LLB, BCL, DCL.
kathleen [dot] glass [at] mcgill [dot] ca (Email)
Contact Information:
Biomedical Ethics Unit
3647 Peel Street
Montreal, Quebec H3A 1X1 Canada
Tel: 514-398-6945
Fax: 514-398-8349
Email: Kathleen [dot] glass [at] mcgill [dot] ca
Academic background
B.A. Barat College
M.A. University of Chicago
LL.B, B.C.L. McGill University Faculty of Law
D.C.L. Institute of Comparative Law, McGill
Post-doctoral training:
Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law, McGill University
Division of Medical Ethics, Harvard Medical School
Academic appointments:
Associate Professor, Department of Human Genetics
Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics
Associate Member, Division of Experimental Medicine
Clinical appointment:
Clinical Ethicist, The Montreal Children’s Hospital
Other appointments:
Associate Member, McGill Centre for Studies in Aging
Director, Biomedical Ethics Unit
Member, The Montreal Children’s Hospital Research Institute
Chercheuse associée, Centre de recherché en droit public, Université de Montréal
Research
My research interests include ethical and legal issues relevant to children, the elderly, psychiatric patients and research subjects. I am currently principal investigator of the Clinical Trials Research Group (CTRG) at the Biomedical Ethics Unit. Our work focuses on the design, review, conduct and monitoring of clinical trials. My recent publications concern clinical equipoise and the use of placebo in clinical trials, genetic screening of children and incompetent adults, embryonic stem call transplantation, reporting genetic results from research studies and ethical issues in community based research, including research with Aboriginal communities. While most of my work is conceptual, some of the recent collaborative work of the CTRG combines empirical and conceptual methodologies when looking at issues such as the use of placebo and clinical trial blinding.
Teaching
My teaching is both university and hospital based. I teach a graduate seminar course, "Genetics and Bioethics", in the Department of Human Genetics. I also participate in the Ethics and Jurisprudence course for undergraduate medical students as lecturer and small group leader. I co-direct the ethics education program for pediatric residents at The Montreal Children's Hospital, and conduct seminars and other teaching sessions in neonatal and pediatric intensive care, plastic surgery, endocrinology, emergency medicine and oncology. I also lecture in the course "Practical Aspects of Protocol Development" in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.
Current Funding:
Canadian Institutes of Health Research, “Advancing the Ethics of Clinical Trials: Enhancing Participant Protection and Scientific Rigour”, Principal Investigator: KC Glass, Co-Investigators: S. Shapiro, D. Fergusson, J. Kimmalman, P. Hebert, J. (2004-07)
Canadian Institutes of Health Research , “Gene Therapy for Neurological Disease”, G. Karpati, Principal Investigator, K.C. Glass, Co-Investigator with F. Baylis, J. Galipeau, M. Shevell, J. Nalbatoglu, B. Massie, S. Shapiro, et al.,(2001-2004 - extended to 2007)
Fonds de recherché sur la société et la culture du Québec (FRSCQ), Pierre Noreau, Responsable scientifique, K.C. Glass, et al, Chercheures associées dans “Le Regroupement droit et changements”, Centre de recherche en droit public, Université de Montréal, (2004 – 2010)
Canadian Institutes of Health Research, “Culture and Mental Health Services”, L. Kirmayer, Principal Applicant; Co-Applicants: M. Beiser, G. Bibeau, E. Corin, F. Crepeau, K.C. Glass, C. Rousseau, A. Young, L. Turner, M. Lock, et al.– total for the training program (2003-2009)
Committees:
Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Medicine, McGill
Pediatric Ethics Committee, The Montreal Children’s Hospital
