CNODES |

Meet Our Team

Since its creation in 2011, the Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies (CNODES) has built an extensive network of over 100 scientists, including pharmacoepidemiologists, clinicians, statisticians, data analysts and other researchers to ensure the safety and effectiveness of drugs for Canadians.

Coordinating Centre

Carolina Moriello, MSc | Staff

Carolina is the project manager for the CNODES Common Data Model and a research assistant for CNODES queries since 2017. She holds a Masters of Science in Rehabilitation Sciences (School of Physical and Occupational Therapy) from McGill University. Prior to CNODES, she worked as a research assistant in the Division of Clinical Epidemiology at McGill University. Her work experience and environment has provided her with skills in epidemiology, biostatistics, health outcomes, rehabilitation, randomized clinical trials, data management/analysis and knowledge translation.

Samy Suissa, PhD | Executive

Professor Samy Suissa is Director of the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, and a Distinguished James McGill Professor, Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and of Medicine, McGill University. Dr. Suissa heads the Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies (CNODES) and the McGill Pharmacoepidemiology Research Unit. He was the founding Director of the Quebec Research Network on Medication Use, funded by the FRSQ. Professor Suissa has chaired and served on several review committees for the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec (FRSQ) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), including chairing the FRSQ Chercheur-National awards committee. He served on several advisory boards, such as the External Advisory Board of PROTECT, the drug safety consortium formed by the European Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI). He has served on the editorial boards of various scientific journals, including Diabetes Care, Gut, Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, the European Respiratory Journal, Lancet Respiratory Medicine, Multidisciplinary Respiratory Medicine, and the Journal of COPD. He is Co-head of the Research Methodology, Policy & General Interest for Faculty 1000 Medicine. He served as Associate Editor of the Journal of Disease Management and Health Outcomes, as well as Treatments in Respiratory Medicine. He was an elected member of the boards of directors of the International Society of Pharmacoepidemiology and of the Canadian Association for Pharmaceutical Therapeutics. Professor Suissa received Chercheur-Boursier awards from the FRSQ, a Senior Scientist award from the Medical Research Council of Canada (MRC) and the Distinguished Scientist award from Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR). He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and of the Canadian Academy of Health Science, and was conferred the FC Donders Professor Award from the Universiteit Utrecht, Netherlands.

Audray St-Jean, MSc | Staff

Audray is a Research Assistant for CNODES and works at the Lady Davis Institute of the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Quebec. She holds a Master’s degree in Epidemiology from Université Laval. Prior to joining CNODES in 2017, she worked on research projects focusing on human exposure to environmental contaminants.

Robert W. Platt, PhD | Executive

Robert Platt is a Professor in the department Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health (EBOH) at McGill University. He holds the Albert Boehringer I endowed chair in Pharmacoepidemiology. Professor Platt is (effective December 2016) the Executive Co-Lead of CNODES. He has been the leader of the Methods team of CNODES since its inception. In this role, he has led a methods research and training program for the network and has participated as methods liaison (senior methods author) in numerous CNODES studies. After completing his PhD in Biostatistics at the University of Washington in 1996, he joined the faculty at McGill University. His main research interests are statistical methods and applications for administrative data, pharmacoepidemiology, perinatal epidemiology, and methods for causal inference from epidemiological studies. His methodological interests center on marginal structural models for analyses of large administrative data cohorts, in particular the specification and optimization of the propensity score and inverse probability weights. Professor Platt is principal investigator on a number of notable grants, including a Foundation Grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and a Discovery Grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada. He is co-investigator/subcontractor on several other CIHR and National Institutes of Health grants. In 2005, Prof. Platt received the Prix d’Excellence from the Québec Foundation for Research on Children’s Diseases. Prof. Platt was a 2016 Thomson Reuters Highly-Cited Researcher, and held a Chercheur national (national research scholar) award from the Fonds de recherche en santé du Québec from 2012 to 2016. Professor Platt is editor-in-chief of Statistics in Medicine, editor of the American Journal of Epidemiology, is on the editorial board of Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, and is Associate Editor of the International Journal of Biostatistics. He has published over 325 articles, one book and several book chapters on epidemiology.

Malcolm Maclure, ScD | Member

Dr. Malcolm Maclure is Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics at University of British Columbia. He holds a research chair called British Columbia Academic Chair in Patient Safety, endowed by the BC Ministry of Health, and conduct surgical outcome studies. He has been active in the prescribing portrait program of the Therapeutics Initiative at UBC since 2017. Until June 2018, he was Adjunct Professor at the Harvard School of Public Health where he developed the case-crossover study design.

