Latest News
CORE researchers are currently participating in this years Movember campaign which raises money for men's health awareness and specifically, prostate cancer and mental health. If you'd like to donate to the team, please follow the link below! http://ca.movember.com/team/557529
Zafar Zafari, PhD student at CORE, has recently become the winner of a Four Year Doctoral Fellowship at UBC. He will conduct his research in the area of Probabilistic Modelling of Respiratory Diseases.
CORE health economist Adam Raymakers and Associate Director Dr Larry Lynd, along with cardiothoracic surgeon Dr Jamil Bashir of St Paul\'s Hospital, have developed a probabilistic model to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of alternative management strategies for the Sprint Fidelis ICD lead failure recall.
Nicole is involved with a project involving BFI, Big Five Index. This study is behavior study looking at the pharmacists' willingness to participate in pharmacy research.
Nelson is CORE's new PhD student all the way from Canary Islands of Spain!
Nelson will be investigating the feasibility of creating a network of collaboration among community pharmacists in Ecuador. This network should promote health through educational programs aiming to reduce infection rate and prevalence of antibiotic resistance.
Nelson is also considering some other options such as collaboration with ENFARMA, a new national pharmaceutical company which plans to deliver medicines for the public sector.
Good luck Nelson!
Rare Disease Website is now live! http:\\www.rare-diseases.ca
Follow Us on Twitter @RareDxResearch
Posting for the Rare Disease Postdoctoral Fellow has been distributed and 3 new students have been identified. For more information visit the site.
Dr. Sadatsafavi receives AllerGen Travel Award for the World Congress of Asthma, 18th to 21st August 2012 Quebec City, Canada.
Nicole Tsao was awarded an undergraduate summer student research award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research/Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis for a research project called Feasibility and outcomes of using a novel iPad/iPhone application to screen for osteoarthritis and early inflammatory arthritis in community pharmacies. Dr. Carlo Marra is her supervisor.
In May 2012, Dr. Larry Lynd received an appointment to the Expert Advisory Committee on the Vigilance of Health Products (EAC-VHP), a committee established with the Health Products and Food Branch (HPFB) of Health Canada. His appointment is for an initial term of 2 years, and brings together a diverse group of individuals from different sectors of the Canadian public including researchers, academics, health care professionals, industry, and, consumers and patient representatives. Congratulations Larry!
CORE is proud to announce Shirin Rizzardo, as the recipient of 2012 Merck Canada Inc. Postgraduate Pharmacy Fellowship Award.
Merck Canada annually awards this $15,000 Fellowship to a post-graduate pharmacy student attending a Canadian university, based on academic performance and publication credits.
Shirin worked as a practicing pharmacist for five years before returning to the faculty as a graduate student. Her research is focused on health outcomes and health economics related to rare diseases. She said, This award is a phenomenal opportunity for me, as this Fellowship will allow me greater flexibility in accomplishing my research goals within this exciting field, and it also demonstrates that my research is valued .
We are very proud to be able to make a difference for students at UBC, and encourage the advancement of knowledge in the area of pharmaceutical sciences through Canadian-based research, says Jennifer Chan, Vice President, Policy and Communications, for Merck Canada Inc. By providing this fellowship, Merck is supporting the innovative healthcare research and education conducted at UBC. The Merck Canada Inc. Postgraduate Pharmacy Fellowship Award was established to foster research careers in pharmacy. The one-year Fellowships include a $13,500 stipend and $1,500 for research related costs. Each year the Fellowship is presented to the awardee at the Canadian Pharmacy Education and Research Conference (CPERC). This year's CPERC will take place in Quebec, QC, from June 5-7.
Shirin Rizzardo, MSc student, was recently awarded the Pharmaceutical Policy Research Collaboration (PPRC) fellowship. She will participate in two of their knowledge exchange events as well as the 2012 Canadian Association for Health Services and Policy Research (CAHSPR) Conference in Montreal.
Mehdi Najafzadeh defended his thesis Integration of genomics into clinical care: methods for economic evaluation on February 14, 2012.
Mehdi thesis demonstrates the analytical advantages and empiric data that can be achieved by application of several methods in evaluation of genomic technologies despite their unfamiliarity to this area.
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC highlighted Dr. Carlo Marra as the researcher of the month for March 2012.
