PharmacoEpidemiology

James (Jim) Wright obtained his MD from the University of Alberta in 1968, his FRCP(C) in Internal Medicine in 1975 and his PhD in Pharmacology from McGill University in 1976. He is a practicing specialist in Internal Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Therapeutics Letter. He sits on the Editorial Boards of PLoS One and the Cochrane Library.
Dr. Wright’s research focuses on issues related to appropriate use of prescription drugs (particularly antihypertensive and lipid lowering drugs), Clinical Pharmacology, clinical trials, systematic review, meta-analysis and knowledge translation.

Ken Bassett conducts systematic reviews of the efficacy and safety of new and established drugs, as well as pharmaco-epidemiologic studies of serious adverse events associated with prescription drug therapy in British Columbia. His ongoing research interests are in the systematic review of drug therapy and drug funding policy.

Colin Dormuth has extensive experience using administrative health care databases to evaluate pharmaceutical policy changes and physician prescribing behaviour. He has been a member of the Therapeutics Initiative since 1995. His research focuses on drug safety and effectiveness, as well as the design and evaluation of reimbursement policies for prescription drugs. He has training in economic theory, applied econometrics, epidemiology, health services outcome research and biostatistics. Dr. Dormuth holds a Sc.D. and S.M. in epidemiology from Harvard University, an M.A. in economics from the University of Victoria, and a B.A. in economics from the University of Manitoba.

Greg Carney completed his doctorate in Pharmacology and Therapeutics, with a focus on pharmacoepidemiology at the University of British Columbia. His PhD thesis examined the comparative safety and effectiveness of medications commonly used to aid smoking cessation. Greg has worked for the Therapeutics Initiative since 2003, and is currently Co-Chair of the PharmacoEpidemiology Group (PEG). Greg has 20 years of experience in analysing health care databases to evaluate pharmaceutical policy and program changes, and in conducting drug safety and effectiveness studies. His current research focus is on the implementation and evaluation of physician audit and feedback programs using randomized designed delay trials.

Bilal Ahmed is an Epidemiologist with a keen interest in Pharmacoepidemiology of chronic diseases. He received his undergraduate pharmacy degree from the University of Karachi, Pakistan in 2004, completed his Masters in epidemiology and biostatistics with distinction from the Aga Khan University (AKU), Karachi, Pakistan in 2009. He was appointed as a Senior Instructor at AKU from 2009 to 2014. Bilal completed a PhD in Public Health from the University of New South Wales, Australia and during his PhD, he worked on various administrative datasets from that country. His PhD work was focussed on “Utilisation of renin-angiotensin system blockers during pregnancy and the associated perinatal outcomes.” After completing PhD Bilal returned to his Alma mater and joined as an Assistant Professor at the department of medicine, AKU. In 2020, Bilal joined Therapeutic Initiatives as a Postdoctoral Fellow (PharmacoEpidemiology Group) under the supervision of Dr Colin Dormuth.

Lina is a postdoctoral fellow at the Therapeutics Initiative – Pharmacoepidemiology Group. She has a background in clinical pharmacy and recently completed her PhD from the University of Saskatchewan. Prior to starting her PhD, she worked as a clinical preceptor and lecturer at the University of Jordan. Her PhD work focused on the epidemiology and pharmacoepidemiology of multiple sclerosis (MS). She established the incidence and prevalence of MS in Saskatchewan and utilized the provincial MS cohort to evaluate health outcomes and their potential associations with comorbidities and disease modifying therapies.

Nicole is a Research Analyst at the Therapeutics Initiative.  Her interests include drug safety and efficacy studies, prescription drug trend analysis, and physician audit and feedback initiatives.  She has an MSc in Statistics and a BSc Honours in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Victoria. Prior to joining the TI in 2019, she worked on many health research projects including a large scale translational stroke biomarker study at Island Health and several BC Cancer Agency studies examining the efficacy and toxicity of immunotherapy treatments in cancer patients.

Anat Fisher obtained her M.D. degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. She also has a Master of Health Administration from the Tel Aviv University in Israel. She worked as a family practitioner for many years and managed a Hospital Department in a Managed Health Organization. She is an experienced researcher and an expert in data analysis and trend analysis. She has conducted several systematic reviews on safety and efficacy of new drug therapies and is an author of Cochrane systematic reviews.

Scott Garrison has degrees in engineering physics and medicine, as well as a PhD in experimental medicine from the University of British Columbia. He has worked in Richmond, BC as a full-time office and hospital-based family physician since 1992 and has been a member of GPAC working groups producing the current BC provincial guidelines for the management of hypertension, stroke and cardiovascular risk reduction. He sat on the Primary Care Advisory Council for the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and was the President of the Medical Staff for Richmond Hospital. He is also a clinical assistant professor with the UBC Dept of Family Practice and the principle investigator of a clinical trial exploring the role of magnesium in muscle cramping.

