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Investigators
CANHEART, led by PI Dr. Jack Tu, involves a team of over 20 investigators from
across Ontario.
The CANHEART Steering Committee includes the following:
Dr. Jack Tu is the Principal Investigator of the CANHEART initiative. He holds a
Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Health Services Research and a Career
Investigator Award from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario. A senior
scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) in Toronto, Dr. Tu
leads the cardiovascular research program. Dr. Tu holds academic appointments
as Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine and Professor, Institute of Health
Policy, Management, and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. He also serves as
a staff physician in the Division of Cardiology, Schulich Heart Centre, at
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. His research interests include
cardiovascular health services research and population health research, quality of
care, outcomes research, ethnic disparities in CVD disease, acute myocardial
infarction, heart failure, and international comparisons. Dr. Tu previously served
as team leader for the Canadian Cardiovascular Outcomes Research Team
(CCORT) (2001-2010) and as PI of the Enhanced Feedback for Effective Cardiac
Treatment (EFFECT) study. Dr. Tu has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles in
top general medical and specialty journals.
Dr William Hogg is a family physician and professor in the Department of Family
Medicine at the University of Ottawa. He holds the Research Chair in Primary
Health Care with a focus on Healthy Living and is the Senior Research Advisor at
the C.T Lamont Primary Health Care Research Centre at the Élisabeth Bruyère
Research Institute. Dr Hogg has received numerous awards for his work in family
medicine and health services research including NAPCRG’s 2013 Maurice Wood
Award and he was named Canada’s Family Medicine Researcher of the Year by the
College of Family Physicians in 2006. He has been an author on 200 scientific
articles.
Dr. Gillian Booth is a Scientist in the Keenan Research Centre, located at the Li
Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. Dr. Booth is also
an Adjunct Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and an
Associate Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Health Policy,
Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. She has received
numerous awards for her research and is currently supported by Mid-Career
Investigator Awards from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario and the
Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Booth’s research focuses
on health outcomes related to diabetes; specifically how socioeconomic,
environmental and health care factors influence the risk of diabetes and its
complications. She has extensive experience in using large provincial health care
and survey databases, and in using geographic information systems (GIS)
methodologies to study contextual factors influencing the development of
diabetes. One of her major research interests is the role of the built environment
as a risk factor for obesity and diabetes. Dr. Booth has made major contributions to
diabetes policy and practice at both the national and provincial levels. She has
served on several advisory committees for the Public Health Agency of Canada’s
Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance System and was the Methodology Chair for
the 2008 and 2013 Canadian Diabetes Association Clinical Practice Guidelines.
Dr. Andrea Gershon, an ICES scientist, is also a respirologist at Sunnybrook
Health Sciences Centre. Dr. Gershon completed her medical degree, residency,
and fellowship at the University of Toronto where she trained in general internal
medicine and respirology. She followed this with a Master of Science in Clinical
Epidemiology at the University of Toronto and postgraduate research fellowships in
health services research at ICES. Her research interests include health outcomes in
individuals with respiratory disease, effectiveness and safety of respiratory
medications, and disease surveillance.
Dr. Dennis Ko is a Senior Scientist at ICES, an Interventional Cardiologist at the
Schulich Heart Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and an Associate
Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Ko’s research focuses on
determining optimal clinical strategies and identifying opportunities for
improvement in the prevention, treatment and outcomes of cardiovascular
disease. These research efforts are intended to provide critical information to
improve the quality of health care, monitor changes over time, and guide decisions
about the allocation of scarce health care resources.
Dr. Thérèse Stukel PhD, is a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Clinical
Evaluative Sciences (ICES), Toronto; Professor of Biostatistics and Health Services
Research, The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice,
Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover NH; Professor, Institute for Health Policy,
Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto. She was statistical director of
the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care from 1995 to 2003. Her current research
interests are in the effects of health system resources and organization on delivery
of care and outcomes in Canada and the U.S., particularly whether higher health
care spending is associated with better health systems outcomes. She has also
focused on methods for the analysis of observational studies, particularly the use
of instrumental variables to remove unmeasured confounding and survival bias.
She developed the boundaries of Ontario’s Local Health Integration Networks
(LHINs) based on patterns of patient hospitalizations. With the support of a CIHR
Team grant, she has created Ontario Multispecialty Physician Networks, virtual
physician networks that mimic Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), and is
evaluating their efficiency (quality vs. costs) in managing patients with chronic
disease. She has published over 160 peer-reviewed articles in medical and
statistical journals.
