Author: adammeery

“Many people think that knowledge translation is a podium presentation at a conference or a review article in a journal, but I want to change that perception. As a trained educator, I know that there are a lot of opportunities for scientists to apply great education evidence and theory to improve their KT game. The PSI Graham Farquharon KT grant will allow me to examine how social media and interactivity of researchers and scientists can help to engage the public and practitioners around the newest advances in the field of medicine. This program of research will identify strategies that social media-savvy scientists are using to engage their audiences, and help to provide guidance to researchers who might want to start incorporating these best practices into their own work” – Dr. Teresa Chan

The PSI Foundation is delighted to announce Dr. Teresa M. Chan of McMaster University as the 2018 PSI Graham Farquaharson KT Fellow. This Fellowship – valued at $100,000 per year for three years – is intended to protect a new, promising clinician’s research time, allowing the Fellow to undertake high-impact translational research.

Dr. Chan trained in Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Emergency Medicine at McMaster University. She graduated from Western University in 2008, and has both a BEd (Intermediate/Senior, Biology & Chemistry) and HBSc (Immunology) from the University of Toronto. Most recently, she has completed a Masters of Health Professions Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is now an Assistant Professor in McMaster University, and works clinically both as an Emergency Physician at the Hamilton Health Sciences and a Base-Hospital Physician at the Centre for Paramedic Education and Research. In her spare time, Dr. Chan volunteers for a number of not-for-profit medical education start ups, including Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM.com) and CanadiEM.org.

“Diagnostic thyroid surgeries for managing incidental thyroid nodules are becoming increasingly common. The PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship gives me an opportunity to develop an interdisciplinary initiative that can optimize the management of thyroid nodules and also to develop a novel diagnostic panel to better predict the malignant potential of indeterminate thyroid nodules. I extend my gratitude to the PSI foundation for supporting my research and academic endeavors. My research is also supported by a Clinical Innovation Grant from the Northern Ontario Academic Medicine Association.” – Dr. Nisha Nigil Haroon

The PSI Foundation is pleased to announce Dr. Nisha Nigil Haroon as the 2018 PSI Graham Farquharson KT Fellow. This Fellowship — valued at $150,000 per year for two years — is intended to protect a new, promising clinician’s research time, allowing the Fellow to undertake high impact translational research. Dr. Nisha Nigil Haroon graduated from University of Kerala and received her fellowship in Endocrinology from the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, India. She moved to Canada in 2009, to take up a Clinical Research Fellowship in Endocrinology from the University of Toronto, where she obtained a Masters degree in Clinical Epidemiology. She is an Assistant Professor at Northern Ontario School of Medicine, a staff Internist and Endocrinologist at Health Sciences North and an affiliate scientist at Health Sciences North Research Institute. Nisha was recently awarded the Early Investigator award by The Endocrine Society, USA for metabolic bone research. She is a consultant to the Osteoporosis Canada’s Scientific Advisory Council, President-elect of the Association of Kerala Medical Graduates, Canada and serves as a board member of the Canadian chapter of American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists.

“I am truly honoured to receive the 2017 PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship. This award will be the essential catalyst to the development of a research program in Pediatric Transfusion Medicine – an area where clinical and laboratory practice would benefit tremendously from evidence-based knowledge translation work. Thank you to my mentors and to PSI for this exciting opportunity to devote my time to Knowledge Translation research.”

The PSI Foundation is pleased to announce Dr. Ziad Solh of McMaster University as the 2017 PSI Graham Farquharson KT Fellow. This Fellowship — valued at $100,000 per year for three years — is intended to protect a new, promising clinician’s research time, allowing the Fellow to undertake high-impact translational research.

Best practices in blood transfusion lead to enhanced patient safety and optimal utilization of health care resources. Dr. Solh will work on improving transfusion practices in the pediatric hospital setting by linking evidence-based knowledge translation interventions with barriers to transfusion knowledge uptake that he described in previous work. Expected changes will include enhanced reporting, investigation, and prevention of transfusion-related injuries.

Dr. Solh holds an MD from the University of Ottawa, a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry/Biochemistry from Western University, and an MSc in Health Research Methodology from McMaster University. He completed his pediatrics residency training at Queen’s University and his pediatric hematology/oncology and Clinician-Investigator training at McMaster University. He currently holds a part-time faculty appointment in the Department of Pediatrics at McMaster Children’s Hospital as he completes a Royal College Area of Focused Competence program in Transfusion Medicine at McMaster University and Canadian Blood Services.

“The PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Foundation grant will allow me to dedicate 3 years of research on how to improve the way pulmonary embolism is diagnosed in Canadian emergency departments. Currently, many emergency patients who are tested for pulmonary embolism undergo CT imaging. The CT scan has a small risk of kidney damage and cancer in later life. There are well validated pathways to test patients for pulmonary embolism without doing a CT scan. This research program will identify and address the barriers to using these other tests in the emergency department.”

