Associate Program Director

Director, Clinical Research

Current Position and Professional Functions

Valeria E. Rac, MD, PhD is a Scientist with the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre (PMSS) and Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research (TRCHR), Toronto General Hospital Research Institutive (TGHRI) and Associate Program Director and Director, Clinical Research at THETA. She is also an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME), University of Toronto. Representing UHN with Dr Barry Rubin, Dr Rac is a member of the Minimally Invasive Structural Heart (MISH) Working Group (collaboration of Ontario MOHLTFC, CorHealth Ontario (former CCN) and CAHO) established to review and recommend pan-provincial adoption of different MISH interventions. She is also a primary Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) liaison with the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (HSFC) on the Indigenous Heart Health.

Affiliations

Toronto General Hospital Research Institute (TGHRI), University Health Network
Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME), U of T
Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research (TRCHR), UHN
Peter Munk Cardiac Centre (PMSS), UHN

Education and Training

Dr. Rac received her PhD at the University of Toronto, Institute of Medical Sciences (MD stream). Before joining THETA, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto and Rescu, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael’s Hospital working in health technology assessment (HTA), clinical trials, complex interventions, acute coronary syndrome and resuscitation. During her graduate studies and postdoctoral fellowship, Valeria has won many awards including NSERC, Ontario Women's Health Scholar's Award, HSFO Health Services/Population Health Post-Doctoral Fellowship and HSFC Jump Start Resuscitation Research Fellowship, as well as operational funding from the HSFC and the CIHR. Val has been associated, as Principal Investigator, Co-Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator, with over $10M in grant funding.

Publications

Search for Dr. Val Rac's publications in Pubmed.

Research Interests and Expertise

Dr Rac`s research interests and expertise are in the area of the health services research and the HTA and it is focused on the design, implementation and evaluation of large clinical trials, mixed-methods studies, complex health system interventions, program evaluations and registries. Her program of research is in the area of the design, implementation and evaluation of the complex interventions in the HTA research (technologies and services) and chronic disease management in the community (heart failure, COPD, chronic kidney disease, diabetes). More recently her research is also focused on the system level effects of health technologies and how they impact healthcare delivery. Currently Dr. Rac is overseeing implementation of all trials at THETA Collaborative and spearheading pan-provincial evaluation of Telehomecare Program offered in 8 Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) to patients with heart failure (HF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Connect with me


valeria.rac@theta.utoronto.ca
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