Research Ethics Board, Committee, The Montreal Children’s Hospital
Advisory Committee on Ethical, Legal and Social Issues, The Canadian Lifelong Health Initiative, Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Selected publications
Fergusson, D., Glass, K.C. , Waring, D., Shapiro, S, “Turning a blind eye: The success of blinding reported in a random sample of randomized, placebo-controlled trials”, BMJ 2004: 328-432 (2004)
Lemmens, T.M., Sprumont, D., Nys, H., Singh, J., and Glass, K.C. , “CIOMS’ Placebo Rule and the Promotion of Negligent Medical Practice”, European Journal of Health Law 11:153-174 (2004)
Glass, K.C., "Ethical Issues In Neonatal Intensive Care: Perspectives for the Neurologist", Pediatric Neurology 9(1): 35-40 (2002)
Glass, K.C. and Waring, D., "Effective Patient Care Need Not Conflict With Good Trial Design" American Journal of Bioethics 2(2): 25-6 (2002)
Knoppers, B.M., Avard, D., Cardinale, G., Glass, K.C., "Children and Incompetent Adults in Genetic Research: Consent and Safeguards" Nature Reviews: Genetics 3: 221-5 (2002)
Glass, K.C. and Lemmens, T.M., "Research involving humans" in Canadian Health Law and Policy (2nd ed.), T. Caulfield and J. Downie (eds.), Toronto: Butterworths, 2002
Glass, K.C. and Kaufert, J. (eds.), Research Involving Aboriginal Individuals and Communities: Genetics as a Focus (Ottawa: National Council on Ethics in Human Research, 2001)
Deschenes, M., Cardinale, G., Knoppers, B.M., Glass, K.C., "Human genetic research, DNA banking and consent: a question of "form"?", Clinical Genetics 59: 221-239 (2001)
Campbell, A., Glass, K.C., "The Legal Status of Ethics Policies, Codes and Guide-lines in Medical Research and Practice", McGill Law Journal 46(2): 473-489 (2001)
Szebik, I., Glass, K.C., "Ethical Issuses in Germ-Cell Therapy: a Preparation for Public Debate", Academic Medicine 76(1): 32-38 (2001)
Shapiro, S.H., Glass, K.C., "Why Sackett's analysis of randomized controlled trials (RTCs) fails, but needn't", CMAJ 163(7): 834-5 (2000)
Weijer, C., Glass, K.C., Shapiro, S.H., "Clinical equipoise, and not the uncertainty principle, is the moral underpinning of the randomized clinical trial", BMJ 321: 756-758 (2000)
Knoppers, B.M., Hirtle, M., Glass, K.C., "Commercialization of Genetic Research and Public Policy", Science 286:2277-2278 (1999)
Glass, K.C., Lemmens, T.M., "Conflict of Interest and Commercialization of Biomedical Research: What is the Role of Research Ethics Review?" in T. Caulfield, B. Williams-Jones (eds.), The Commercialization of Genetic Research: Ethical, Legal and Policy Issues (New York: Plenum, 1999)
Glass, K.C., "Research Involving Humans", in Canadian Health Law and Policy, Caulfield, T., Downie, J. (eds.) (Toronto: Carswell, 1999)
Glass, K.C., Weijer C., Cournoyer, D., Lemmens, T., Palmour, R.M., Shapiro, S.H., "Structuring the Review of Human Genetics Protocols Part III: Gene Therapy Studies", IRB: A Review of Human Subjects research 21(2):1-9(1999)
Glass, K.C., "Refining Definitions and Creating Instruments: Two Decades of Assessing Mental Competence", International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 20(1):1-29 (1997)
Freedman, B., Glass, K.C., Weijer, C., "Placebo Orthodoxy in Clinical Research: Exposing the Myths. Part II: Ethical, Legal and Regulatory Myths", Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 24:252-259 (1996); reprinted in Monash Bioethics Review 17(3):10-22 (1997)
Glass, K.C., Speyer-Ofenberg, M., "Incompetent Persons as Research Subjects and the Ethics of Minimal Risk", Cambridge Quarterly of Health Care Ethics 5:3 (1996)
Keyserlingk, E.W., Glass, K.C., Kogan, S., Gauthier, S., "Proposed Guidelines for the Participation of Persons with Dementia as Research Subjects", Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 32:2 (1995)
