Bringing our vision to life – Strengthening research knowledge translation and implementation
Emil Schemitsch, MD
Richard Ivey Professor and Chair/Chief, Surgery
Dr. Schemitsch’s research focuses on the care of people with musculoskeletal injuries and arthritis. His interests have led to the investigation of systemic response to trauma, gene therapies, biomechanics, bone substitutes and the stimulation of fracture healing. His work spans the testing of devices or treatments in randomized controlled trails to developing and testing outcome measures and their statistical modeling while placing strong emphasis on the application of the results in clinical practice and health policy.
As the Chair/Chief of Surgery, Dr. Schemitsch is leading a team of 88 surgeons, 11 research scientists, and approximately 86 adjunct professors and surgeons in communities across Southwestern Ontario. He came to London from Toronto where he served as Professor of Surgery, cross appointed to the Institute of Biomaterial and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto; a scientist at the Keenan Research Centre of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael’s Hospital; and the University of Toronto, St. Michael’s Hospital Term Chair in Fracture Care Research.
Peter Stathopulos, PhD
Assistant Professor, Physiology and Pharmacology
Dr. Stathopulos’ research applies structural biology, such as solution nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography; biophysical methodologies such as optical spectroscopies, calorimetry, chromatography, light/X-ray scattering and live cell microscopy to investigate the molecular and biochemical pharmacology driving the mechanisms of STIM/Orai cellular signalling and the modes of dysfunction in patho-physiological circumstances.
Saverio Stranges, MD, PhD
Professor and Chair, Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Dr. Stranges is a physician, public health specialist and chronic disease epidemiologist with extensive experience in the field of epidemiology and public health research. His research focuses on the epidemiology and prevention of chronic disease, namely cardiovascular disease and type-2 diabetes, with a specific focus on lifestyle, nutritional and psychosocial factors such as alcohol consumption, body fat distribution, dietary patterns and sleep habits. His interests in global public health are largely in the areas of non-communicable diseases in low-resource settings, as well as in interdisciplinary research.
Beginning his academic career at the University of Warwick Medical School in the United Kingdom where he served as an associate professor, Director of Academic Clinical Training in Public Health and consultant physician, Dr. Stranges then moved on to become the Scientific Director of the Department of Population Health at the Luxembourg Institute of Health. He joined the team at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry in 2016.
Anthony Tang, MD
Professor, Medicine; Scientific Director and CEO of Cardiac Arrhythmia Network of Canada (CANet)
Dr. Tang is a world-renowned cardiologist and researcher, who believes that research has to be grounded in the care provided to patients. His clinical and research expertise is on the diagnosis and treatment of patients with cardiac arrhythmia, particularly with those who suffer heart failure.
As the Scientific Director and CEO of CANet, he’s working with a team of national researchers to reduce sudden cardiac deaths by 10 per cent; to reduce the disease burden of atrial fibrillation by 20 per cent; to reduce health care utilization as a result of syncope by 30 per cent; and to commercialize five or more technologies, while training 30 to 40 skilled arrhythmia researchers — all by the year 2020.
Amanda Terry, PhD
Assistant Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Family Medicine, Schulich Interfaculty Program in Public Health
Dr. Terry is a health services researcher focusing on electronic medical record (EMR) adoption in primary health care, assessing EMR data quality, and optimizing the use of EMRs in the primary health care setting. In addition to her research, Dr. Terry is actively involved in teaching and supervision of graduate students in Family Medicine, Epidemiology and Biostatistics and the Master of Public Health program.
Aaron Ward, PhD
Associate Professor, Medical Biophysics, Oncology, Biomedical Engineering
Dr. Ward’s research interests focus on the development of sophisticated image registration and segmentation techniques based on high resolution histopathology samples to further improve image-guided diagnostic procedures and therapy for cancer patients.
One such study is focusing on prostate cancer. Dr. Ward’s research proposes the development of an artificially intelligent computer system to help physicians translate complex images into a simple 3D cancer map that enables guided biopsies to target and help choose the right treatment for each patient. This system will be made available for remote access worldwide so any cancer centre can use it for a clinical trial.
Donald Welsh, PhD
Professor, Physiology and Pharmacology; Cecil and Linda Rorabeck Chair in Molecular Neuroscience and Vascular Biology; Scientist, Robarts Research Institute
Dr. Welsh’s research is focused on two theme areas: signal transduction and the regulation of smooth muscle/endothelial ion channels; and cell-to-cell communication in vascular tissue. His work focuses on cerebral circulation and blends theoretical approaches such as computational modeling with experimental techniques that extend from single proteins to cells and then to whole tissues.
Anita Woods, PhD
Assistant Professor, Physiology and Pharmacology
A Schulich Medicine & Dentistry alumnus, Dr. Anita Woods is an award-winning faculty member recognized nationally for her passionate, enriching and innovative teaching methods. While Dr. Woods received her PhD focusing on molecular mechanisms of cartilage differentiation, she’s recently changed her focus. Her research now is focused on educational outcomes in higher educational institutions. Because of her passion for the student learning experience, Dr. Woods hopes to study how to enrich learning and instruction in the basic medical sciences.
Lloy Wylie, PhD
Assistant Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Psychiatry; Schulich Interfaculty Program in Public Health
Dr. Wylie’s research interests are in health systems and health services with a focus on equity and improvement of health services and access through community-based participatory research. Her research focuses on Aboriginal, immigrant and refugee health, drawing on cultural safety as a framework for health systems improvements. Her work has an emphasis on culturally appropriate care through health professional education to improve care for underserviced populations. She also examines governance and policy, as well as processes of community engagement in health care. Her current projects are focusing on pre-vention and service improvement in mental health and wellness, and diabetes.
Merrick Zwarenstein, MBBCh, PhD
Professor, Family Medicine; Director, Centre for Studies in Family Medicine
Dr. Zwarenstein is a health services researcher. He has led collaborative research projects bringing together partners from around the world, and serves as the principal investigator for a network of Canadian health services and policy research focusing on overcoming the limitations of randomized trials in support of policy decision-making. He developed new uses for routine administrative databases in Ontario for large-scale implementation and evaluation of quality of care interventions; led the establishment of evidence based hospital quality improvement program; and studied nurse-physician collaboration. He is the principal investigator for four randomized trials covering all primary care physicians in Ontario looking at knowledge translation interventions. These studies will establish greater certainty around the use of printed educational messages — used widely to change physician behaviour, and provide guidance for health ministries on how to improve quality of care for patients.
