Rheumatologist Hopital Maisonneuve-RosemontRheumatologu Work 5415 l\’Assomption 5415 l\’Assomption Montreal Quebec H1T2M4 Canada Add to Address Book.