IHE Innovation Forum I - Paying for What Works

Paying for What Works: Key People

Speaker Biographies


Speakers

Dr. Tom Feasby

Dr. Tom Feasby has been Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary since 2007. Previously he was Vice-President of Academic Affairs at Capital Health and Associate Dean in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Alberta. He is a practicing neurologist and a health services researcher, who studies the appropriateness of health care interventions. Dr. Feasby has been a long time member of the Institute of Health Economics Board and was recently appointed to serve on the Minister’s Advisory Committee on Health. He completed his BSc and MD at the University of Manitoba, followed by a research fellowship at Institute of Neurology in London, England and professorships in neurology at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont. From 1991 to 2003, while leading the U of C Faculty of Medicine's Department of Clinical Neurosciences, he was also head of the Calgary Health Region's regional Department of Clinical Neurosciences, where he assembled an internationally-recognized clinical neurosciences group.

His record of research excellence is reflected in more than 100 research publications in areas such as neurologic diseases and the appropriateness of health care interventions, his supervision of numerous graduate students, and his involvement in professional societies and organizations including the CIHR Institute of Health Services and Policy Research, the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and the American Academy of Neurology.

Dr. Andrew Greenshaw

Andy Greenshaw was appointed a faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry in 1986. Since that time, he has played a significant role in facilitating research at the University of Alberta as a faculty member in Psychiatry and a former Associate Dean in the Faculty of Graduate Studies & Research. He has been a Full Professor of Psychiatry since 1996 and Associate Vice-President (Research) at the university since 2004. Dr. Greenshaw is currently working with the Canadian Circumpolar Institute and the International Polar Year Secretariat to facilitate the Northern Research Strategy at the University of Alberta. He is also the Vice-Chair of the Board of Governors of the University of the Arctic.

Dr. Terry Klassen

Terry Klassen is Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Alberta and Director of the Alberta Research Centre for Health Evidence and Director of the Evidence-based Practice Center at the University of Alberta. He is a clinician scientist whose clinical base is Pediatric Emergency Medicine and has been active in Pediatric Emergency Research of Canada collaborating on a national research program involving randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews and knowledge translation. He is the leader of the Cochrane Child Health Field. Dr. Klassen’s research has transformed the practice of Pediatric Emergency Medicine with his work in croup and bronchiolitis, having had randomized controlled trials published in the New England Journal of Medicine. He has a consistent record of national and international peer reviewed funding, along with over 150 publications, with a significant number being in top-tier medical journals.

Dr. Stuart MacLeod

Stuart MacLeod is Executive Director, Child & Family Research Institute, Professor, Pediatrics and Associate Dean (Research), Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, and Vice President Academic Liaison & Research Coordination for the Provincial Health Services Authority. Before moving to Vancouver, he was Professor, Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Pediatrics, and Medicine at McMaster University, and a member of the Centre for Evaluation of Medicines at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton.

Dr. MacLeod received his MD from the University of Toronto in 1967 and completed postgraduate training in Internal Medicine (clinical pharmacology) in 1973 at McGill University and the Montreal General Hospital. He obtained a PhD in Pharmacology from McGill in 1972. From 1973 until 1986, he held various positions at the University of Toronto and its teaching hospitals. At the time of his departure from Toronto, Dr. MacLeod was Professor of Pharmacology, Clinical Biochemistry, Medicine, Pharmacy, and Pediatrics, and cross-appointed to the Faculty of Pharmacy. He was the Founding Director of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology at The Hospital for Sick Children. In the period January, 1987 through March 1992, Dr. MacLeod served as Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University.

Internationally, Dr. MacLeod has coordinated several projects and taught in Africa. He has worked with international agencies and institutions including CIDA, IDRC, WHO and the Rockefeller Foundation. A sabbatical year in 1993 was spent at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences.

Dr. MacLeod’s scientific interests are in improved understanding of the determinants of drug disposition and action, particularly in children and women. His concerns embrace the multitude of factors that influence optimal therapeutic drug use and the use of research findings to inform clinical and public policy.

Dr. Newell McElwee

Newell McElwee is pharmacist and epidemiologist with 20+ years of experience in Outcomes Research. He has been with Pfizer Inc. since 1998, and is currently the company’s Vice-President of Outcomes Research, where he leads a group of scientists focused on health economics, patient-reported outcomes, quality of care, and health disparities. He has worked in the pharmaceutical industry since 1992. His educational background is in pharmacy (BS, University of Louisiana; PharmD, Mercer University) and epidemiology (MSPH, University of Utah). He also completed clinical residency and a research fellowship. One of his key interests is fostering the use of decision sciences to inform real world decisions, including internal investment decisions in industry, technology assessment and adoption, and health policy. Dr. McElwee has been a member of the AHRQ Effective Health Care Stakeholder Group, AHRQ study sections and has had leadership roles various professional societies related to Outcomes Research, including the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research, the Society for Medical Decision Making, and International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology.

Dr. Lorne Tyrrell

Lorne Tyrrell is the Chair of the Board, Institute of Health Economics. He is the CIHR/GlaxoSmithKline Chair in Virology at the University of Alberta. Dr. Tyrrell is also the Chair of the Board of the Alberta Health Quality Council and Chair of the Gairdner Foundation and a member of the Research Council of the Canadian Institute of Academic Research. In 2004, Dr. Tyrrell completed 10 years as the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta.

Dr. Tyrrell has won numerous awards at the University of Alberta (Rutherford Undergraduate Teaching Award, J. Gordin Kaplan Research Awards, and the University Cup). He won the ASTech Award for Research in 1993 and the Gold Medal of the Canadian Liver Foundation in 2000.

Dr. Tyrrell was appointed to the Alberta Order of Excellence in 2000, an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2002, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2004. He was awarded the F.N.G. Starr Award from the Canadian Medical Association in 2004 and the Principal Award of the Manning Foundation in 2005 for his work on the development of oral antivirals for the treatment of HBV.

Dr. Gail Wilensky

Gail Wilensky is an economist, and a Senior Fellow at Project HOPE, an international health education foundation. She is a Commissioner on the WHO’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, co-chaired the recently-completed Department of Defense task force on the Future of Military Health Care, is Vice Chair of the Maryland Health Care Commission and serves as a trustee of the Combined Benefits Fund of the United Mineworkers of America and the National Opinion Research Center. She has recently been appointed to the Defense Health Board, advising the Department of Defense on health matters and to the Board of Regents of the Uniformed Services University of the Health sciences.

From 1990 to 1992, she was Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration. She also served as Deputy Assistant to President (GHW) Bush for Policy Development, advising him on health and welfare issues from 1992 to 1993. From 1997 to 2001, she chaired the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, and from 1995 to 1997, she chaired the Physician Payment Review Commission. From 2001 to 2003, she co-chaired the President’s Task Force to Improve Health Care Delivery for Our Nation’s Veterans. In 2007, she served as a Commissioner on the President’s Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors. Dr. Wilensky testifies frequently before Congressional committees and speaks before professional, business and consumer groups. She is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine and served two terms on its governing council. She earned her Ph.D. in economics at the University of Michigan.