The PSI Foundation is pleased to announce Dr. Kerstin de Wit of McMaster University as the 2017 PSI Graham Farquharson KT Fellow. This Fellowship — valued at $100,000 per year for three years — is intended to protect a new, promising clinician’s research time, allowing the Fellow to undertake high-impact translational research.

Dr. de Wit trained in Emergency Medicine and Acute Internal Medicine in the UK. She graduated from Edinburgh University Medical School, has a BSc in Pharmacology and a research doctorate (MD) from the University of Manchester. She moved to Canada in 2010, to take up a Thrombosis Research Fellowship in Ottawa, where she obtained a Master of Epidemiology. She is now an Assistant Professor in McMaster University, and works clinically as both a Thrombosis and Emergency physician in Hamilton Health Sciences.

“Understanding how to effectively reduce non-evidence based practices reflects a commitment to evidence-based medicine that will help optimize outcomes and contain healthcare spending. The PSI Graham Farquharson Fellowship Award will provide me with the support I need to be a successful lifetime KT scientist and help me elevate the standard of care across Canada through reduction of harmful non-evidence based practices, benefitting Ontarians, Canadians and the global community.”

The PSI Foundation is pleased to announce Dr. Angel Arnaout of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute as the 2017 PSI Graham Farquharson KT Fellow. This Fellowship — valued at $150,000 per year for two years — is intended to protect a new, promising clinician’s research time, allowing the Fellow to undertake high impact translational research.

The Ontario government’s 2016 Patient’s First: Action Plan for Health Care, identified the need to protect, prolong and sustain our universal healthcare system by ensuring the best value for healthcare resources; thereby also improving access and health care resource availability for patients that need them. A major cause of waste of healthcare resources is low-value care, a treatment or procedure for which there is no evidence of benefit or there is an indication of more harm than benefit. It is estimated that low value care represents up to 30% of the costs of healthcare. The PSI Graham Farquharson Fellowship Award allows Dr. Arnaout to undertake a substantial research program informed by state-of-the-art approaches from implementation science to develop and evaluate major initiatives to reduce low-value care in Ontario. Specifically, she will be focusing on the Choosing Wisely surgical initiative of reducing unnecessary advanced preoperative imaging in surgical patients (the Diagnostic Imaging Safety in Ontario – Leading Value and Effectiveness (DISSOLVE) Project). A direct result of this fellowship project will be a better understanding of the extent, drivers, and testing of effective methods to eliminate low value care, which will then serve as a framework for implementation of other Choosing Wisely initiatives; and will have immediate direct benefits for the Ontario healthcare system and the patients it serves through the reduction of low-value care.

Dr. Arnaout is a Breast Surgical Oncologist at the Ottawa Hospital and Associate Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. Dr. Arnaout has won numerous national awards for her work including the “Best Innovation in Cancer Care Delivery Award” at the Canadian Ontario Provincial Showcase, the Canadian Association of General Surgeon’s Research Award, and the Order of Ottawa. As a member of the Ottawa Center for Implementation Research, her passion is to set the standard for best practices in breast care delivery in Canada, through efforts of greater use of evidence-based guidance. She intends to use her research and leadership to raise the standard of breast care delivered in Canada, improve the quality of life of women with breast disease, and promote the responsible use of healthcare resources.

“The PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship will allow me to conduct translational research focused on addressing health inequities. The research will promote excellent primary care for everyone, including disadvantaged and marginalized people.

It is fitting that the PSI Foundation would support my aim to improve access to care because the Foundation was established using funds from a pre-paid medical plan that improved access to care for Ontarians. We already know that access to primary care improves health and reduces inequities; the PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship will help me translate that knowledge into improvements in health.”

The PSI Foundation is pleased to announce Dr. Nav Persaud of St. Michael’s Hospital and the University of Toronto as the 2016 PSI Graham Farquharson KT Fellow. This Fellowship — valued at $150,000 per year for two years — is intended to protect a new, promising clinician’s research time, allowing the Fellow to undertake high-impact translational research.

Millions of Canadians cannot afford medications. At the same time millions are harmed by medications that are inappropriately prescribed or not prescribed. The Fellowship will allow Dr. Persaud to conduct translational research promoting access to appropriately prescribed essential medications. We will conduct a trial of providing people with free access to a carefully selected set of essential medications and measure the effects on health and the quality of prescribing.

Dr. Persaud received his BSc in Physiology from the University of Toronto, his BA from the University of Oxford in Philosophy and Psychology, his MSc from the University of Oxford in Neuroscience, and his MD from the University of Toronto. Dr. Persaud completed his Family Medicine residency and postdoctoral research training at the University of Toronto and St. Michael’s Hospital. He is a staff physician at St. Michael’s Hospital, an associate scientist the hospital’s Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto.