Dr. Kate Mulligan is an award-winning health geographer, implementation scientist, and policy advisor who helps to grow systems that strengthen community and neighbourhood leadership for health, equity, and resilience around the world. She is Canada's 2025-2026 Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow in Healthcare Policy and Practice with Stanford University and the City University of New York. Kate is also the founding Scientific Director of the Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing, an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, and a member of the ICES Scientific Advisory Committee.

Liv Mendelsohn, MA, MEd, is Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence, where she leads research, innovation, policy, and co-design to strengthen support for caregivers and care providers across Canada. A lifelong caregiver with lived experience of disability, Liv is committed to building a Canada where caregiving is recognized, valued, and shaped by those with lived experience. A senior fellow at Massey College, she serves on the City of Toronto Accessibility Advisory Committee and on the boards of the Kids Brain Health Foundation and the Centre for Independent Living in Toronto.

Resources

Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing

Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence – Supporting Family Caregivers and Care Providers

Strengthening Care: A Toolkit for Caregiver-Focused Social Prescribing

The Ontario Caregiver Organization

The Case for Social Prescribing - Macleans.ca

Toronto Public Library expanding social, crisis support services to more branches | CBC News

EPISODE CREDITS:

Produced, edited and mixed by Will Mcintyre, Richard Villeneuve and Pop Up Podcasting
Artwork designed by Stella-Luna Ha
Music licensed through Melodie Music

LINKS:

Be sure to follow and tag ICES on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. To find out more about our organization, visit us at ices.on.ca

Dr. Hsien Seow is the Canada Research Chair in Palliative Care and Health System Innovation and a Professor in the Department of Oncology at McMaster University. He is an ICES scientist who publishes health care research focused on palliative care and serious illness. He is the cohost of the Waiting Room Revolution podcast, and author of the book, Hope for the Best, Plan for the Rest.  

Sheli O’Connor’s more than 30‑year career in community‑based work has focused on educating, supporting, and empowering people to advocate for themselves within the health care system, including developing an elder abuse response network and strengthening supports for vulnerable older adults. She went on to lead a three‑year Advance Care Planning initiative and, as Director of Community Engagement for Hospice of Waterloo Region, worked to reduce stigma around dying, death, and grief through cross‑sector collaboration and public engagement. Most recently, she founded “Dying to Learn,” a consultation and project‑based business dedicated to building compassionate, community‑rooted approaches to palliative care. Guided by her conviction that “if it doesn’t happen in the community, it doesn’t happen,” Sheli focuses on building compassionate communities where people are supported where they live, work, pray, and play. She holds a Master of Social Work degree in Community Development and brings over three decades of experience collaborating with the public and community partners in creative, evidence-informed ways to strengthen collective understanding and confidence in caring for one another.  

ICES Research you heard about

ICES | Timing of palliative care, end-of-life quality indicators, and health resource utilization

ICES | Identification of the physician workforce providing palliative care in Ontario using administrative claims data

ICES | Effect of early palliative care on end-of-life healthcare costs: a population-based, propensity score-matched cohort study

ICES | Community-based specialist palliative care teams and health system costs at end of life: a retrospective matched cohort study

ICES | End-of-life outcomes with or without early palliative care: a propensity score matched, population-based cancer cohort study

EPISODE CREDITS:

Produced, edited and mixed by Will Mcintyre, Richard Villeneuve and Pop Up Podcasting
Artwork designed by Stella-Luna Ha
Music licensed through Melodie Music

LINKS:

Be sure to follow and tag ICES on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. To find out more about our organization, visit us at ices.on.ca

Michael Schull, MSc, MD, FRCPC, is a nationally recognized leader with a track record of driving digital transformation, building national and international research and data partnerships, and organizational growth and sustainability. Prior to joining the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, he served for 12 years as CEO and Senior Scientist at ICES, Canada’s leading health services research and data analytics institute. He is a founding member of Health Data Research Network Canada (HDRN), a pan-Canadian network of health data and research centres seeking to facilitate and enable pan-Canadian research, and past co-director of the International Population Data Linkage network.

