TI - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia / Co - Chair, Education Working Group
Dr. Ambasta is a general internist with a research focus on healthcare quality and patient safety. Having completed a medical degree and post-graduate training in general internal medicine at the University of Calgary, Dr. Ambasta pursued a Masters in Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health with a focus on Clinical Effectiveness. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the University of British Columbia. Her overall research program focuses on reduction of low-value services in health systems. She is a member of the Choosing Wisely Canada national expert group dedicated to reducing unnecessary laboratory testing. Her research work in low-value laboratory testing has been funded by Alberta Health Services, Choosing Wisely Alberta, Canadian Society of Internal Medicine, Alberta Health Services, and Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Her ongoing research projects include implementation of a multi-modal intervention bundle to reduce low-value laboratory testing across hospitals in Alberta and British Columbia, collaboration with a patient and family advisory council to engage patients with reduction of low-value use of health care resources and describing linkages between low value use of diagnostic testing and therapeutic use in healthcare systems.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor and Associate Head
Dr. Christie Newton is an Associate Professor and Associate Head (Education and Engagement) in the Department of Family Practice, and the Associate Vice President Health at UBC. Dr. Newton has spent most of her academic career focused on interprofessional and collaborative health education across disciplines and across the educational continuum. Through her work she aims to shape the workforce of tomorrow, catalyze interdisciplinary collaboration in health research, and advocate for and assist in building capacity for positive health system change.
Dr. Newton has over 20 years of experience at UBC leading and serving on various committees all supporting the collaborative design, implementation and evaluation of interprofessional curriculum to enhance community-based collaborative practice. In her role as Associate Vice President Health, she is currently working on the development of a new interprofessional teaching clinic aimed at modelling and scaling collaborative health education within team-based primary care. She looks forward to the day when team-based practice education for collaborative team-based care is the standard in BC.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor, Dept of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics, UBC / Co - Managing Director, Therapeutics Initiative / Member, Therapeutics Initiative Oversight Committee
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.
Job Titles:
- Anesthesiologist
- Member of the Oversight Committee, Therapeutics Initiative / Anesthesiologist and Intensive Care Physician, Vancouver General Hospital
Dr. Donald Griesdale is an anesthesiologist and intensive care physician at Vancouver General Hospital and an associate professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics with cross appointments in the Department of Medicine, Division of Critical Care Medicine and Neurology at UBC. His clinical and academic interests focus on neurocritical care, particularly the management of patients with traumatic brain injury and hypoxemic ischemic brain injury following cardiac arrest.
Following his clinical training, he completed a Master of Public Health in quantitative methods at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Griesdale was recently appointed as Interim Director of the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluation with the mission to provide evidence-based guidance for advancing a sustainable health care system.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of BC Transplant at the Provincial Health Services Authority
Dr. Eric Lun is the Executive Director of BC Transplant at the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA), a comprehensive health-care organization responsible for all aspects of organ transplantation in British Columbia.
Prior to joining PHSA, Dr. Lun led the drug intelligence and optimization branch within the pharmaceutical services division of the BC Ministry of Health. He has also worked with the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority as regional coordinator, medication use management. Dr. Lun has also worked as a financial research analyst for the biotech and health care sector (TD Securities), as a clinical pharmacist (Vancouver General Hospital), a drug use evaluation pharmacist (University of Alberta Hospital) and a pharmacy lecturer (University of Technology, Jamaica).
Job Titles:
- Chairman of PharmacoEpidemiology Working Group / Research Program Manager, Dept of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, UBC / Member, Scientific Information & Education Committee
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.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Deputy Minister of the Provincial
- Interim Assistant
- Member of the Therapeutics Initiative Oversight Committee
Ian joined the Ministry of Health in June 2016 as assistant deputy minister of the Provincial, Hospital and Laboratory Health Services Division. In May 2020, Ian was appointed assistant deputy minister of the COVID Response and Health Emergency Management Division, ensuring an ongoing, focused response to supporting the health system within the context of COVID-19. In June of 2021, Ian was appointed assistant deputy minister of the Strategy and Innovation Division, which supports British Columbia's population and patients in accessing new innovations in care, supports British Columbia's health services and health infrastructure in developing and scaling novel and sustainable models of delivery, and will drive large scale innovation tackling the system's most significant challenges.
Job Titles:
- Emeritus Professor, Departments of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics and Medicine, UBC
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 worked as a specialist in Internal Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology from 1997-2021. He served as the Co-Managing Director of the Therapeutics Initiative and Editor-in-Chief of the Therapeutics Letter from 1994-2020. He currently sits on the Editorial Boards of PLoSOne 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.