Dana Stanley, MET | Member

Dana Stanley is a research project manager with the Therapeutics Initiative at the University of British Columbia. She holds a Master of Educational Technology from the University of BC and a BA (Honours) in Psychology from Trent University. Dana has been the coordinator of the CNODES Training Team since 2012. She is interested in developing educational resources that support drug safety and effectiveness research and evidence-based health care.

Ellen Reynolds, MA | Member

Ellen is a Research Project Manager at the Therapeutics Initiative at University of British Columbia. 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.

Richard Morrow, Ma, PhD Candidate | Member

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.

Sean Burnett, MA, Econ | Member

Sean Burnett (MA, Econ) is an IT analytics specialist. He was worked for 25 years in health systems, focusing on data warehouse analytics in British Columbia. His background also includes several years in pharmaceutical insurance policy in British Columbia. Other past clients include Health Canada, CIHI, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Nova Scotia Worksafe and Galapagos Conservancy.

Greg Carney, BSc, PhD | Member

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.

Colin R. Dormuth, ScD | Lead

Dr. Colin Dormuth joined the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia in 2007. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics and Co-Director of the Therapeutics Initiative at UBC. Previously, he served as Chair for the Pharmacoepidemiology Group at the Therapeutics Initiative (2006 to 2019). Dr. Dormuth has also been co-principal investigator for the British Columbia site of the Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies (DSEN-CNODES) since 2011. Within CNODES, he has participated as the BC Site Liason for multiple studies, served as Project Lead on the CNODES Training Team, and has been an active participant in the CNODES Methods Team. Dr. Dormuth has over 20 years of experience using administrative health care databases to evaluate drug safety, pharmaceutical policy changes and physician prescribing behaviour. He has training in epidemiology, economic theory, applied econometrics, health services outcome research, and biostatistics. Dr. Dormuth holds Sc.D. and S.M. degrees 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. As Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator, Dr. Dormuth has been awarded over $47 million in research funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), of which more than $40 million has been awarded since 2011, including the Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies (CNODES).

Tayler Dawn Scory, MSc, A.Stat. | Member

Tayler Scory is a Statistical Associate for the Division of Nephrology, in the Department of Medicine at University of Calgary. She received her MSc in Statistics from University of Calgary and holds an Associate Statistician (A.Stat.) accreditation from the Statistical Society of Canada. Prior to joining the Nephrology Research Group, Tayler worked at a health outcomes research consultancy, where she worked on real-world evidence and network meta-analysis projects for the pharmaceutical industry. Her research interests include using advanced statistical methods with administrative healthcare data to study drug utilization and comparative effectiveness.

Jianguo (James) Zhang, MSc | Member

Jianguo Zhang is a senior research associate/biostatistician in the Division of Nephrology Clinical Research Group, Department of Medicine, University of Calgary. His training includes a Master's degree in Biostatistics and a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics. His research interests include advanced statistical methods (e.g. competing risks analysis, propensity score analysis and hierarchical modeling techniques, etc.) and their applications to studying chronic kidney diseases and healthcare resource utilization using administrative health databases. Over the past years his research activities have centered on providing statistical support for over fifteen CNODES projects conducted in Alberta site.

Paul Ronksley, PhD | Lead

Paul Ronksley, PhD is an Associate Professor and health services researcher in the Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary. He has a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Calgary and completed a Post-doctoral Fellowship in Clinical Epidemiology at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. Dr. Ronksley has considerable experience in the use of administrative data to study health system use and outcomes in complex chronic disease patients. He also has a strong methodological skill set in the area of systematic reviews and meta-analysis. Dr. Ronksley is the Co-Director of the Alberta Kidney Disease Network (AKDN), a Co-investigator within the Interdisciplinary Chronic Disease Collaboration (ICDC) – a $6 million team grant funded through the CIHR SPOR Innovative Clinical Trials competition, and devotes 75% of his time to health research.