During his tenure at ICES, Michael led major initiatives related to expanding researcher access to new data types, creating a virtual data platform for linked datasets and launching a health AI data and analysis platform. He also engaged the public and communities in the work of ICES to ensure alignment with public values and strengthened relationships with Indigenous partners.

Michael is a Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto and a Senior Scientist at the Sunnybrook Research Institute. His research areas include health service utilization, quality of care, health system integration and patient outcomes, and evaluation of health policy. His work has focused on strengthening Ontario and Canada’s health research infrastructure for the analysis of large, routinely collected data sets, and creation of new data access models for research and health system evaluation.

Fluent in both English and French, Michael was born in Montreal and raised in Québec before relocating to Ontario, where he earned a BA and M.D. from Queen’s University. He later completed an MSc in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from McGill University and a Harkness Fellowship with the Commonwealth Fund in the US. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada. He is currently based in Toronto.

More information about ICES and DRAC

ICES | About Us | Community of Research, Data & Clinical Experts

ICES | Applied Health Research Questions | AHRQ

ICES | Public and Community Engagement at ICES

ICES | Partnerships & Collaborations | Indigenous Partnerships, Data and Analytics

Digital Research Alliance of Canada

EPISODE CREDITS:

Produced, edited and mixed by Will Mcintyre, Richard Villeneuve and Pop Up Podcasting
Artwork designed by Stella-Luna Ha
Music licensed through Melodie Music

LINKS:

Be sure to follow and tag ICES on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. To find out more about our organization, visit us at ices.on.ca

Dr. Stephen Hwang is Director of St. Michael’s Hospital’s MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, Canada’s largest research centre focused on health equity and the social determinants of health. He is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and has worked as a physician serving patients experiencing homelessness for more than 3 decades. Dr. Hwang is a Senior Adjunct Scientist at ICES and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Homelessness, Housing and Health, leading a research team that develops and evaluates interventions to end chronic homelessness and improve the health of homeless individuals.

George Da Silva is a 61-year-old gay male who has been living with HIV for over 25 years. His 18-year relationship culminated in marriage but ended in divorce after suffering years of intimate partner violence. For over 30 years George worked as a director for a major insurance company but felt unable to disclose his HIV status or seek help for his marital issues. Stress and fear cost him dearly but he has since reached out for support and care that changed his life for the better. George draws strength from his community and is empowered by being open and upfront about his HIV status. He is a peer research associate on multiple studies, an advocate, a volunteer and supports others living with HIV by sharing his life experiences.

Kefa Omori Mogoncho is a multidisciplinary professional whose work spans finance, community development, and public health research. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance from KCA University (Kenya) and a Diploma in Community Developmental Service Work from Oxford College (Canada), combining financial acumen with a deep commitment to social impact, addressing poverty and community empowerment. Kefa is a dedicated peer researcher who leverages his knowledge and lived experience to inform research, advocacy, and program design aimed at addressing homelessness. His primary interests focus on homelessness prevention, immigrant homelessness, and mental health. He has contributed as a peer researcher to different initiatives focused on housing, health equity, and the social determinants of health. Currently, he is sharing his lived experiences towards the design of a Recuperative Health Space project for unhoused patients discharged from the hospital, as well as providing his feedback on research and evaluation projects especially from the Homelessness, Housing and Health team at MAP. Beyond research and advocacy, Kefa is an active member of Toronto Street Soccer, an initiative that fosters inclusion and community among individuals experiencing social and economic exclusion, including those who are unhoused and newcomers. Driven by a strong sense of justice, Kefa identifies as a passionate human rights advocate, committed to promoting social equity, financial inclusion and amplifying the voices of marginalized populations, particularly people experiencing homelessness.

ICES Research you heard about

ICES | Housing and support intervention and mortality among homeless adults with mental illnesses: a secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial

ICES | The long-term effects of a Housing First intervention on primary care and non-primary care physician visits among homeless adults with mental illness: a 7-year RCT follow-up

ICES | Effect of a housing intervention on major cardiovascular events among homeless adults with mental illness

EPISODE CREDITS:

Produced, edited and mixed by Will Mcintyre, Richard Villeneuve and Pop Up Podcasting
Artwork designed by Stella-Luna Ha
Music licensed through Melodie Music

LINKS:

Be sure to follow and tag ICES on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. To find out more about our organization, visit us at ices.on.ca

Edit at 9:55: There were 137 boil water advisories at one time across Canada, not across Ontario. 