Job Titles:
- Family Physician in Nanaimo, BC
Dr. Jessica Otte is a family physician in Nanaimo, BC. She has always been passionate about helping patients find the right health care according to the evidence and their needs and values, and she practices this daily with a focus on care of the elderly and palliative care. Dr Otte is deeply engaged in sharing this approach through continuing medical education, policy and medical leadership work, an active social media presence (@LessIsMoreMed), and teaching family practice residents.
Job Titles:
- Co - Managing Director, Therapeutics Initiative / Professor, Department of Family Practice, UBC / Associate Member, Departments of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics and Ophthalmology, UBC
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.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Therapeutics Initiative Oversight Committee
As Executive Vice President, Clinical Policy, Planning & Partnerships of the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA), Dr. Maureen O'Donnell is responsible for drawing on collaborative stakeholder engagement and robust data and analytics to inform provincial clinical policy, professional practice, population health, service planning, and delivery networks and development of strategic partnerships. Maureen's portfolio sets standards, monitors, funds and leads evaluation across all service lines not connected to direct patient care, including: BCCDC/Public Health; Provincial Data Governance, Outcome Management & Reporting; Provincial Infection Control Network; Child Health BC; all Population Health programs: BC Perinatal Services, BC Cardiac Services, BC Stroke Services, BC Renal, BC Trans Care, BC Transplant, BC Chronic Diseases and BC Trauma Services and Virtual Health. Maureen brings to this role a diverse background: She is a subspecialist pediatrician, an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the former Executive Director of Child Health BC. In addition to her medical and subspecialty training, Dr. O'Donnell holds a MSc in clinical epidemiology from McMaster University. She also served for almost five years in a policy context as Senior Advisor to the Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Health in British Columbia. Maureen is Chair of the Board of Directors of Children's Healthcare Canada and a member of the Royal College Examination Board for Developmental Pediatrics. Previous appointments include: board member for the TREKK knowledge translation NCE; Past President of the AACPDM; Chair of Canada's Royal College of Physician and Surgeon's Specialty Committee on Developmental Pediatrics; and President of the Canadian Pediatric Society's Developmental Section.
Job Titles:
- Health Care Consultant
- Member of the Therapeutics Initiative Oversight Committee
Dr. Robert Halpenny is a health care consultant with extensive experience in his field. Previously, he was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) with the Interior Health Authority. He completed his Family Practice Residency in 1982 after spending numerous clinical rotations in Kelowna and then setting up a practice in Vancouver. As the Vice President of Medicine at St. Vincent's, he completed his Masters Degree in Health Administration from the University of Colorado and then spent six years in Grand Junction Colorado as the Vice President of Medicine at St. Mary's Hospital. He returned to BC in 2002 as the Vice President of Medicine for the Fraser Health Authority and then accepted the position of Provincial Executive Director Cardiac Services at Provincial Health Services Authority. He started with the Interior Health Authority in January 2007 as the Senior Medical Director with a background in clinical care and Medical Administration. He presently serves as the Chair of the BC Medical Services Commission.
Job Titles:
- Health Economist
- Member of the Therapeutics Initiative Oversight Committee
Dr. Stirling Bryan is a university-based health economist with extensive experience of engagement with the policy and decision-making world. He began his career in the UK with appointments at St Thomas' Hospital Medical School and then Brunel University, before moving to the University of Birmingham. His research track-record reveals a long-standing goal of informing policy and practice, demonstrated, in part, through extensive engagement with the National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE). For many years he led the University of Birmingham team that conducted economic analyses for NICE, and subsequently served for three years as a member of the NICE technology appraisals committee. In 2005 he was awarded a Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellowship and spent one year at Stanford University, researching technology coverage decision making in a US health care organizations. He immigrated to Canada in 2008, taking on the roles of professor in UBC's School of Population & Public Health, and Director of the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology & Evaluation. Over recent years, Dr. Bryan has become a strong advocate for, and practitioner of, patient-oriented research, and now partners with patients in all of his research activities. In 2016, he was appointed Scientific Director for the BC SUPPORT Unit, an operational unit of the BC Academic Health Science Network (BC AHSN), focused on promoting patient-oriented research. In 2020, Dr. Bryan became the president of BC AHSN which includes oversight of its operational units: the BC SUPPORT Unit, Clinical Trials BC and Research Ethics BC. In October 2021 after the consolidation of BC AHSN with Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, Dr. Bryan was appointed Chief Scientific Officer of the new entity Michael Smith Health Research BC.
