People

Dr. Russell’s major current themes of research are (1) randomized controlled trials in patients with septic shock and now COVID-19 and (2) biomarkers of septic shock and COVID-19.

• The COVID-19 pandemic led to success to study acute and long COVID-19 with 4 Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) grants and 3 St. Paul’s Foundation grants totalling $4.3 M and 18 peer-reviewed publications (details below).
• Finding and validating new therapies in sepsis and septic shock has been difficult. Dr. Russell is enunciating a new tripartite strategy to increase the yield of breakthrough therapies in sepsis and septic shock by using (1) predictive biomarkers in trials with (2) response adaptive trial design and (3) focus on short-term organ dysfunction primary endpoints.

Dr. Wells is a Professor in the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Cardiovascular Research Methods Centre at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. He is also a Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Ottawa.

Dr. Alhazzani is an intensivist, gastroenterologist, and methodologist. He is an associate professor of medicine and health Research Methodology at McMaster University, Canada.

Dr. Alhazzani is the lead methodologist on several international prominent practice guidelines, including the surviving sepsis campaign (SSC) guidelines and the SSC COVID-19 guidelines. Dr. Alhazzani lead many clinical practice guidelines with professional societies such as SCCM, ESICM, ACCP, and ATS. He is the chair of the guidelines in the intensive care, development, and evaluation (GUIDE) Group and the chair of practice guidelines chapter under the Saudi Critical Care Society.

Dr. Alhazzani published over 180 research articles, he is a CIHR-funded clinical trialist and an expert in systematic reviews and practice guideline development.

Mentors: Robert Balshaw and Lauren Kelly

Research Interests: Adaptive clinical trial designs; Statistical and machine-learning methods for addressing missing data in clinical trials and registries; Analysis of patient-reported outcome measures

Bio: Dr. Olawale F. Ayilara is a Biostatistician at the George and Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation, University of Manitoba. Dr. Ayilara is an internationally recognized researcher in the development and application of statistical methods in missing data and patient reported outcome measures. Dr. Ayilara is a member of multidisciplinary and collaborative research group, where he develops and implements innovative clinical trial designs.

Robert Balshaw’s interests include innovative trials design, causal inference in observational studies, methods for biomarker discovery, refinement and validation. He is becoming very curious about the Bayesian approach to scientific thinking.

Professor of biostatistics with over 42 years of experience, primarily in the design, conduct and analyses of collaborative, multicentre randomized controlled trials. Primary applied area is in cardiovascular diseases.

Nick Barrowman is a PhD biostatistician with over 20 years of experience in the design and analysis of clinical studies. He is a Senior Statistician at the Clinical Research Unit of the CHEO RI and Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Ottawa. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers in diverse fields and has also served as President of the Statistical Society of Ottawa and Statistical Consultant for the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Valerie Bishop is the CANSTAT Program Coordinator at McMaster University. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Science degree from Wilfrid Laurier University and has recently completed her Master of Public Health degree through McMaster University. Valerie has experience developing, implementing, and evaluating education programs, which she is using to support the CANSTAT program.  

Mentors: Tolu Sajobi and Michael Hill

Research Interests: Bayesian statistics, prognostic & diagnostic models, adaptive clinical trials

Bio: Tim is a statistical research analyst at the Person-Centered Methods Lab at the University of Calgary. He graduated with a master’s degree in Biostatistics from the University of Calgary in 2023 where he researched configuration of Bayesian variable selection regression models. He obtained his BSc in Mathematics from MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta in 2018. He has worked as a research assistant for Alberta Health Services in 2021/22 where he aided in development and performed validation of late-stage cancer risk prediction models.

Mentors: Monica Taljaard and Daniel McIsaac

Research Interests: Design and analysis of randomized controlled trials, exploring and applying novel methodologies such as machine learning to increase productivity and effectively analyze healthcare data

Bio: Yutong (Betty) Chen completed her MSc in Biostatistics from the University of Toronto and her undergraduate degree in Statistics from York University. During her master’s program, she conducted a practicum project titled “Using Generative Adversarial Networks for Sample Size Calculation” and interned as a Data Scientist at Roche, exploring the duties and responsibilities of a biostatistician. With a strong passion for healthcare data, she is eager to pursue opportunities to further expand her statistical analysis skills and knowledge and contribute to the fields of public health and drug development.