Brenda Hemmelgarn, MD, PhD, FRCPC | Member

Dr. Brenda Hemmelgarn joined the University of Alberta as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry on Jan. 1, 2020. Previously, at the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine, she was a professor in the Department of Medicine and Head of the Department of Community Health Sciences She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing and a master of nursing degree from the University of Saskatchewan, before going on to earn a PhD in epidemiology and biostatistics from McGill University and then an MD from McMaster University. Dr. Hemmelgarn went on to obtain subspecialty training in nephrology from the University of Calgary and continues to practice clinically to maintain front-line experience in health care and an in-depth perspective on healthcare issues. For more than 35 years, Dr. Hemmelgarn has served in a variety of roles across health care, academics, and administration, including in her current role as vice-chair of the Alberta Health Services board of directors. In addition, Dr. Hemmelgarn was the principal investigator for the Alberta site of the Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies (DSEN-CNODES) since its inception. She participated as a Site Investigator and co-author on several of the CNODES studies and is a member of the DataBase and Knowledge Translation Teams. Her research expertise focuses on using administrative data to improve care and outcomes for patients with kidney disease and other chronic conditions. She is also a strong advocate for patient-oriented research, patient engagement, and integrated knowledge translation. She has an international reputation for her research excellence, with more than $20 million in funding as principal investigator and more than 500 peer-reviewed publications. She holds the Roy and Vi Baay Chair in Kidney Research and is co-lead for the Interdisciplinary Chronic Disease Collaboration. Among her many awards and honors, Dr. Hemmelgarn recently received the Alberta Science and Technology Leadership (ASTech) Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement in Health Innovation and is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

Manitoba

Alan Katz, MBChB, MSc, CCFP | Co-Lead

Alan Katz is a professor in the Departments of Community Health Sciences and Family Medicine at the Max Rady College of Medicine at the University of Manitoba. He graduated from the University of Cape Town with a MBChB in 1983. He joined the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Manitoba after receiving a MSc in Community Health and earning certification in Family Medicine. Dr Katz is a Fellow of the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the past president of the Canadian Association of Health Policy Research. He currently serves the co-chair of the Research Advocacy Committee of the North American Primary Care Research group and Chair of the Action Group for Research Advocacy of the College of Family Physicians of Canada. He is the past Director of the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy. Dr Katz is the Principal Investigator or Co-investigator on multiple grants valued at over $50 million. His research interests are focused on health services and service delivery in primary care. He has expertise in research using administrative claims data.

Sherif Eltonsy, MSc, PhD | Member

Sherif Eltonsy is an assistant professor at the College of Pharmacy, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba. He is also a research scientist at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba (CHRIM) and a member of the Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies (CNODES). Previous positions include pharmacoepidemiologist with the Maritime SPOR SUPPORT Unit (MSSU).

Colleen Metge, BSc (Pharm), PhD | Member

Colleen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Community of Health Sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine at the University of Manitoba. She is also a research scientist with the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy (MCHP). Colleen’s background in pharmacoepidemiology (McGill-trained) and economics (University of Maryland) has meant her lead or involvement in many MCHP projects using Manitoba’s Population Health Repository: Pharmaceuticals: Focusing on Appropriate Utilization and Therapeutic Interchange & Pricing Policy; Analysis of Patterns of Pharmaceutical Use; Patterns of Mental Illness Disorder Diagnosis & Service Use plus less pharmaceutically associated projects like Health Inequities in Manitoba and Composite Measures of Health & Health Performance. Colleen has worked as a researcher and evaluator for over 25 years in Manitoba, Canada and internationally (US, France). She directed the research & evaluation unit for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority for eight years. The position offered front-line collaboration with decision-makers and academic colleagues; during her tenure, over 150 research/ evaluation reports were produced. Colleen has served on CNODES Knowledge Translation Committee since its inception.

Silvia Alessi-Severini, BSc (Pharm), PhD | Member

Dr. Silvia Alessi-Severini is a Professor in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Manitoba and an Adjunct Scientist of the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy). A pharmacist by training, she obtained her PhD from the University of Alberta in 1993. Dr. Alessi-Severini teaches Toxicology in the PharmD program and Pharmacoepidemiology in the graduate program. Under her leadership the College of Pharmacy has implemented a Concentration in Pharmacoepidemiology within the Master and PhD programs. Her research focus is on the use and safety of psychotropic medications particularly in children and older adults; other interests include the study of the delivery of health care to refugees and asylum seekers in Canada, as well as the utilization of direct-acting antivirals for the treatment of hepatitis C. She is serving on various University of Manitoba committees including Senate and the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences Faculty Executive Council. Dr. Alessi-Severini has also served on numerous local and national committees including the Manitoba Drug Standards and Therapeutics Committee, the Canadian Drug Expert Committee, the Association of Faculties of Pharmacy of Canada, the Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada, and the Women’s Health Research Foundation of Canada. Dr. Alessi-Severini received the Leslie F. Buggey Professorship in Pharmacy and the 2020 Ed Kroeger Mentorship Award. She has been a member of the Manitoba team of CNODES since its inception.