Jason is a Research Analyst at the Therapeutics Initiative, specializing in epidemiological methods, data analysis, and statistical programming. He graduated with a Bachelor of Health Sciences from McMaster University and a Master of Public Health from the University of British Columbia, which was supported by a CIHR Canada Graduate Scholarship. He has particular interests in causal inference methods for observational studies, modern approaches to data visualization, and reproducible research. Jason is especially passionate about utilizing data to evaluate health care systems and policy. At the Therapeutics Initiative, he works with administrative health databases to evaluate pharmaceutical outcomes, policy impacts, and prescription drug utilization trends.

Eric Maika has worked in health care for 10 years, including clinical operations and laser eye surgery. Prior to joining the Therapeutics Initiative, he spent 6 years helping launch Care1, a Canadian ophthalmology telemedicine program operating in 4 provinces. His education includes training in computer programming, biology, sociology and psychology. He has a B.A. with honours in Biology and Sociology from Trent University.

Peter is a researcher at the Therapeutics Initiative with interests in physician education, knowledge translation and the generation of knowledge syntheses. He completed his undergraduate studies in Health Sciences, specializing in Global Health, and a Master of Science degree in Health Research Methodology at McMaster University, where his thesis focused on surgical learning curves of minimally invasive procedures. Peter is passionate about informing evidence-based practice through rigorous study designs and knowledge translation strategies. At the Therapeutics Initiative, Peter is working on a systematic review and meta-analysis evaluating the effectiveness of safety advisories and health care professional communication on patient outcomes and prescribing patterns, and is assisting in the production of educational modules for the management, evaluation, and analysis of Canadian administrative health data.

Barbara Mintzes is an Associate Professor at the School of Pharmacy and Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney. She has a PhD in epidemiology from the University of British Columbia (UBC; 2003) and was at the School of Population and Public Health at UBC before moving to Sydney in 2015. Her research is on pharmaceutical policy, including systematic reviews, observational research on regulatory policies, and drug utilization/ pharmacoepidemiology. She has studied the effects of direct-to-consumer advertising of medicines in the U.S. and Canada, and of the quality of information provided by sales representatives to family doctors in Canada, the U.S. and France. Barbara Mintzes and Colin Dormuth are jointly leading a research project that compares regulatory safety advisories on medicines over a 10-year period in Australia, Canada, the U.S. and Europe. Dr Mintzes has also worked for many years with consumer and women’s health organizations in Canada and internationally and is a member of the European network of Health Action International (HAI-Europe).

Richard Morrow is a Senior Research Analyst at the Therapeutics Initiative, University of British Columbia. He has an MA in Economics from the University of Victoria and is a PhD Candidate in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of British Columbia. He has experience in using pharmacoepidemiological and qualitative methods. His research interests include prescription drug regulation, drug policy evaluation, drug safety and effectiveness, and factors contributing to non-publication and publication bias in clinical trials.

Ellen is a Research Project Manager at the Therapeutics Initiative. Originally from the East Coast, she has a BA in French Literature from Dalhousie University and a Diploma in Professional Writing and Editing from UVic. She received her Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Victoria in 2015. The focus of her master’s research was physicians’ experiences and attitudes toward interactions with pharmaceutical sales representatives. She began working as a research coordinator at UBC in 2008, and previously worked extensively with women’s health organizations, including the Canadian Women’s Health Network and DES (diethylstilbestrol) Action Canada. She is currently the Project Manager for a grant looking at the impact of international safety advisories on prescribing, and also works on various TI and CNODES projects.

Dana is a Research Project Manager at the Therapeutics Initiative. She holds a Master of Educational Technology from the University of BC and a BA (Honours) in Psychology from Trent University. She first joined the group in 2008, working with Dr. Malcolm Maclure on the Education for Quality Improvement in Patient Care (EQIP) project. In 2012 she joined the PharmacoEpidemiology Group and has since been coordinating the CNODES Training Team. She is interested in developing educational resources that build capacity for drug safety and effectiveness research and evidence-based health care.

Julia is a Research Assistant with the Pharmacoepidemiology Working Group of the Therapeutics Initiative. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Ottawa. Post-graduation, she held positions in both behavioural neurobiological research and government. She is particularly interested in the social determinants of health, drug & health policy, motivation, prosocial behaviour, efficiency of organization protocols & processes, and strategic planning & execution, among others.