Mentors: Shirin Golchi and Marie Hudson

Research Interests: Bayesian statistics, mental health

Bio: Maureen recently graduated from McGill University with a M.Sc. in Public Health. Prior to her time at McGill, Maureen obtained a B.Sc. in Biomedical Science from Trent University. Moving forward, Maureen is looking to expand upon her statistical skills and knowledge. Specifically, she would like to learn more about the application of Bayesian methods in different research designs, including clinical trials.

Stephanie Dixon is an ICES Scientist in the Kidney, Dialysis and Transplantation program at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) and an Adjunct Research Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Western University. Her main research interest is the design and analysis of pragmatic and cluster randomized trials with a focus on outcomes obtained from routinely collected data. She collaborates closely with nephrologists and policy makers from the Ontario Renal Network (the agency responsible for delivery of chronic kidney disease services in Ontario) for clinical trials, observational research and multi-jurisdictional work.

Jacquelyn Dobinson is the CANSTAT Program Manager at McMaster University. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) degree from Carleton University and a Master of Education degree through the University of Ottawa. With a strong academic background and a dedication to curriculum design, assessment, and program evaluation, Jacquelyn leverages her expertise to enhance the delivery of the CANSTAT program. Her work focuses on optimizing educational initiatives and ensuring the program’s operational success.

Dr. Dean Fergusson is an established international leader in evidence-based transfusion medicine and clinical trial methods. Dr. Fergusson has conceived, designed, and conducted randomized trials in transfusion medicine that have advanced knowledge and practice in defining the optimal blood product to transfuse, establishing timelines to administer transfusions, and evaluating transfusion alternatives. Throughout his career, he has received over $263 million in peer reviewed research grants (including 156 CIHR grants), over $74.5 million as a principal investigator (including 43 CIHR grants), and major salary awards from CIHR and the Province of Ontario. He is one of the most cited and impactful researchers, having published over 664 peer-reviewed journal articles, many in high impact journals.

Practices nephrology at the London Health Sciences Centre, where he provides care and conducts research to improve health outcomes for patients with kidney disease including those receiving dialysis or a kidney transplant.

Leadership positions include Associate Dean, Clinical Research, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Lead, ICES Kidney, Dialysis and Transplantation Provincial Programs. A Past President of the Canadian Society of Nephrology, and a Past Provincial Medical Lead for the Ontario Renal Network dedicated to improving access to kidney transplantation and living kidney donation.

Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Western University. Productive investigator (over 650 publications, h-index 113). A current focus is the conduct of pragmatic randomized trials embedded into routine healthcare delivery.

Endocrinologist & Professor at McMaster & HHS

• – PHRI Chair in Diabetes
• – Firmly established international long-term patient-important outcomes trials as the norm for diabetes
• – 2022 American Diabetes Association Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Diabetes Research Award.

Dr. Peter Gill is a general paediatrician and Scientist at the SickKids Research Institute, an Associate Professor in the Department of Paediatrics and IHPME, University of Toronto, and a Senior Associate at the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, University of Oxford. His patient-oriented research focuses on generating evidence to improve the care and outcomes of children hospitalized in general pediatric settings. Dr. Gill is the Co-Founder and Chair of the Canadian Paediatric Inpatient Research Network (PIRN – https://www.pirncanada.com/), a network of children’s hospitals and several large community hospitals.

Shirin Golchi is an assistant professor of biostatistics at the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McGill University. Her research interests are Bayesian modelling and computation with a focus on Bayesian adaptive clinical trials. She graduated from Simon Fraser University with a PhD in statistics in 2014. Before coming to McGill she worked as a senior statistician at MTEK Sciences, a health research company which was later acquired by Cytel.

Mentors: Tim Ramsay and Dean Fergusson

Research Interests: Adaptive clinical trial designs, platform trials

Bio: Peter grew up in England where he did his PhD at Lancaster University. His PhD was in Statistics and Operational Research and was entitled: Design and Analysis of Platform Trials. He is working with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI). He is excited to start his new role, after spending a 6-week placement at the OHRI in January 2023 thanks to the STOR-i research grant. In his spare time Peter enjoys playing Underwater Hockey and is keen to join a team in Ottawa.