Amani Hamad, MSc, PhD | Member

Dr. Amani Hamad is a postdoctoral fellow at the George and Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation in the Department of Community Health Sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Canada. She completed her PhD in 2019 at the University of Manitoba in the College of Pharmacy in the area of pharmacoepidemiology using administrative databases. Dr. Hamad has expertise in pharmacoepidemiology, maternal and child health, multigenerational health research, and administrative database studies. Her current research focuses on constructing population-based family health histories across multiple generations using administrative healthcare databases and use these histories to predict the risk of chronic physical and mental health conditions.

Amy Freier, PhD | Member

Dr Amy Freier is a research associate at the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, the Inclusion Diversity Equity and Accessibility Lead for the Health Data Research Network Canada, and a member of the CNODES Knowledge Translation Team since December 2020. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Cultural Studies from Queen’s University and a PhD in Media Studies from Western University. Amy’s research interests cross disciplinary boundaries and she has been involved in projects focused on health equity, data equity, data curation, and human rights. She is dedicated to knowledge mobilization and community partnered research as part of an emphasis on equity in the research process and excels at connecting research across academic, public, and private sectors.

Matthew Dahl, BSc | Co-Lead

Matt Dahl joined the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy (MCHP) in 2001 as a data analyst after completing his undergraduate studies at the University of Manitoba. He has 20+ years of experience applying different programming (SAS) techniques to access and analyze large administrative databases. With a focus on pharmacoepidemiology studies, he has become an expert in the use of pharmaceutical claims data and the appropriate methods to analyze the data at MCHP. Matt has been a member of the Manitoba CNODES site team since 2011 and joined the CNODES steering committee in 2021. He has been involved in many CNODES projects, serving in both the Manitoba site analyst and the National lead analyst roles.

Lisa Lix, BSHEc, MSc, PhD, P Stat | Member

Dr. Lisa Lix is a Professor of Biostatistics and Tier I Canada Research Chair at the University of Manitoba. She is also Director of the Data Science Platform within the George and Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation; the Data Science Platform is home to 25 staff, students, and faculty with expertise in clinical research data, biostatistics, and bioinformatics. Dr. Lix’s areas of research expertise include health services research methods, statistical methods to evaluate the quality of administrative health databases, the analysis of repeated measures and longitudinal data, and statistical methods for patient-reported outcomes. She collaborates widely on projects about population health and the association between chronic disease, prescription drug use, and quality of life. Dr. Lix has extensive experience working with administrative health databases from multiple Canadian provinces and this has provided her with unique insights into new methodological research opportunities. She is a research scientist with the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy. Dr. Lix has been actively participating in Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies (CNODES) since July 2011. Since her involvement, she served as the methods liaison on several studies and is a member of the Training and Methods Teams. In October 2019, Dr. Lix was appointed lead of the CNODES Database Team and member of the CNODES Steering Committee.

Fangyun Wu, MSc | Member

Fangyun Wu holds a Master’s degree in Accounting from China and a Master’s degree in Statistics from the University of Western Ontario. She joined the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) as a senior research analyst in 2009 and since then has participated in studies looking at various areas including primary care, cardiovascular disease, cancer, with primary focus on chronic disease and drug effect and safety. She joined the CNODES team - Ontario site as an analyst in 2011 and has been involved in many CNODES projects.

Michael Paterson, MSc | Lead

Michael joined the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences as an Epidemiologist in 1992 and became an ICES Scientist and Research Program Lead in 2008. He 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. Michael has been Principal Investigator for the Ontario site of CNODES since its inception, and has served as a Site Liaison and co-author on multiple CNODES projects. Michael is currently a member of the CNODES Steering Committee, Database Team, Training Team, and Knowledge Translation Team. In addition to his work with CNODES, Michael is an active member of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care-funded Ontario Drug Policy Research Network (ODPRN, www.odprn.ca). Michael has received over 60 research grants and has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications in the fields of health services research, drug safety and drug policy, including a 2011 article that was named one of the “Twenty top papers to mark The BMJ’s two digital decades”.