Dr. Carlo Marra is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Director of the Collaboration for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE) at the University of British Columbia (UBC). The mission of CORE is to improve health-related outcomes to drug therapy through the application of the best in research, education, and practice enhancement strategies. Dr. Marra did his undergraduate and graduate studies at UBC in Pharmacy, Health Economics, and Epidemiology. He later completed a postdoc with the Arthritis Research Centre of Canada in Arthritis Epidemiology and Pharmacoepidemiology.
Shirin Rizzardo, MSc student, was recently awarded the Pharmaceutical Policy Research Collaboration (PPRC) fellowship. She will participate in two of their knowledge exchange events as well as the 2012 Canadian Association for Health Services and Policy Research (CAHSPR) Conference in Montreal.
Mohsen Sadatsafavi successfully defended his thesis entitled "Advancing the methods and accessibility of cost-effectiveness and value of information analyses in health care" on January 20th, 2012
Read More about the changing role of the pharmacist in primary health care in Canada by the Canadian Institute of Health Research, quote:
- "For Canada's 32,000 pharmacists, a health-care challenge has become an opportunity."
how our publication on Pharmacists' perspectives on providing chronic disease management services in the community - Part II: Development and implementation of Services has had an impact
Pierrick Bedouch successfully completed post doc year with CORE. Pierrick is a clinical pharmacist and also holds a PhD from the Grenoble University in France. During his post doc year with CORE, he mainly focused on outcome research is asthma, and performed a comprehensive study on the direct medical cost of asthma in British Columbia using the province's administrative database. He is now back to the Grenoble University where he is employed as a clinical assistant professor.
Pharmacist Mashid from Wescana Pharmacy in Vancouver, BC wins an Ipad 2 from CORE for participating in our research study titled "Feasibility of using community pharmacists in focused surveillance for drug safety and effectiveness". Like us on facebook or message us to learn more about participating in pharmacy research!
Congratulations to John Woolcott, who successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis: A health care operations research analysis of elderly fallers' emergency department services utilizations and cost on December 1, 2011. John is currently working as a manager of health economics and outcomes research at Pfizer Canada Inc.
As part of the ongoing research study led by Drs. Carlo Marra and Larry Lynd, titled Feasibility of Community Pharmacists Identifying and Monitoring Pregnant Women with High Blood Pressure Treated with Medication, participating pharmacists were sent a survey about their experiences and attitudes towards pharmacy research. Those who returned their surveys were entered in a prize draw for an iPad2. The winner is pharmacist Jessica Joly from Safeway Pharmacy in Quesnel, BC!
A separate round of surveys was sent to 300 pharmacies in BC whom were not participants of our research study. A second winner for an iPad2 will be chosen in December from those who return their surveys... stay tuned!
For more information about how to participate in future UBC CORE research studies, enter your information here.
Dr. Larry Lynd, Associate Director of CORE, has recently (2011) been appointed to the Health Canada Scientific Advisory Committee on Nonprescription Drugs (SAC-NPD).
The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nonprescription Drugs (SAC-NPD) acts as a forum of input and a sounding board for management and scientists of Health Canada. The Committee provides scientific, technical and medical advice to assist the Therapeutic Products Directorate (TPD) in the regulations of nonprescription drugs.
Without limiting the foregoing, the Committee could be asked to advise on:
- guiding principles for prescription to nonprescription switch submissions and for combination drug products;
- labelling standards for the various nonprescription drug categories (existing and new);
- issues concerning product names, labels and advertising;
- policy regarding the use of new technologies in nonprescription drugs.
UBC Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences named our Dr. Lynd as the "Researcher of the Month" for Oct 2011.
The people behind the research are highlighted at UBC Pharmaceutical Sciences each month. The Faculty profile's one of the Faculty Researchers and their important work in advancing the life sciences. For the October 2011 issue Larry Lynd was given the honor. Please read more about his work by ...
Dr Anis and Dr Marra's publication, Ontario's plunging price-caps on generics: deeper dives may drown some drugs, was quoted by Tom Blackwell on Sep 29, 2011 for the National Post.
Prof. Anis recommends a free market for generic prices like that in the U.S., which he said has brought prices even lower than the regulated ones in Ontario and other provinces:
Read More about it...
CORE would like to wish Helen Burt all the best and thank her for her role as Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies for the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Annual Report for 2010 is now available and can be downloaded from the CORE website by clicking on the Annual Report link at the top right corner, or by clicking here.