Mentors: Nick Barrowman and Amy Plint

Research Interests: Clinical trials design and analysis; Comparative effectiveness research

Bio: Mei completed her Master of Science in Biostatistics at the University of Toronto. She is now a methodologist at Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute. With a focus on leveraging statistical methods to analyze and interpret data in the context of clinical trials and research studies, Mei has contributed to several projects aimed at improving patient outcomes and advancing medical knowledge. In addition to academic pursuits, Mei enjoys swimming.

Dr Hawkins is a clinician-scientist cardiologist and Associate Professor at UBC with dual training in heart failure and electrophysiology. His leadership roles include Medical Lead for Quality and Research at Cardiac Services BC, and Director of Research for the UBC Division of Cardiology. His research group examines cardiovascular outcomes, health services, and comorbidities in patients with heart failure, arrhythmia, and pulmonary disease. He is Co-PI for the MAPLE-CHF and international SYMPHONY heart failure screening trial, member of the CIHR Canadian Heart Function Alliance, and Co-PI for the Canadian Cardiovascular Society MYCOVACC national surveillance study of myocarditis and/or pericarditis following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination.

Dr. Hazlewood is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary, and a practicing rheumatologist. He is a member of the McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint Health, Arthritis Research Canada and chairs the Guidelines Committee through the Canadian Rheumatology Association.

Dr. Anna Heath is a Scientist in the Child Health and Evaluative Sciences Program at SickKids Research Institute, an Assistant Professor in the Division of Biostatistics, University of Toronto and an Honorary Research Associate in the Department of Statistical Science, University College London, UK. She holds an MMath in Mathematics with French Language and a PhD in Statistical Science. Dr. Heath’s research focuses on developing new, innovative statistical methods to design, prioritise and analyse clinical research within a Bayesian framework. She is particularly interested in applying methods from decision theory, the science of determining the best course of action when the consequence of each action is uncertain, to the conception, design and analysis of clinical trials.

Stroke neurologist and clinical trialist with interests in neuro-epidemiology and advancing therapeutics in stroke and neurology.  I also have a role in the province as medical lead for cardiovascular and stroke.

Thi Ho is the Director of Administration in the Department of Oncology at McMaster University. She is the senior administrator for the Department and also holds the role of Director of Operations for the Escarpment Cancer Research Institute, a joint Hamilton Health Sciences and McMaster University research institute that serves as a hub for mentoring young researchers. Ms. Ho supports CANSTAT’s operational excellence in governance, management, finance and communications.

Mentors: Sameer Parpia and Timothy Whelan

Research Interests: Adaptive clinical trial designs; Randomized trial analysis

Bio: Qirui Hou holds an MSc in Biostatistics from the University of Toronto. He served as a trainee at the Biostatistics Core Services of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), where he worked on projects involving novel adaptive clinical trial designs. His research primarily focuses on Bayesian and frequentist adaptive trial design. Before coming to Toronto, Qirui completed his BSc in Statistics at the University of British Columbia. Outside of work, he enjoys windsurfing, badminton, and tennis.

Dr. Hudson is a rheumatologist and clinician-scientist at the Jewish General Hospital and Lady Davis Institute, and an Associate professor and Member of the Division of Experimental Medicine in the Department of Medicine at McGill University. She pursues research in systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases, including a feasibility study for an adaptive trial for rheumatoid arthritis and a Phase I/II Bayesian adaptive trial of umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stromal cells in systemic sclerosis. Dr Hudson is also Co-Director of the McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity which, since 2018, has provided over $34 million to support 130+ innovative research projects.

Dr. Matthew James is a specialist in Nephrology and an Associate Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary. Dr. James received his medical training at the University of British Columbia, and completed nephrology training and a PhD in Epidemiology at the University of Calgary. He is a co-lead of the Alberta Kidney Disease Network (AKDN), Interdisciplinary Chronic Disease Collaboration (ICDC), and the Can-SOLVE CKD Strategy for Patient Oriented Research (SPOR) Network, and director of Research for the Alberta Provincial Project for Outcomes Assessment in Coronary Heart Disease (APPROACH).  Dr. James’ research is focused on risk prediction, computerized decision support tools, and pragmatic trials designed to improve the quality of care and health outcomes of those with kidney and cardiovascular diseases.