Dr. Harindra Wijeysundera is an interventional cardiologist at the Schulich
Heart Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and an assistant professor and
clinician-scientist at the University of Toronto. He is also an adjunct scientist at
ICES. He is a graduate of the University of British Columbia and completed his
specialty training in Internal Medicine and Adult Cardiology at the University of
Toronto. He also completed fellowship training at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences
Centre in Interventional Cardiology and a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology from the
University of Toronto. His research program focuses on health technology
assessment in cardiac disease using decision analytic models, which are populated
and validated using real-world administrative data. This work is based at the
Sunnybrook Research Institute, the Toronto Health Economics and Technology
Assessment (THETA) collaborative, as well as ICES. In addition, his research
program also involves estimating accurate longitudinal costs associated with
episodes of illness using administrative data and changes in quality in life.
CANHEART Co-Investigators include the following:
Dr. Clare Atzema is a Core Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative
Sciences (ICES), an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, and a staff
emergency physician at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Dr. Atzema received
her medical doctorate from the University of British Columbia, and followed this
with a year as a visiting scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles. She
completed her residency in the Royal College Emergency Medicine Program at the
University of Toronto, during which time she also obtained a Master’s Degree in
Clinical Epidemiology. After residency she completed a Fellowship with the
Canadian Cardiovascular Outcomes Research Team, under Dr. Tu. She is currently
supported by a New Investigator Award from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of
Canada. Dr. Atzema won the Canadian Cardiovascular Society’s Young Investigator
Award in Clinical Sciences in 2012. Her research focuses on cardiovascular disease
as it presents in the emergency department, and continuity of care following
discharge from the emergency department.
Dr. Peter Austin PhD, is a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative
Sciences (ICES), Toronto and a Professor in the Institute for Health Policy,
Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto. His research is supported inpart by a Career Investigator Award from the Heart and Stroke Foundation. His
research interests are in statistical methods for the analysis of large observational
databases. In particular, he is interested in the use of propensity score methods for
estimating the effects of treatments and interventions, predictive models for
cardiovascular outcomes, and statistical methods for hospital report cards and
provider profiling. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles in medical and
statistical journals.
Dr. Amit Garg is a Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology & Biostatistics at Western
University. He practices nephrology at the London Health Sciences Centre and
cares for patients with chronic kidney disease, acute kidney injury and individuals
wishing to donate a kidney to a loved one. In team based environments, Dr. Garg
conducts clinical and health services research to improve health outcomes for
patients with kidney diseases including those receiving dialysis or a kidney
transplant. He also aims to improve the efficiency by which renal care is delivered.
He is the current Director of the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences Western
Facility, Program Lead for the ICES Kidney, Dialysis and Transplantation Program
and Director of the London Kidney Clinical Research Unit.
Dr. Cynthia Jackevicius PharmD, is a Professor of Pharmacy Practice at Western
University of Health Sciences, an Assistant Professor with the Department of
Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Faculty of Medicine at the University of
Toronto, an Adjunct Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, and a
Clinical Pharmacotherapy Specialist in Cardiology at the VA GLA Healthcare System
and the University Health Network. Dr. Jackevicius completed a baccalaureate
Pharmacy degree at the University of Toronto, a Hospital Pharmacy Residency at
Toronto General Hospital, a Master’s Degree in Clinical Epidemiology at the
University of Toronto, and a Doctor of Pharmacy Degree from Shenandoah
University in Virginia. Dr. Jackevicius’ research focuses on evaluating the quality of
use of cardiovascular medications in clinical practice. This primarily includes the
study of cardiovascular medication adherence, and impact of clinical trial
evidence, drug policy and pharmaceutical marketing on cardiovascular drug use.
Dr. Moira Kapral MD, MSc, FRCPC is a general internist at the Toronto General
Hospital, University Health Network. She is a Professor of Medicine and Health
Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto and a Senior
Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Ontario (ICES) and the
Toronto General Research Institute. She holds a career investigator award from the
Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario. She is co-principal investigator of the
Registry of the Canadian Stroke Network and is a theme leader with the Canadian
Stroke Network, one of Canada’s Networks of Centres of Excellence. Her research
focuses on the evaluation of stroke care and outcomes in different populations and
on the development of stroke quality indicators.