Dr. Jennifer Walker is a member of Six Nations of the Grand River with a Ph.D. in Community Health Sciences (Epidemiology) from the University of Calgary. She holds a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Health Data and Aging at McMaster University and is a Professor in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact. 

Dr. Walker has demonstrated significant national and international leadership in aging and dementia research as well as Indigenous data sovereignty and governance. She is co-Lead for the Indigenous Cognitive Health Program within the Canadian Consortium for Neurodegeneration in Aging, a national CIHR-funded dementia research network. Her research program has contributed to significant advancements in culturally safe approaches for dementia prevention and diagnosis, including the validation and implementation of the Canadian Indigenous Cognitive Assessment tool, and a new transformative project on decolonizing wholistic brain health assessment.

Carmen Jones is a member of the Serpent River First Nation and was raised on the Garden River Reserve where her parents live. She has been with the Chiefs of Ontario for 10 years. Previous to becoming the Director of Research and Data Management she held the position as Health Director and Research for the Chiefs of Ontario. She oversees the new Research and Data Management Sector and is overseeing the development of the First Nation Information Governance Centre for Ontario supported by the Chiefs in Assembly. Here portfolio includes implementing the First Nation Data Governance Agreement with ICES and oversees work in research and data. Carmen is a Board Member of First Nations Information Governance Centre, and she has a ministerial appointment to the Ontario Health Data Council.  

Early in her career she spent many years working with First Nation communities in the remote north and with Indigenous organizations. She also worked with the Ontario government for about 14 years in various positions in community development, strategic planning, policy development and constitutional matters.

Carmen is co-investigator on various research projects such as: Unlocking Health Information for Older First Nations Populations, First Nation Opioid Surveillance, the First Nations Chronic Disease Surveillance study and the Intergenerational impacts of diabetes among First Nations mothers and their children.

OCAP Principles Training 

The First Nations Principles of OCAP® - The First Nations Information Governance Centre

Learn more about the COO and the ICES/COO partnership

Research and Data Management - Chiefs of Ontario

ICES | Partnerships & Collaborations | Indigenous Partnerships, Data and Analytics

ICES | Applied Health Research Questions | AHRQ

EPISODE CREDITS:

Produced, edited and mixed by Will Mcintyre, Richard Villeneuve and Pop Up Podcasting
Artwork designed by Stella-Luna Ha
Music licensed through Melodie Music

LINKS:

Be sure to follow and tag ICES on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. To find out more about our organization, visit us at ices.on.ca

Dr. Liz Darling is a professor and the assistant dean, midwifery at McMaster University, an adjunct scientist at ICES, and a registered midwife with graduate training in epidemiology and population health. Her research expertise includes midwifery services, novel care models, health equity, access to care, mixed methods, and administrative health data, and she has particular expertise in the midwifery data collected in Ontario’s perinatal registry (BORN-Ontario). Her CIHR-funded research program focuses on how the expansion of midwifery in Canada can help improve equitable access to sexual and reproductive healthcare for equity-deserving groups.

Dr. Laura Schummers is an epidemiologist and health policy researcher and Assistant Professor in the Collaboration for Outcomes Research and Evaluation in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She completed her doctorate in Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in 2018 and a postdoctoral fellowship with the British Columbia Ministry of Health and UBC’s Contraception and Abortion Research Team from 2018-2021. Dr. Schummers’s program of research uses population-based health administrative data and draws heavily on causal inference methods to evaluate impacts of health policy and practice changes on service use, access, and health outcomes. 