Mentors: Anna Heath and Naveen Poonai

Research Interests: Application of statistical techniques to inform evidence-based healthcare practices in areas such as pain management, oncology, mental health, and health equity

Bio: Arlene completed her MSc in Biostatistics at Queen’s University. She previously obtained a BSc in Neuroscience and Computer Science at Dalhousie University. Her research has focused on neural data analysis for neonatal pain management and bias in oncology trials. In her spare time, she enjoys dancing, running, and yoga.

Dr. Kahn is a clinical epidemiologist and internist based at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Canada, where she is the founder and director of the Centre of Excellence in Thrombosis and Anticoagulation Care. She is appointed as Professor with Tenure in the Department of Medicine, McGill University. She founded the McGill Thrombosis Fellowship, for which she was Program Director from 2007-2018. She is co-Director of the CIHR-funded CanVECTOR Network, a Canadian national venous thromboembolism research and training network. Dr. Kahn’s research interests focus primarily on clinical trials of interventions to prevent, diagnose, treat, and improve outcomes of venous thromboembolism.

Mentors: George Wells and Glen Hazelwood

Research Interests: Research designs, evidence synthesis; comparative effectiveness research; Adaptive clinical trial designs; Bayesian Analysis; Network Meta-analysis; Evaluation of the Certainty of Evidence using the GRADE framework

Bio: Dr. Mohammed Mujaab Kamso is a Biostatistician trainee at the Cardiovascular Research Methods Centre (CRMC) at the University of Ottawa. He recently earned his Ph.D. and has extensive experience in evidence synthesis. His research focused on developing novel semi-automated methodologies for trial identification and the evaluation of the certainty of evidence in Network Meta-Analyses (NMAs). Utilizing his expertise in R statistical software, Dr. Kamso designed rules, algorithms, and Shiny dashboards to streamline these processes. He is an active member of an international collaborative research group, where he implements innovative strategies to improve the evidence base for various interventions in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Currently, he plans to integrate his formal education and work experience into the design and analysis of clinical trials. By contributing to the generation of new information via clinical trials, he aims to further refine and optimize methodologies in the critical areas of RA and cardiovascular health research, among others.

Dr. Kelly is an Assistant Professor in the department of pharmacology and therapeutics at the University of Manitoba, director of clinical trials at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba and Principal Investigator for the clinical pharmacology lab. Dr. Kelly is a certified clinical research professional who leads several clinical trials on cannabinoid therapeutics as the scientific director for the Canadian Collaborative for Childhood Cannabinoid Therapeutics (C4T). She also provides methods expertise and training in clinical trials for researchers across Manitoba in her role as a Clinical Trialist at the George and Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation. Dr. Kelly is a consultant with the Conect4Children pan-European clinical trials network and KidsCan Trials within the Maternal Infant Child Youth Research Network.

Mentors: Joel Singer and Jim Russell

Research Interests: Multi-state models, pharmacoepidemiology studies, design and analysis of randomized trials

Bio: I completed my MSc in Statistics at the University of British Columbia in 2024. My thesis was titled “The impact of disease-modifying drugs for multiple sclerosis on hospitalizations and mortality in British Columbia: a retrospective study using an illness-death multi-state model”. I previously graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University with two degrees, a BSc in Data Science and a Bachelor of Business Administration.

Mentors: Nick Barrowman and Amy Plint

Research Interests: Causal Inference; Pharmacoepidemiology; Comparative Effectiveness Research

Bio: I am originally from Thunder Bay, Ontario, where I grew up playing competitive hockey and baseball. I completed both my bachelor’s degree in health sciences, with a minor in Chemistry, and my master’s degree in health sciences, with a focus in genetics, at the University of Ottawa. I then moved to Montreal for my doctoral degree in epidemiology, where I currently reside. I have a soft spot for sports and the great outdoors.

