THETA's Year in Review - a short look back


The 2016 has been a very eventful year for THETA Collaborative staff and students. Below are the highlights of their accomplishments:

Events

After THETA received the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) infrastructure grant in 2013, our group has moved from the Leslie Dan Pharmacy, University of Toronto, to University Health Network, Toronto General Hospital (TGH) Site, as of April 26, 2016. Our new, light –filled space consists of several staff offices, a spacious student workstation area, and two meetings rooms that convert into a single, state-of-the-art, audiovisual space used for THETA Rounds and training purposes.

 New Collaborations

THETA supported creation of the new Biostatistics Research Unit (BRU) unit at the University Health Network. Currently BRU is residing in THETA space and has joined the greater THETA community.

Dr. Val Rac started the collaboration with the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research and the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre (PMCC) on a number of initiatives, specifically on the assessment of the CardioMEMS device, heart failure (HF) monitoring system, as well as a platform of apps that enables self-care.

Dr. Val Rac is currently a Co-Investigator of Diabetes Action Canada, which is a Strategic Patient Oriented Research (SPOR) Network in Diabetes and its Related Complications, part of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) SPOR Program in Chronic Disease. She will be collaborating on a number of initiatives starting with the project, Diabetic Retinopathy Screening – Rural-Urban Communities – Preventing Blindness with a National Telemedicine Retinal Screening.

THETA Staff and Investigators

  1. THETA Director Dr. Murray Krahn and a THETA Investigator Dr. William Wong were awarded CIHR Project Grant “Understanding the treatment benefits of novel antiviral agents for hepatitis C: quality of life, health utility, cost, and return to work” (HCV-NOVAA Utility Study)
  2. Dr. William Wong and Dr. Murray Krahn also won a Canadian Liver Foundation (CLF) grant for a project: "Using economic modeling to estimate hepatitis C provincial and national drug plan expenditures in the next decade."
  3. A number of THETA faculty will be working on the Prostate Cancer Canada Project Grant "Non-Metastatic Castrate Resistant Prostate Cancer: Epidemiology, Clinical Pathways, and Health Care Costs". Co-PIs: Dr. Murray Krahn and Dr. Antonio Finelli; with Co-Investigators: Dr. Val Rac, Dr. Lusine Abrahamyan, Dr. Nicholas Mitsakakis, and Dr. William Wong, Dr. Alice Dragomir, Dr. Armen Aprikian, Dr. Stuart Peacock
  4. THETA faculty and staff will also be collaborating with another THETA Investigator: Dr. Beate Sander on the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) grant: "Assessing ZIKV transmission dynamics and mitigation strategies. A multidisciplinary approach."

THETA students

Congratulations to several graduate students supervised by THETA faculty that have defended their thesis and obtained graduate degrees this year:

Dr. Natasha NanwaTroy Francis, MScBrian Chan, PhDYelena Petrosyan, PhD

  • Natasha Nanwa, MSc, PhD (Apr 2016), Supervisors: Murray Krahn, Beate Sander, Jeff Kwong
  • Nader Kabboul, MSc, PhD (Sept 2016), Supervisor: Murray Krahn
  • Troy Francis, MSc (Sept 2016), Supervisors: Valeria Rac, Murray Krahn
  • Yelena Petrosyan, MD, MPH, PhD (Jan 2017), Supervisor: Walter Wodchis
  • Brian Chan, MSc, PhD (Jan 2017), Supervisors: Murray Krahn, Nicole Mittman

 Rewards and accomplishments by the remaining THETA community trainees

  • Graduate Research in Progress (GRIP) award winner MSc student Yasmin Saeed (supervisor: Dr. Murray Krahn), presented poster titled: “Health Utilities (Quality of Life) in Chronic Hepatitis C Patients” at the GRIP symposium.
  • SMDM 2016 Lusted Student Prize this year was awarded to two Dr. Beata Sander students: Ryan O'Reilly and Rohan D'Souza.
  • Dr. Murray Krahn's PhD student Mary-Ellen Hogan travelled to Ethiopia to teach condensed two weeks course in Pharmacoeconomics at Addis Ababa University.

Presentations and Publications

Seven members of THETA faculty produced 26 published manuscripts; 27 presentations, and 6 short courses.

 Posted Jan 10, 2017