Atlantic

Daniel Dutton, PhD | Lead

Daniel J. Dutton is an assistant professor in Community Health & Epidemiology at Dalhousie University since 2019. He joined CNODES in 2023 as the lead for the Atlantic Hub, based in Halifax. His interest in health services research comes from a background in economics prior to his PhD, and currently uses administrative data to study questions about health care system use (including drugs) as related to changes in policy. Outside of pillar 3 research, his focus is on social epidemiology and public policy, namely, how can governments influence or mitigate the impact of social determinants of health like low income. Most of this work is quantitative, utilizing large data sets and modeling strategies from economics and epidemiology. His primary interests are population-level exposures and their impact on poverty and health, how governments can address those exposures, and the distributional impacts of addressing those exposures. Currently that work focuses on homelessness, low income, food insecurity, and governmental policy.

Hala Tamim, PhD | Member

Hala is a Professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science at York University and holds an adjunct faculty position in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at Dalhousie University. She has a PhD in epidemiology from McGill University and a Master’s in Public Health from Emory University. Hala has extensive expertise in research methods and statistical analyses and her main research interest is in maternal and child health. She has managed several community-based and multi-centre projects and has worked extensively on the analysis of several Canadian databases. Hala has been a member of CNODES - Atlantic Node site - since 2011 and has been the Nova Scotia research project coordinator for several CNODES studies conducted in the province.

Yan Wang, MSc | Member

Yan Wang completed her Master’s in Computer Science from Dalhousie University. Yan is a senior analyst at Health Data Nova Scotia, Community Health and Epidemiology Department of Dalhousie University, and has significant experience in data extraction and analysis. Her research areas include health services research, clinical epidemiology, and pharmacoepidemiology.

Ingrid Sketris, Pharm D, MPA(HSA) | Member

Dr. Ingrid Sketris has been the lead of the CNODES Knowledge Translation Team since 2011. She is a Professor in the College of Pharmacy, School of Health Administration, and Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at Dalhousie University (Halifax, NS). Dr. Sketris’ research interests include health services and pharmaceutical policy, knowledge translation, and implementation science. From 2000-2011, Dr. Sketris held a Chair of Health Services Research, with a focus on drug use management and policy, funded by CIHR/CFHI (formerly CHSRF) and co-sponsored by the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation. Dr. Sketris is a fellow of the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists, the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. She received a Wellspring Leadership Award (2014, Canadian Foundation for Pharmacy), a Faculty of Health Professions Senior Research Award (2013, Dalhousie University), a Distinguished Practitioner Award (2010, American National Academies of Practice in Pharmacy), a Pfizer/AFPC Research Career Award (2010, Association of Faculties of Pharmacy of Canada), and a CPhA Centennial Award (2007, Canadian Pharmacists Association). Dr. Sketris earned degrees in pharmacy (BSc(Phm), PharmD, Residency in Clinical Toxicology/Pharmacy Practice) and health services administration (MPA(HSA)). She has authored / co-authored over 150 peer-reviewed publications and mentored more than 50 students and post-doctorate fellows.

Adrian Levy, PhD | Lead

Adrian R. Levy is a Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Community Health at Dalhousie University. Dr. Levy has been principal investigator for the Atlantic node of the Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies (DSEN-CNODES) since its inception. He participated as a Site Investigator and co-author on several of the CNODES studies. His research focuses on strengthening population health by improving equitable and rapid access to high-quality and efficient health promotion and primary, secondary and tertiary care. Dr. Levy holds an MSc and PhD in epidemiology (McGill University) and carried out his post-doctoral fellowship in pharmacoeconomics (McMaster University).

Sophie Dell'Aniello, MSc | Member

Sophie Dell’Aniello completed her MSc in Mathematics (Statistics) at Université du Québec à Montréal. She is currently a member of the McGill Pharmacoepidemiology Reseach Unit where she is a research assistant – data analyst in biostatistics with extensive experience in the analysis of administrative healthcare data. She is involved in CNODES since its beginning in 2011. She contributed to several studies as data analyst, lead analyst or method liaison. She is a member of the CPRD team and was the analyst coordinator from 2013 until February 2020.

Laurent Azoulay, PhD | Member

Professor Laurent Azoulay is an Associate Professor jointed appointed in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health and Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology, McGill University. His research program is in cancer pharmacoepidemiology, whose aim is to provide much-needed information on the long-term effects of commonly-prescribed drugs on the incidence of cancer, as well as to assess the safety of cancer treatments in the real-world setting. Professor Azoulay is the recipient of a Chercheur-Boursier Senior Award from the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé.