Mentors: Monica Taljaard and Daniel McIsaac

Research Interests: Analysis of healthcare data to improve disease management and treatment strategies; Investigating the impact of socioeconomic factors on health outcomes using statistical modeling techniques; Design and analysis of randomized controlled trials to evaluate the effectiveness of novel interventions in healthcare settings

Bio: Caroline Lee has completed her MSc in Biostatistics from Queen’s University. While completing her Master’s degree, she conducted a practicum project titled “An investigation of severe asthma prevalence in primary care; strategizing identification and management” in collaboration with SickKids Hospital and Queen’s University. Prior to attending Queen’s University, Caroline obtained her BScH in Neuroscience at McMaster University.

Dr. Shun Fu Lee is an Assistant Professor in Biostatistics at HEI, McMaster University, and the course lead for an introductory course on randomized clinical trials. She is also a senior principal biostatistician at the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) since 2013 with extensive experience collaborating with >10 clinical randomized trials in design consultation, assisting grant applications, data monitoring reporting, conducting analysis, interpreting results, and participating in manuscript writing. She completed her Ph.D. at Western University, M.Math. at the University of Waterloo, and B.Sc. at McGill University.

Mentors: Kevin Thorpe and David Mazer

Research Interests: Clinical trials design and analysis, survival analysis, correlated data

Bio: Peiyu Li holds an MSc in Biostatistics from the University of Toronto, supervised by Dr. Aya Mitani. She worked as a research student at the Ted Rogers Computational Program, Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, where she worked with researchers to identify robust statistical methods for small matched-pair samples with longitudinal outcomes. With a strong passion for clinical trials, she is eager to further develop her skills and contribute to this field.

Mentors: Kevin Thorpe and David Mazer

Research Interests: Clinical trial design and analysis, causal inference, predictive models in healthcare

Bio: Yutong Lu earned her MSc in Biostatistics with an emphasis in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science from the University of Toronto. During her Master’s program, she completed a practicum project titled “Knowledge fusion of large chemical language models for molecular property prediction” under the guidance of Dr. Pingzhao Hu. She also holds a BSc from the University of Toronto, where she pursued a Specialist in Statistical Science: Methods and Practice with a focus on Health and Disease. Moving forward, Yutong aims to further develop her theoretical knowledge and practical skills to contribute to clinical trials and other fields in healthcare.

Mentors: Shirin Golchi and Marie Hudson

Research Interests: Bayesian adaptive designs, clinical trials, precision medicine, treatment effect heterogeneity

Bio: Lara Maleyeff, PhD is a postdoctoral fellow in biostatistics at McGill University, where she specializes in precision medicine and clinical trial design. Her research focuses on utilizing Bayesian model averaging and adaptive enrichment designs to optimize treatment strategies for chronic conditions like rheumatoid arthritis. Lara completed her PhD at Harvard University, where her dissertation addressed treatment effect heterogeneity in cluster randomized trials.

Dr. Mazer is a professor of Anesthesia and Physiology at the University of Toronto. His translational research program focuses on cardiovascular clinical trials, perioperative blood conservation, cardiac physiology and perioperative organ protection. He is also chair of the Research Ethics Board of Unity Health Toronto.

Dr Lawrence Mbuagbaw (MD, MPH, PhD) is a Research Methods Consultant and Clinical Epidemiologist.  He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, McMaster University, Director of the Biostatistics Unit at St Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, and Co-Director of Cochrane Cameroon.

Dr. Daniel McIsaac is an anesthesiologist and CIHR-funded scientist who combines expertise in data science and clinical trials to improve the outcomes of people having surgery. Primary focuses in Dr. McIsaac’s research include improving perioperative care for older people with frailty, assessing and improving health system performance through novel study design, and utilization of patient reported outcomes. Dr. McIsaac is currently leading or co-leading two national multicenter studies to improve postoperative outcomes using exercise prehabilitation (PREPARE Trial) and to better understand recovery trajectories after surgery in older people (FIT After Surgery Study).