TK Pritchard (they/them) is the Executive Director of Abortion Care Canada. TK was previously the Executive Director of a regional Planned Parenthood and has held several leadership roles in related sectors.  In other notable work, TK has authored educational curricula, including sexual health and anti-human trafficking programs, and served as a consultant related to trans and disability inclusion. TK is queer/trans/non-binary, physically disabled, neurodivergent, a survivor of sexual violence, a parent and active community member, and brings this lens to all of their work.

Research you heard about

ICES | Trends in abortion rates in Ontario, Canada

ICES | Changes in local access to mifepristone dispensed by community pharmacies for medication abortion in Ontario: a population-based repeated cross-sectional study

ICES | Abortion safety and use with normally prescribed mifepristone in Canada

Mifepristone Access Through Community Pharmacies When Regulated as a Routine Prescription Medication | Health Policy | JAMA Network Open | JAMA Network

Learn more about Abortion Care Canada

Home - Abortion Care Canada

EPISODE CREDITS:

Produced, edited and mixed by Will Mcintyre, Richard Villeneuve and Pop Up Podcasting
Artwork designed by Stella-Luna Ha
Music licensed through Melodie Music

LINKS:

Be sure to follow and tag ICES on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. To find out more about our organization, visit us at ices.on.ca

Dr. June Lam, MD, PhD, FRCPC is an Associate Scientist with the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. He is also a psychiatrist working in the CAMH emergency department and the Gender Identity Clinic. He completed a Bachelor of Science Honours Pharmacology program at UBC, his medical training at McGill University, and his psychiatry residency at the University of Toronto. He also completed a transitional age youth and transgender health research and clinical fellowship, as well as a PhD program in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research (at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation or IHPME) at the University of Toronto. Dr. Lam's academic and clinical focus is on care for 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, particularly using health services research to examine and improve access to mental healthcare for transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people. He has developed expertise in mixed methods research, uniquely integrating health administrative data and qualitative research to leverage the strengths of participant lived experience and population-level data. 

Dr. Victoria “Tori” Anderson (she/her) is a resident physician, educator, and advocate passionate about creating inclusive, affirming mental health care for gender diverse youth and their caregivers.  She is a senior resident in the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry subspecialty program at the University of Toronto.  She completed her general psychiatry training at the University of Toronto, where she was recognized with a departmental award for her achievements in scholarship in the areas of sexual and gender diversity in mental health care.

ICES research you heard about

ICES | From crisis to silence: systemic failures in mental healthcare for transgender and gender diverse people in Ontario

ICES | Characteristics of transgender individuals with emergency department visits and hospitalizations for mental health

ICES | Exploring mediators of mental health service use among transgender individuals in Ontario, Canada

ICES | Physician follow-up among transgender and gender diverse individuals after psychiatric emergency department visits and hospitalizations: a retrospective population-based cohort study

EPISODE CREDITS:

Produced, edited and mixed by Will Mcintyre, Richard Villeneuve and Pop Up Podcasting
Artwork designed by Stella-Luna Ha
Music licensed through Melodie Music

LINKS:

Be sure to follow and tag ICES on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. To find out more about our organization, visit us at ices.on.ca

Amol Verma is a physician and scientist in General Internal Medicine at St. Michael’s Hospital and the Temerty Professor of AI Research and Education in Medicine at the University of Toronto. He is a health services researcher, studying and improving hospital care using electronic clinical data. Dr. Verma co-founded and co-leads GEMINI, Canada’s largest hospital clinical data research network, which is collecting data from >35 hospitals in Ontario. He also co-founded and co-leads VITAL, a multi-provincial clinical data platform. Dr. Verma completed medical training at the University of Toronto, a Masters degree at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and research fellowships through the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the Canadian Frailty Network, and AMS Healthcare. He served on the Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel on Health Data Sharing, is a Provincial Clinical Lead for Quality Improvement in General Internal Medicine with Ontario Health, and is the Chair of the Researcher Council and a Board Member of the Digital Research Alliance of Canada and AMS Healthcare. He received the 2022 Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Early Career Leadership Award, the 2022 Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s early career Trailblazer Award in Population and Public Health Research, and the 2023 Canadian Society of Internal Medicine’s New Investigator Award.

