Professors

Methodological research on the development of new statistical methodology and collaborative research, in which these new methods are applied in epidemiologic and clinical studies. Main focus on flexible modelling of survival data, including changes in relative risks over time, detecting thresholds and lags in the effects of risk factors and interventions, and the impact of using ecologic variable on estimated risks. Epidemiology of Cardiovascular disease, cancer, arthritis, as well as with cohort studies of drug utilization patterns and their effects.

Cardiovascular epidemiology including resource utilization and pharmacoepidemiology. Comparative effectiveness research including health technology assessment. Medical decision-making.

Molecular epidemiology and prevention of cervical cancer and HPV-associated diseases, upper aero-digestive tract cancers, and childhood tumours; development of epidemiologic methods for evaluating efficacy of cancer screening strategies and assessing the impact of measurement error in epidemiology; studies of societal and clinical influences on the survival of cancer patients.

My research focuses on parasite epidemiology and the prevention and control of parasitic disease worldwide. I have been a researcher in global health and infectious (parasite) disease epidemiology for over 25 years and have conducted population-based primary epidemiological field research both in Canada and abroad. My Canadian-based research has focused primarily on infections in child and educator populations in the daycare setting and imported and endemic parasite infections in at-risk populations (eg. immigrants, travelers). My global health research activities centre mainly on: 1. deworming control programs in high risk population subgroups (eg. preschool-age children, school-age children and pregnant women); 2. interdisciplinary approaches to the prevention and control of endemic infectious and parasitic diseases; 3. the interrelationship between infection and (mal)nutrition in child populations and women of reproductive age (including pregnant women) and, 4. reducing health inequities in communities of extreme poverty in endemic areas of low-and-middle-income countries.

Receiver operating characteristic (roc) analysis. Indices for measuring observer agreement. Statistical methods for epidemiology. Survival analysis. History of statistics and epidemiology.

Environmental and genetic epidemiology related to childhood diseases (cancer and asthma) and adverse pregnancy outcomes; occupational epidemiology (pneumoconiosis, exposure assessment)

My global research interest is Bayesian biostatistical modeling. I am currently focusing on three particular topics: 1) Diagnostic tests in the absence of a gold standard; 2) Bayesian methods for study design and sample size determination; 3) Biostatistical Consulting and Collaboration.

Epidemiologic methods for assessing social determinants of health and health disparities; social factors associated with adverse reproductive outcomes; disparities in medical treatment; racial/ethnic disparities; estimating causal effects of population interventions.

The continued follow-up of Belarusian children from the Promotion of Breastfeeding Intervention Trial (PROBIT); the effects of increasing induction and cesarean delivery on birth weight, gestational age, and maternal/fetal/infant morbidity and mortality; ethnic, socioeconomic, and migration-related disparities in adverse birth outcomes in Canada; international comparisons in preterm birth and fetal/infant mortality; and improved epidemiologic and biostatistical methods for analyzing childhood growth trajectories.

Tuberculosis - clinical studies of new diagnostic tests, long term outcome, side effects of therapy,and compliance with therapy. Epi studies - of health care workers. Molecular epi studies- effect of BCG on - transmission, transmission to HCW. Building related illnesses - epidemiological studies: of effect of GUV light, effect of microbial contamination and endotoxin.

Theory of medicine and public health and of medical research, epidemiologic and meta-epidemiologic, forming the knowledge base of scientific medicine.

Infectious diseases epidemiology, global health research and training in developing countries, evaluation of novel diagnostic and prognostic tools for global tuberculosis control, evidence based medicine, diagnostic research methodology, quality of care assessment, interactions between the TB and HIV epidemics, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and teaching of epidemiology and fundamentals of global health.

Cardiovascular epidemiology including the epidemiology of obesity, physical inactivity, smoking, elevated blood cholesterol, high blood pressure and insulin resistance syndrome particularly in children and adolescents. Community-based prevention programs in disadvantaged and multi-ethnic communities and in Aboriginal communities. Research on effective means of knowledge transfer and use of scientific knowledge by health professionals and organizations.

Biostatistics; pharmacoepidemiology; methods for the design and analysis of epidemiologic studies; drug safety and effectiveness.

Dr Tamblyn conducts research aimed at improving the safety and quality of health care. Her research program includes studies that: 1) identify modifiable determinants of adverse events and improved health outcomes (e.g. health professional competence, nurse staffing, drugs, timely access to complete patient information, early detection of emerging epidemics), and 2) developing and evaluating computer-enabled interventions to address these determinants (e.g. computerized decision-support, personal health record portals and self-management tools, automated surveillance systems). The Canadian Foundation for Innovation, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Patient Safety Institute, and the MUHC Research Institute fund her research. The computerized solutions her research group has developed have won the QUALCOMM quality award for public impact and the Bombardier Award for Innovation.

Her program of research lies in population-based research in neurodegenerative disorders including multiple sclerosis,  Parkinson’s disease, and epilepsy. She is co-Principal investigator on the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, a 20-year study of 50,000 participants aged 45-85 in which she leads the Neurological Conditions Initiative and the Veterans’ Health Initiative and is the Director of the CLSA Statistical Analysis Centre. Dr. Wolfson is also co-principal investigator on a 5-country MS risk factor study (Environmental Risk Factors in Multiple Sclerosis - EnvIMS) recently completed in Italy, Norway, Serbia, Sweden and Canada.