Bijoy Menon is a neurologist and a Professor in the Departments of Neurosciences, Radiology and Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary. He leads an internationally recognized research program that is pushing the boundaries of modern stroke care by using advanced image processing techniques, statistical and clinical trial methodologies and Artificial Intelligence based algorithms to develop cutting edge imaging tools and better treatment for people suffering from acute stroke

I am a biostatistician/research scientist at the Clinical Research Support Unit (CRSU), College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan. I received my PhD degree in biostatistics from the University of Saskatchewan and completed MSc degrees in statistics and biostatistics from Concordia University, Montreal and Old Dominion University, Virginia, respectively. I worked in the Institute of Human Virology (IHV), University of Maryland, Baltimore and Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), Toronto.

Dr. Ouyang is a Biostatistician in the Child Health and Evaluative Sciences Program at SickKids Research Institute, an Assistant Professor in the Division of Biostatistics, University of Toronto and an affiliate investigator at Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. He holds a PhD in Biostatistics and Epidemiology from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. His research focuses on the design and analysis of clinical trials, with a particular emphasis on novel cluster randomized trials and Bayesian adaptive designs. His research also covers Quasi-experimental design and longitudinal data analysis. As a biostatistician, he actively collaborates with clinicians and researchers from various backgrounds and provides statistical consultations in study design, grant proposals, and data analysis.

Dr. Sameer Parpia is an Associate Professor and Senior Biostatistician in the Departments of Oncology and Health Research Methods, Evidence, & Impact at McMaster University. He is a faculty biostatistician at the Ontario Clinical Oncology Group, an academic clinical trials coordinating and methods unit. His research interests are in randomized clinical trials and he provides statistical and methodological leadership on randomized trials in various clinical areas such as cancer, venous thromboembolism, surgery, critical care and emergency medicine.

Dr. Wendy Parulekar is a graduate of the University of Ottawa where she completed her medical school and specialty training in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology followed by postgraduate training in clinical pharmacology at the University of Toronto. She currently holds a joint research/clinical position at Queen’s University Cancer Research Institute as a Professor of Oncology and Senior Investigator at the Canadian Cancer Trials Group and Medical Oncologist at the Cancer Centre of Southeastern Ontario. She advises on the clinical trial research agenda for multiple national and international committees including the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI): International Clinical Trials Awards and Advisory Panel, the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer, Steering Committees for the NCI US, Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Ontario Institute of Cancer Research.

Robert Platt is Professor in the Departments of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, and of Pediatrics, at McGill University. He holds the Albert Boehringer I endowed chair in Pharmacoepidemiology. Dr. Platt is Principal Investigator of the Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies (CNODES). His research focuses on improving methods for the study of medications using administrative data, with an emphasis on methods for causal inference and a substantive focus on medications in pregnancy.

I am a practicing pediatric emergency physician, hold a Tier I University of Ottawa Research Chair in Pediatric Emergency Medicine and am a Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at the University of Ottawa. My research focuses on the emergency department management of respiratory illnesses and musculoskeletal injuries, and patient safety. I have significant expertise in the conduct of multicenter randomized controlled trials and cohort studies.

Dr. Gregory Pond, the associate director of OCOG is an Associate Professor in the Department of Oncology with an Associate Appointment with the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact (formerly Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics), an Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) Investigator. He is also the Director of the Escarpment Cancer Research Institute.

Associate Scientist of Paediatrics, Internal Medicine, Epidemiology & Biostatistics. Chair of Children’s Health Research Institute’s largest Division, Children’s Health and Therapeutics. Chair of Western University’s Health Sciences Research Ethics Board. ENRICH health research training platform executive board.

Dr. Tim Ramsay has a PhD in biostatistics and is a Senior Scientist with the Clinical Epidemiology Program of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, as well as an Associate Professor with the University of Ottawa’s School of Epidemiology and Public Health.  He is Scientific Director of the Ottawa Methods Centre, a group of statisticians, information technology specialists, epidemiologists, and health-care economists that supports clinical research at The Ottawa Hospital and across Ontario through the CIHR-funded Strategy for Patient Oriented Research (SPOR).

Dr. Rash an Associate Professor in the Dept. of Psychology at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Director of the Memorial University of Newfoundland – Behavioural Medicine Centre (MUN-BMC), and Senior Research Fellow at the Duke University Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research (CHPIR). He has significant experience conducting multi-site, pragmatic clinical trials that involve pharmacological and behavioural interventions. His expertise is highly sought out in chronic pain management, weight management, stress management, motivating health behaviour change, treatment of insomnia, and cardiovascular psychophysiology.