Nicole Yada is the Director of the VITAL Platform at GEMINI. Prior to joining the GEMINI team, Nicole was the inaugural Program Director for the Accelerating Clinical Trials Consortium and oversaw business development for ICES. She holds a master's degree in health informatics from McMaster University and is completing her PhD in Health Services Research at the University of Toronto. Ms. Yada trained as a graphic designer in Tokyo, Japan and has a background in marketing and research journalism. 

Research you heard about

Characterizing medical patients with delirium: A cohort study comparing ICD-10 codes and a validated chart review method - PubMed

Learn more about GEMINI

ICES | New data partnership to expand insights on hospital care in Ontario

https://geminimedicine.ca/

EPISODE CREDITS:

Produced, edited and mixed by Will Mcintyre, Richard Villeneuve and Pop Up Podcasting
Artwork designed by Stella-Luna Ha
Music licensed through Melodie Music

LINKS:

Be sure to follow and tag ICES on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. To find out more about our organization, visit us at ices.on.ca

Dr. Derek Manis is an interdisciplinary health services and policy researcher and epidemiologist who has expertise in population-level analytics, observational and quasi-experimental study designs, causal inference, and mixed methods. He primarily uses health system administrative data that are linked at the level of the individual to examine health care quality, models of care, and health outcomes among older adults with an emphasis on older adults in residential care facilities (e.g., nursing homes, assisted living facilities, etc.)

Dilys Haughton is an advocate for patient centered care and has experience caring for a family member in assisted living. She is a retired Primary Care Nurse Practitioner and healthcare executive who has practiced clinically in primary care practices, long-term care homes, and hospital settings. With a lifelong passion for care of the elderly, she was instrumental in demonstrating the effectiveness of the Nurse Practitioner role in the first wave of Primary Care Team models in Paris, Ontario (late 90's) and implementing a model of care for the elderly in a network of long-term care homes in Hamilton, Ontario. As a health executive, Dilys has led system collaboration and improvement initiatives, and championed research in long-term care and home care.

ICES research you heard about

ICES | Do assisted living facilities that offer a dementia care program differ from those that do not? A population-level cross-sectional study in Ontario, Canada

ICES | Association between dementia care programs in assisted living facilities and transitions to nursing homes in Ontario, Canada: a population-based cohort study

ICES | Transitions to nursing homes among residents of assisted living and community-dwelling home care recipients

ICES | Clinical comorbidities and transitions between care settings among residents of assisted living facilities: a repeated cross-sectional study

ICES | Clinical and sociodemographic characteristics of new residents of assisted living: a nested case-control study

ICES | Addressing long-term care's "dark matter"

ICES | Rates of hospital-based care among older adults in the community and residential care facilities: a repeated cross-sectional study

Meeting the needs of older adults in residential care settings

EPISODE CREDITS:

Produced, edited and mixed by Will Mcintyre, Richard Villeneuve and Pop Up Podcasting
Artwork designed by Stella-Luna Ha
Music licensed through Melodie Music

LINKS:

Be sure to follow and tag ICES on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. To find out more about our organization, visit us at ices.on.ca

A family doctor and renowned primary care researcher, Tara Kiran investigates how changes in the health care system impact patients, particularly the most vulnerable. In her research and practice, she develops and tests solutions to make health care more inclusive and more effective.  

Much of Tara’s research has evaluated how primary care reforms have impacted quality of care. She also leads research to directly improve quality of care including initiatives to measure and reduce care disparities, engage patients in health service improvement, and support physicians to learn from data. In 2022, Tara launched OurCare—a national initiative that engaged nearly 10,000 people across Canada over 16 months to co-create a blueprint for a stronger and more equitable primary care system. She is also the creator and host of Primary Focus, a new podcast that shares stories and innovations from Canada and around the world to inspire a stronger primary care system.  