Christel Renoux, PhD | Member

Professor Christel Renoux is a pharmacoepidemiologist and neurologist, Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University, associate member in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, and an Investigator at the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology at the Jewish General Hospital-Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research. She is also a member of the Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies (CNODES). Her research interests center on the safety and effectiveness of drugs using large health databases, with a special interest in neuropsychiatric drugs and diseases. Professor Renoux holds a Chercheur-Boursier salary Award from the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé (FRQS) and is the recipient of an Award of Excellence from the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Christopher Filliter, MSc | Member

Christopher has been a statistical research assistant at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research’s Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and a member of the CNODES CPRD site team since January 2019. He holds a Master of Science degree in Community Health and Epidemiology from Dalhousie University and a Bachelor of Engineering from McGill University. Christopher’s expertise lies in the analysis of large clinical and administrative healthcare datasets to answer epidemiological research questions. His research interests are varied and he has been involved in projects in the fields of pharmacoepidemiology, health services research, and perinatal epidemiology. In his spare time, Chris enjoys staying active and volunteering in his community.

Antonios Douros, MD, PhD | Member

Antonios Douros, MD, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine of McGill University and an Investigator at the Lady Davis Institute of the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Quebec. He obtained his MD and PhD from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin in Berlin, Germany, where he also had training in Clinical Pharmacology. He completed his post-doctoral training in Pharmacoepidemiology at the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology at the Lady Davis Institute in Montreal. Professor Douros started participating in CNODES in November 2018, and he is currently serving as a Liaison for the CPRD site on several studies. In addition to his work with CNODES, Prof. Douros leads an active research program in drug effectiveness and safety in vulnerable populations, including patients with liver disease, older adults, as well as patients subject to polypharmacy and at risk of drug-drug interactions. Professor Douros’s research program is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and he is the recipient of a Chercheur-Boursier Junior 1 award from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Santé.

Pauline Reynier, Msc | Member

Pauline Reynier is currently an analyst at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Quebec working for Dr. Kristian Filion. She obtained her Master’s degree in Applied Mathematics and Social Sciences from Aix-Marseille University in Marseille, France. She is a member of the CNODES CPRD site team and has been appointed as a Lead analyst for previous CNODES studies. Her expertise is focused on the analysis of pharmacoepidemiologic studies using real-world large population databases. She is involved in all phases required by epidemiological research projects, which combine statistical programming as well as the interpretation of data. Recent projects have led her to specialize in drug safety issues in the field of perinatal epidemiology.

Kristian Filion, PhD | Co-Lead

Kristian B. Filion, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Medicine and of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health of McGill University and an Investigator at the Lady Davis Institute of the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Quebec. He obtained his PhD in Epidemiology from McGill’s Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health and completed his post-doctoral training in Cardiovascular Epidemiology at the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health of the University of Minnesota. Professor Filion has been actively participating in CNODES since July 2011. During this time, he has led three CNODES studies, served as the liaison for the CPRD site on several studies, and contributed to several collaborations with the CNODES Methods Team. He is a member of the Training Team and a Methods Team collaborator. In July 2016, he was appointed as Co-Lead of the CPRD Team and member of the CNODES Steering Committee. In addition to his work with CNODES, Prof. Filion leads an active research program in pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety, cardiovascular epidemiology, and knowledge synthesis studies. He holds a senior salary support award from the Fonds de recherche du Québec – santé and a William Dawson Scholar award from McGill University. He has authored or co-authored over 180 peer-reviewed publications and is a Fellow of the American Heart Association.

Pierre Ernst, MD, MSc, FRCPC | Co-Lead

Pierre Ernst graduated in Medicine from Université de Montreal, completed internal medicine and pulmonary training at McGill University, after which he completed an M.Sc in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McGill. He is currently an attending physician in the Pulmonary Division of the Department of Medicine at the Jewish General Hospital and a Professor of Medicine at McGill University. Dr. Ernst’s current research activities focus on the safety of medications as used in the general population after approval for commercialization. He has been extensively involved in CNODES as a member of the CNODES Steering Committee, the Database Team, the Training Team and the Policies and Procedures Committee. He has participated in multiple CNODES projects and was the senior investigator on six.