Mentors: Lawrence Mbuagbaw and Zainab (Zena) Samaan

Research Interests: Causal inference; Comparative effectiveness research; Mental health

Bio: Myanca Rodrigues holds a MSc in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Western University and a PhD in Health Research Methodology (Biostatistics specialization) from McMaster University. Her dissertation examined outcome measurement in mental health research, including geriatric depression trials. Myanca is eager to develop her statistical skills in the design and analysis of clinical trials assessing interventions for psychiatric disorders.

Dr Tolu Sajobi is an Associate Professor of Biostatistics in the Departments of Community Health Sciences and Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Calgary. His research program focuses on measurement and analysis of patient-reported outcomes, design and analysis of clinical trials, and development and implementation of clinical decision aids.

Dr. Samaan is a physician scientist, professor of psychiatry and leads research program focused on addiction and mood disorders using different methodological approaches including randomized trials.

Mentors: Tolu Sajobi and Matthew James

Research Interests: Pragmatic clinical trials, health services research

Bio: Tayler Scory is a statistician in the Nephrology Research Group, Department of Medicine at University of Calgary. Her work focuses on using administrative data to examine healthcare utilization and outcomes of patients with chronic kidney disease. In her previous role at a consultancy, she worked on health outcomes research projects for the pharmaceutical industry. Tayler received her MSc in Statistics from University of Calgary in 2017, and holds an Associate Statistician (A.Stat.) accreditation from the Statistical Society of Canada.

Joel Singer is a professor in the School of Population and Public Health at UBC. He has been involved as a clinical trials methodologist and analyst since the 1980s and has been methodological lead on many national and international trials in diverse clinical areas including HIV, COVID, cardiology, nephrology and health behaviours. He has been a member and chair of many Data Safety Monitoring Boards.

Dr. Swaminath is an Associate Professor, Clinician Scientist and Radiation Oncologist at the Juravinski Cancer Centre, McMaster University, Hamilton.

He received his medical degree from the University of Ottawa, finished residency training at McMaster University, and completed a clinical-research fellowship in image-guided radiotherapy/SBRT for lung and liver cancer at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.

His clinical and research interests are in the application of new technologies in radiation therapy, specifically SBRT for a wide variety of indications including lung, kidney, and liver cancer, both for symptom control and in the management of metastatic disease.

Dr. Swaminath is a PI or radiation lead on several local, national, and international trials evaluating SBRT in both the primary and metastatic setting. Some trial highlights include the lead on the Canadian LUSTRE randomized lung SBRT trial, and radiation lead on the CYTOSHRINK and RADSTER trials in kidney cancer. He has authored or co-authored more than 80 peer reviewed publications and book chapters, and has obtained several large-scale grants through CIHR and CCSRI for trials that both locally and nationally involve the evaluation of SBRT in the primary and metastatic setting.

Monica Taljaard is a Senior Scientist in the Clinical Epidemiology Program at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) and Professor in the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa. Her main research interests are in the design, analysis and ethics of pragmatic and cluster randomized trials. As a methodologist with the Ottawa Methods Centre, she works with clinicians and researchers from a variety of backgrounds in the design and analysis of their studies including clinical trials and observational studies.

Lehana Thabane, MSc, PhD
Professor of Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
Vice President of Research at St Joseph’s Healthcare—Hamilton
Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada

Prof. Thorpe is a statistician, educated at the University of Waterloo, with thirty years of experience with trials and studies spanning a wide range clinical fields including: cerebrovascular disease, nephrology, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, thrombosis, neonatology and oncology. His research interests include the design, conduct, data management and analysis of clinical trials, statistical education and statistical computing.  He was the lead author on the paper that first presented PRECIS, a tool to help trialists design their trials for pragmatic or explanatory purposes.

Dr. Alan Tinmouth is a clinical hematologist and the Director of the Ottawa Hospital Centre for Transfusion Research at the Ottawa Hospital / Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. His research interests focus on the utilization of blood products including red blood cells, platelets and plasma. He is also a member of the National Advisory Committee on Blood and Blood Products.