Tara holds the Fidani Chair of Improvement and Innovation at the University of Toronto. She practices family medicine at St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto where she is also a Scientist at the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions. She is the Vice Chair for Quality and Innovation in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto, a Senior Adjunct Scientist at ICES and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. You can learn more about her research at https://maphealth.ca/kiran/  

Sandy Epp is a Patient Engagement Advisor in Manitoba and Project Analyst (Quality Assurance) in the healthcare space. Sandy is also a mother of two young adults and the daughter of two aging parents. Over the past 5 years she has been tasked with helping her loved ones find care for a host of serious issues relating to mental and physical health, and found the struggle to get them timely and adequate care nearly overwhelming.  Sandy decided to become a Patient Advisor to provide her loved ones with a voice in the care they received, in the hopes that changes could be made to our healthcare system for all Manitobans.  

The first phase of OurCare launched in the Fall of 2022 with a survey of 9000 people. The second phase included priority panels with ~35 members of the public in five provinces. They gathered to learn about primary care and deliberated with each other about shared values that should underlie the system, important issues, and recommendations. Participants wrote their own reports and presented these to key stakeholders. The third phase included 10 community round tables, two in each of five provinces, in partnership with community organizations who had established relationships with members of marginalized communities—for example, members of Indigenous communities, Black communities, newcomer groups, the LGBTQ+ community, and people with disabilities. To find out more, visit: https://www.ourcare.ca/  

ICES research you heard about:  

https://www.ices.on.ca/publications/journal-articles/family-physicians-in-focused-practice-in-ontario-canada/

EPISODE CREDITS:

Produced, edited and mixed by Will Mcintyre, Richard Villeneuve and Pop Up Podcasting
Artwork designed by Stella-Luna Ha
Music licensed through Melodie Music

LINKS:

Be sure to follow and tag ICES on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. To find out more about our organization, visit us at ices.on.ca

EPISODE CREDITS:

Produced, edited and mixed by Will Mcintyre, Richard Villeneuve and Pop Up Podcasting
Artwork designed by Stella-Luna Ha
Music licensed through Melodie Music

LINKS:

Be sure to follow and tag ICES on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. To find out more about our organization, visit us at ices.on.ca

Guest host Laura Ferreira-Legere chats with ICES Public Advisory members Jenny Kirk and Jemal Demeke about why lived experience matters and how communities can shape better research. 

Welcome to our guest host, Laura Ferreira-Legere! Laura is Senior Manager of the Public and Community Engagement, Knowledge Translation team at ICES and works closely with the ICES Public Advisory Council.

Joining Laura are two members of ICES’ Public Advisory Council (also known as the PAC). The PAC was formed in 2019 and is made up of a rotating group of members from across Ontario who guide ICES on what matters most for health data research.

Jenny Kirk was a PAC member on our second cohort, from 2021-2024. Jemal Demeke is a current PAC member who joined the group in 2022 as part of our third cohort.

How did the PAC get involved in research?

Early in the PAC’s formation, they identified their participation in health research as a priority. The Applied Health Research Question (AHRQ) program at ICES acted as a mechanism to begin this work, which allows community groups (called “knowledge users”) to access ICES data and analytics to help answer important research questions. The PAC decided to explore mental health service use in Ontario, including understanding the reasons for visits to doctors or Emergency Departments, how service use may vary over time, and most importantly, how social factors like income and housing situation impact where people seek care.

Learn more about the PAC: ICES | Our Organization | Public Advisory Council

Learn more about the research project: ICES | Mental health-related visits to doctors and emergency departments in Ontario: a public-led exploration and analysis

Read more about patient and public involvement in research:

Evaluating patient and public involvement in research

Mapping the impact of patient and public involvement on health and social care research: a systematic review

Patient engagement in care: A scoping review of recently validated tools assessing patients' and healthcare professionals' preferences and experience

EPISODE CREDITS:

Produced, edited and mixed by Will Mcintyre, Richard Villeneuve and Pop Up Podcasting
Artwork designed by Stella-Luna Ha
Music licensed through Melodie Music

LINKS:

Be sure to follow and tag ICES on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. To find out more about our organization, visit us at ices.on.ca

Dr. Mina Tadrous, host of I’m Pharmacy, joins us to explore the data behind expanded pharmacy services in Ontario — and what this shift means for the future of healthcare. 