Wade is a pharmacist and researcher working to ensure older persons are taking medications that are necessary, effective, safe, and consistent with their healthcare goals and treatment preferences. This primarily involves developing and evaluating strategies to stop medications when they are no longer a good fit ("deprescribing"). Wade approaches deprescribing and polypharmacy management research with a multi-methods approach, incorporating qualitative methods, pharmacoepidemiological methods, knowledge translation, and implementation science. He is also an investigator with the deprescribing.org initiative. Wade has worked clinically as a pharmacist in long-term care, geriatric outpatient clinics, and primary care clinics.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Therapeutics Initiative Oversight Committee
Bob is a registered pharmacist with over 35 years of experience in both hospital pharmacy and public health administration. After receiving his Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from UBC in 1980, Bob began his career as a staff pharmacist at St. Paul's Hospital before moving to Lion's Gate Hospital where he spent 13 years, serving as director in a number of different areas including pharmacy; pharmacy and clinical nutrition; community drug utilization; clinical nutrition and palliative care; and patient care services. From there he moved into roles which included: Pharmacare director with the Ministry of Health and Director of Pharmacy Services for both the Simon Fraser Health Region and the Fraser Health Authority.
Bob served as the Assistant Deputy Minister of the Pharmaceutical Services Division of the Ministry of Health. During his time with the Ministry, he was responsible for PharmaNet, drug-use optimization programs and other provincial drug programs. He also implemented an innovative evidence-based, policy-making model that has become the gold-standard for public drug plans in Canada.
Bob also has extensive experience as an industry leader in BC's pharmacy profession, having served as President (board-chair) of the College of Pharmacists of BC, and of the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists. He also served as the Federal government representative on the Health Council of Canada and chaired the Medical Services Commission, the BC Drug Benefits Committee, and the Federal Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee for Canada.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Therapeutics Initiative Oversight Committee
Craig Ivany built a successful career in health services that has spanned 34 years. Recognized as a collaborative leader, he has worked with teams to deliver health system transformation in many dynamic environments including start-ups, turnarounds, stabilization, consolidations, and mergers. His depth of experience in system integration includes regional, provincial, and national roles, both in the public and private sectors. In 2020, he joined Provincial Health Services Authority as Chief Provincial Diagnostic Officer where he is currently leading the implementation of a province wide laboratory medicine service delivery model in collaboration with medical and operational leaders, and stakeholders across British Columbia, including representatives from regional health authorities, unions, Ministry of Health, and the University of British Columbia.
Originally from Montreal, Patrick studied pharmacology and obtained both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from McGill University. He took on several business development and management roles in the corporate world before dedicating his career to non-profit health research for advancement of medical sciences and the greater good. Prior to joining the Therapeutics Initiative, he was managing the extensive research portfolio of the cancer centre at Purdue University ranging from fundamental research to clinical trials. As the TI general manager, Patrick oversees daily operations, safeguards financial health, and provides strategic support to the working groups. What he appreciates the most working with the TI is its non-biased policy, openness to the world, and relentless pursuit of clinical evidence for drug therapy.
Job Titles:
- Health Policy Researcher and Writer
- Member of the Therapeutics Initiative Oversight Committee
Colleen Fuller is a health policy researcher and writer. After working in the trade union movement for 14 years in communications and research, she left to focus on the impact of privatization on universal access to health services. Since then, she has written extensively about Canada's health care system, including issues affecting access to safe and effective prescription drugs and medical devices. Her published work includes Caring for Profit, How Corporations are Taking Over Canada's Health Care System (1998), The Bottom Line: The Truth Behind Private Health Insurance in Canada (with Diana Gibson, 2006), and The Push to Prescribe: Women & Canadian Drug Policy (co-author, 2010).
Johanna is a passionate patient advocate and a member of several local, national and international patient groups. She presents both nationally and internationally. Her focus is on working to prevent over-medication of the elderly and helping to improve home-based, team-delivered, coordinated, community care since our present over-reliance on residential and acute care is neither optimal, preferred or sustainable.
Johanna's background in library science and educational media has predisposed her to compulsive researching which has been useful in her present work within health care. As well as her background in post-secondary libraries, she was an educational media coordinator and buyer for post-secondary institutions at the ministry of education in BC. Following this, she moved to the private sector and was the Western Regional Manager of one of Canada's largest educational media distributors. Johanna also has experience in both educational and corporate video production.
She is the public member on the Steering Committee of the Polypharmacy Risk Reduction initiative in British Columbia, Canada. She also serves as a public member on the Faculty of the Clear project. She is the public member on the Geriatrics and Palliative Care Committee for Doctors of BC and co-teaches first year medical students at UBC in the Department of Family Practice, Community Geriatrics. Johanna is a council member with the BC Patient Safety and Quality Council.
Job Titles:
- CEO of the College of Pharmacists of British Columbia
- Member of the Alumni UBC
Suzanne Solven is the Registrar and CEO of the College of Pharmacists of British Columbia. In her capacity as Registrar, Suzanne ensures successful execution of the College Board's strategic plan, enhances stakeholder engagement and inter-professional collaboration, as well as leads the complaints, investigations and legislation departments.
Suzanne is a current member of the Alumni UBC Advisory Council, past member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC Prescription Review Panel, past Co-Chair of the National Pharmaceuticals Strategy, and past chair of the Advisory Committee on Pharmaceuticals, Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technology in Health.