Dr. Tu is a Senior Biostatistician/Data Scientist in the Canadian Cancer Trials Group at the Queen’s Cancer Research Institute and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences. Dr. Tu’s research lies in the intersection of health science and the emerging data science. With the advancement of digital technologies, different sources of data (genetic, imaging, electronic health records, etc.) are available in health science. Trained as a biostatistician, Dr. Tu is interested in integrating these different sources of high-dimensional data and translate into informed clinical decision-making.

Mentors: Tolu Sajobi and Michael Hill

Research Interests: Adaptive clinical trial designs; Statistical and machine-learning methods for advancing precision medicine and digital health; Risk prediction tools

Bio: Dr. Shabnam Vatanpour is a Biostatistician with the Calgary Stroke Program in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Calgary. Her expertise lies in developing and applying statistical and machine learning techniques to extract meaningful insights from health data, facilitating evidence-based decision-making. With extensive experience collaborating with clinical investigators and multidisciplinary research teams, she is highly proficient in utilizing administrative health data in the areas of patient outcomes and healthcare services. Dr. Vatanpour collaborates closely with the Stroke Clinical Trials Group, providing support for various innovative clinical trials.

Dr. Fidel Vila-Rodriguez is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia and director of the Non-Invasive Neurostimulation Therapies (NINET) Laboratory and Schizophrenia Program. He is also a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar.

As a clinician-scientist, he has a strong interest in conducting translational research that bridges the neurobiology of psychiatric disorders with the clinical applications of this knowledge. His clinical practice is actively focused in those most severely afflicted by such conditions, and his research interests are directed at finding novel therapeutic interventions within NINET that can help mitigate the suffering of those with severe and refractory forms of psychosis and depression. His laboratory actively investigates on all forms of NINET and uses a varied number of neurophysiological tools to research on biomarkers. The NINET Laboratory is the only centre in Canada to host both simultaneous TMS-fMRI and tDCS-fMRI capability.

Dr. Richard Webster is the Data Science Team Lead at the Clinical Research Unit and a clinical researcher at the CHEO RI. He also is a member of the Ontario Child Health Support Unit. Richard has over 45 publications and secured over $5.6M of grant funding as PI/co-applicant.

Dr. Tim Whelan is a Professor and Associate Chair of Research in the Department of Oncology at McMaster University. His research has focused on clinical trials in radiation oncology with a goal to reduce morbidity and improve effectiveness of RT for breast cancer using novel approaches. He has led a number of key multicenter trials including the Hypofractionation trial demonstrating that a shorter hypofractionated 3-week regimen for whole breast irradiation was equally effective to the conventional 5-week regimen and the MA.20 trial, which demonstrated the effectiveness of regional nodal irradiation in improving disease-free and distant disease-free survival in women with node positive breast cancer. In recent years, he has extended his research to collaborate with colleagues in the laboratory to evaluate biomarkers that can potentially guide decisions for radiation treatment in breast cancer.

I have been involved in clinical trials for more than 20 years across diverse medical areas including mental health, HIV, emergency medicine, neurology, women & children’s health, and rehabilitation medicine. My methodological research interests are in the design of pragmatic clinical trials, with a current focus on the embedding of trials within learning health systems to support personalized treatment decisions.

Mentors: Hubert Wong and Fidel Vila-Rodriguez

Research Interests: Design of Randomized control trials; Statistical analysis of clinical research

Bio: I am a statistician working at Vancouver General Hospital under the Division of General Surgery. I hold an MSc in Statistics from the University of British Columbia. My passion lies in clinical trials and biostatistics, and my ultimate goal is to become a clinical trial statistician in the future. Apart from my professional pursuits, I thoroughly enjoy immersing myself in nature, with hiking and kayaking as my go-to activities.

I am a professor in biostatistics in Faculty of Medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland. My research focuses on innovative design of clinical trials and statistical inference. I have over ten years of experience in adaptive randomization for clinical trials.

As a biostatistician, Dr Zhao has been involved in design, planning and analysis of clinical trials, development of methodologies for safety monitoring and treatment responder identification, as well as serving on Data Safety Monitoring Board. She also has extensive experience in research in multiple sclerosis, cardiovascular conditions and renal diseases.