A note that this episode was recorded during the Ontario provincial election. We also make mention of a few acronyms:

UTI: Urinary tract infection

PPIs: Proton pump inhibitors are a class of medications that reduce stomach acid.

ODPRN: Ontario Drug Policy Research Network

Inspire-PHC: Inspire – Primary Health Care supports Ontario researchers with all aspects of their projects related to primary care.

Our Guest:

Mina is an assistant professor at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto and the Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Pharmaceutical Policy and Real-world Evidence. He is also co-director of Pharmaceutical Policy and Pharmacy Practice at the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network (ODPRN) and ICES adjunct scientist. Mina leads research focused on evaluating drug policies and post-marketing surveillance of medications. He works closely with policymakers and uses large data sets to answer questions about real-world safety and effectiveness and improving the optimal use of medications.

Check out Mina’s podcast:

https://www.pharmacy.utoronto.ca/about/im-pharmacy-podcast-season-four

Read the Research:

Impact of the COVID-19 Controlled Drugs and Substances Act exemption on pharmacist prescribing of opioids, benzodiazepines and stimulants in Ontario: a cross-sectional time-series analysis

Applied Health Research Question (AHRQ) Project (in progress): Evaluating pharmacist scope of practice expansion

EPISODE CREDITS:

Produced, edited and mixed by Will Mcintyre, Richard Villeneuve and Pop Up Podcasting
Artwork designed by Stella-Luna Ha
Music licensed through Melodie Music

LINKS:

Be sure to follow and tag ICES on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. To find out more about our organization, visit us at ices.on.ca

We explore how the Women’s Age Lab is tackling gender gaps in aging — from medication overload to social isolation — and pushing for change. 

Our Guest: 

Dr. Paula Rochon is the Founding Director of Women’s Age Lab, at Women’s College Hospital, Professor in the Department of Medicine and Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, and RTOERO Chair in Geriatric Medicine at the University of Toronto. Her career is focused on promoting the health and well-being of older adults, particularly women, and finding new ways to improve their lives. She has published over 300 papers in peer-reviewed journals, is Chair of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Aging Advisory Board, Deputy Editor of the Journal of the American Geriatric Society and was awarded the Eugenie Stuart Award for Best Thesis Supervisor from the University of Toronto, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. She founded Women's Age Lab, the first and only research centre of its kind, to focus on improving the health and well-being of older women. Through decades of experience and leadership, Dr. Rochon is creating a space for collaboration on science-driven health and social change that will improve the lives of older adults, specifically women.

Read the research from Dr. Rochon:

Women’s Age Lab

The impact of age, sex, and gender on polypharmacy and potential prescribing cascades: lessons from five databases

Sex-based trajectories of health system use in lonely and not lonely older people: a population-based cohort study

The impact of sex and gender on prescribing cascades in older adults

EPISODE CREDITS:

Produced, edited and mixed by Will Mcintyre, Richard Villeneuve and Pop Up Podcasting
Artwork designed by Stella-Luna Ha
Music licensed through Melodie Music

LINKS:

Be sure to follow and tag ICES on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. To find out more about our organization, visit us at ices.on.ca

In this episode, we pull back the curtain on systemic failures and explore how combining data with lived experience could finally drive real change. Join us as we unpack what it will take to truly transform the system. 

Our Guest:

Dr. Paul Kurdyak joined ICES in April 2009 where he leads the Mental Health and Addictions research program. He is a senior scientist with the Institute of Mental Health Policy Research at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and Chair, Addictions and Mental Health Policy at CAMH and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. Since 2020, he has held the role of Vice President, Clinical, with the Mental Health and Addictions Centre of Excellence at Ontario Health.

Dr. Kurdyak studies clinical epidemiology and health service utilization. His work provides better understanding for the determinants of and barriers to treatment for mental illnesses; explores the relationship and interaction between chronic medical and mental illnesses; and develops methodology expertise in observational research design as it relates to the study of mental health epidemiology.