32,000 Points of Contact - Dr. Carlo Marra of the University of British Columbia is investigating the feasibility of using pharmacists in an "active surveillance" role for monitoring the post-market safety and effectiveness of new drugs. Read More ...
Congratulations Pierrick Bedouch and Mohsen Sadatsafavi for receiving the award for the Best Clinical Poster presented at the UBC Respiratory Update 2011/Heart + Lung Science for Healthier Societies fest
Larry was recently appointed as an Early Career Scholar to the Peter Wall Institute of Advanced Studies at UBC beginning in August, 2011.
We believe that there are at least 250,000 [British Columbians] who do not have a family doctor, British Columbia Medical Association President Dr. Ian Gillespie CTV news (June 24, 2010). More ...
Congratulations to Na Guo, who successfully defended her Ph.D thesis on September 10, 2010. The title of Na’s thesis is Measuring patient-reported outcomes in tuberculosis and is currently pursuing Post-doctoral Fellow, McMaster University.
Congratulations to Katie Sweeney on the successful defense of her Masters Thesis regarding Outcomes evaluation in knee arthroplasty for the treatment of osteoarthritis, June 25, 2010.
Dr. Carlo Marra was appointed as the Acting Associate Dean, Research & Graduate Studies from August to December 2010
The Evaluation of Pharmacy Adaptation Services Phase I summary documents are now available at the BC Ministry of Health Services, Pharmaceutical Services Division website. To access the summaries, please follow this link: Download PDF
We are pleased to announce the release of CORE's 3rd Annual Report in June 2010. This report highlights the accomplishments of the faculty, staff and students of CORE over the past year. Please follow this link to access the full report. annual report
We are pleased to announce that the AstraZeneca Canada has awarded funding in 2010 to Dr. Larry Lynd for a study titled: Evaluating Pharmacist Prescribing of Single Inhaler Therapy in Uncontrolled Asthma: A Pilot Study Download PDF
We are pleased to announce that the Canadian Institute for Health Research Drug Safety and Effectiveness Network has awarded funding in 2010 to Dr. Carlo Marra for the project titled: The Feasibility of Using Community Pharmacists in Focused Surveillance for Drug Safety & Effectiveness. Read More
Congratulations to Jennifer Davis on the successful defense of her PhD Thesis regarding Health Economics Studies: A Focus on Health-Related Quality of Life, Health Resource Utilization and Falls Prevention in Vulnerable Community Dwelling Seniors, May 6, 2010.
We are pleased to announce that the Canadian Arthritis Network has awarded funding in 2010 to Dr. Carlo Marra for an expansion of the project titled: Falling through the cracks: using a multidisciplinary strategy to expand DMARD use in RA.
We are pleased to announce that the Canadian Initiative for Outcomes in Rheumatology Care (CIORA) has awarded funding in 2010 to Dr. Carlo Marra for his project titled: Falling through the cracks; using a multidisciplinary strategy to improve DMARD use in rheumatoid arthritis.
Congratulations to Bridgette Oteng on the successful defense of her Masters Thesis titled Evaluating Societal Preferences For The Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Using A Discrete Choice Experiment, September 9 2009
We are pleased to announce that Larry Lynd and Carlo Marra were awarded a $300,000 research grant from AllergenNCE for their project titled, "Platform for Outcomes Research and Translation in Asthma and aLlergy (PORTAL)
We are very pleased to announce Dr. Larry Lynd's promotion to Associate Professor with Tenure in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC. Congratulations Larry!!
We are proud to announce that one of our students, Kelly Grindrod, was appointed as Assistant Professor at University of Waterloo, Waterloo Ontario
Kelly Grindrod successfully completed her Masters Thesis regarding Pharmacists' Preferences for Providing Patient-Centred Services Management, Aug 24th 2009.
CORE is proud to announce that a number of their students were honored with the following awards in the 2008-2009 school year:
- Na Guo received Dr William Wilson Simpson Memorial Award for $900.00 dollars
- Mr. Mehdi Najafzadeh received Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships - Doctoral Award
- Mohsen Sadatsafavie received Four Year University Graduate Fellowship from UBC for his PhD program
- Katie Sweeney was awarded $500 for best poster at the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health 2009 Annual Symposium April 5-7 in Ottawa, Ontario
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