Read the research from Dr. Kurdyak: 

Mental Health Dashboard

Payment incentives for community-based psychiatric care in Ontario, Canada

Disparities in access to early psychosis intervention services

EPISODE CREDITS:

Produced, edited and mixed by Will Mcintyre, Richard Villeneuve and Pop Up Podcasting
Artwork designed by Stella-Luna Ha
Music licensed through Melodie Music

LINKS:

Be sure to follow and tag ICES on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. To find out more about our organization, visit us at ices.on.ca

Dr. Yona Lunsky is an adjunct scientist at ICES and Scientific Director of the Azrieli Adult Neurodevelopmental Centre and Director of the Health Care Access Research and Developmental Disabilities Program (H-CARDD) at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). Dr. Lunsky has focused her research on the mental health needs of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and their families. She studies psychosocial risk factors for psychiatric disorders and health service utilization patterns in this population.

Dr. Meng-Chuan Lai is a senior scientist and staff psychiatrist at CAMH. He is also an associate professor and co-chair of the Advisory Council for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Indigeneity and Accessibility in Clinical Care in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. Dr. Lai’s research focuses on understanding and improving the mental health and wellbeing of autistic and other neurodivergent individuals, across sexes and genders, as well as their families. His research particularly concerns the experiences of female and gender-diverse autistic people and the relations between neurodivergence, sex differentiation, gender socialization, and mental health.

Read the research from Dr. Yona Lunsky and Dr. Meng-Chuan Lai:  

Hospital use among autistic adults in Canada

Self-harm events and suicide deaths among autistic individuals in Ontario, Canada

Azrieli Adult Neurodevelopmental Centre at CAMH  

Resources:  

Autistic SPACE: a novel framework for meeting the needs of autistic people in healthcare settings | British Journal of Hospital Medicine  

CAMH Resources: Autism and Mental Health 

EPISODE CREDITS:

Produced, edited and mixed by Will Mcintyre, Richard Villeneuve and Pop Up Podcasting
Artwork designed by Stella-Luna Ha
Music licensed through Melodie Music

LINKS:

Be sure to follow and tag ICES on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. To find out more about our organization, visit us at ices.on.ca

From rising cases of psychosis and a puzzling vomiting syndrome to the struggle of spreading accurate public health messages, we unpack the real-world health effects of legalization — made in Canada. 

Please note, this podcast was recorded before the holidays, which is why we refer to holiday dinners in one of our questions.

Our guest:

Dr. Daniel Myran is a public health and family medicine physician and researcher. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Social Accountability at the University of Ottawa, and is an ICES Adjunct Scientist, Investigator at the Bruyère Health Research Institute, and a Clinician Investigator at The Ottawa Hospital. His program of research involves using health administrative data to examine the burden and societal impact of mental health conditions and substance use. Dr. Myran’s primary focus is examining the health impacts of changes in alcohol/cannabis and drug policies and their influence on health inequities. As a secondary area of interest, he uses big data to examine the health of physicians and their practice patterns.

Read the research from Dr. Myran:

Read the Op‐Ed: There are good reasons to be anxious about growing cannabis use in Canada - The Globe and Mail

1. Transition to schizophrenia spectrum disorder following emergency department visits due to substance use with or without psychosis

2. Emergency department visits involving hallucinogen use and risk of schizophrenia spectrum disorder

3. Association between non-medical cannabis legalization and emergency department visits for cannabis-induced psychosis

4. Changes in emergency department visits for cannabis hyperemesis syndrome following recreational cannabis legalization and subsequent commercialization in Ontario, Canada

5. Unintentional pediatric poisonings before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a population-based study

EPISODE CREDITS:

Produced, edited and mixed by Will Mcintyre, Richard Villeneuve and Pop Up Podcasting
Artwork designed by Stella-Luna Ha
Music licensed through Melodie Music

LINKS:

Be sure to follow and tag ICES on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. To find out more about our organization, visit us at ices.on.ca

EPISODE CREDITS:

Produced, edited and mixed by Will Mcintyre, Richard Villeneuve and Pop Up Podcasting
Artwork designed by Stella-Luna Ha
Music licensed through Melodie Music

LINKS:

Be sure to follow and tag ICES on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. To find out more about our organization, visit us at ices.on.ca