Louise Pilote

Nominated Principal Investigator
(Canada)

Credentials: MD MPH PhD FRCPC
McGill University Health Center and McGill University
Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation
5252 De Maisonneuve Blvd, Office 2B.39
Montréal, QC H4A 3S5, Canada
louise.pilote [at] mcgill.ca

Research Description

Dr. Louise Pilote is a Professor of Medicine at McGill University where she holds a James McGill chair. She led the division of general internal medicine from 2006-2016.

As a clinician scientist, Dr. Pilote has directed several research initiatives that led to important new insights into the determinants of premature coronary disease. Her work clarified the role of sex and gender in diagnosis, treatment and outcomes in heart disease.

Dr Pilote recently launched the GOING-FWD consortium a data science, personalized medicine project funded by CIHR and the European GENDER-NET+ initiative, where 30 million patients with chronic disease across Canada and Europe will be analyzed using a sex and gender lens to more precisely predict their risk of clinical and patient-relevant outcomes.

As a co-principal investigator of the CAN-AIM team, funded by CIHR,  Dr Pilote has also harnessed big data to study sex differences in the effectiveness and safety of cardiac drugs and devices.

EDUCATION

1993-97 PhD in Epidemiology, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA
1988-89 Master of Public Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
1980-85 M.D.C.M., McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Postgraduate Training

Clinical

1985-88 Internal Medicine Residency, Royal Victoria Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Research

1994-95 Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship in Cardiology, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio. Grants from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and from Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec
1992-94 Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Health Services Research, Stanford University; grants from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and from Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec
1990-92 Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Clinical Epidemiology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA

Dr. Louise Pilote is a tenured Professor of Medicine at McGill University, holding a James McGill chair since 2008. She is a member of the department of medicine in the divisions of general internal medicine (as McGill division chief 2006-2016), clinical epidemiology and experimental medicine and associate member of the department of epidemiology, biostatistics and occupational health at the McGill University Health Center

As a clinician scientist, Dr. Pilote has directed several research initiatives that led to important new insights into the determinants of premature coronary disease and the role of sex and gender in its diagnosis, treatment and outcomes. She is an international leader in the generation and translation of new knowledge about sex and gender differences in cardiovascular disease. She is a principal investigator of the CIHR Vascular network and of the Gender Outcomes INternational Group: to Further Well-being Development (GOING-FWD).

Her work on the comparative effectiveness and safety of cardiac drugs and devices and on regional variations in access to care impacted quality of cardiovascular care internationally. She is a principal investigator of the Canadian Network for Advanced Interdisciplinary Methods for comparative effectiveness research (CAN-AIM) team, funded by CIHR to develop novel methods to study drug safety and effectiveness and of the Canadian Vascular Network with a focus on women’s vascular health.

Publication

ORID

1. Humphries KH, Pilote L. Research in women’s cardiovascular health: progress at last? Can J Cardiol. 2018 Apr;34(4):349-353.
2. *Rossi AM, Pilote L. Let’s talk about sex… and gender! Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. 2016 Feb;9(2 Suppl 1):S100-1.
3. *Pelletier R, Khan NA, Cox J, et al. Sex versus gender-related characteristics: which predicts outcome after acute coronary syndrome in the young? J Am Coll Cardiol 2016 Jan;67(2):127-35.
4. *Avgil Tsadok M, Jackevicius CA, et al. Sex differences in dabigatran use, safety, and effectiveness in a population-based cohort of patients with atrial fibrillation. Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes 2015 Nov;8(6):593-9.
5. Pelletier R, Ditto B, Pilote L, et al. A composite measure of gender and its association with risk factors in patients with premature acute coronary syndrome. Psychosom Med 2015 Jun;77(5):517-26.

Websites:

https://www.mcgill.ca/internalmed/dr-louise-pilote
https://www.mcgill.ca/epi-biostat-occh/louise-pilote
https://rimuhc.ca/-/louise-pilote-md-mph-phd

 


Colleen M Norris

Co-Nominated Principal Investigator
(Canada)

Credentials: RN, BScN, MN, PhD (Epidemiology), GNP
Title/Position: Professor
University of Alberta Faculty of Nursing
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
cnorris [at] ualberta.ca

 

Research Description:
Clinician Scientist in Women’s Heart Health, Chair of Health Policy and Services-Canadian Women’s Heart Health Alliance,
Committee Member of the Canadian Women’s Heart and Brain Research Steering Committee,
Scientific Director- Cardiovascular Heart health and Stroke Strategic Clinical Network

  1. Norris CM, Tannenbaum C, Wong G, Cantor WJ, McMurtry MS, Systematic incorporation of sex-specific information into clinical practice guidelines for the pre-hospital management of ST-elevation myocardial infarction: feasibility and outcomes Journal of the American Heart Association, 2019. 8(7): p. e011597.April 2019 doi 10.1161/JAHA.118011597.
  2. Tannenbaum C, Norris CM*, McMurtry M.S. Sex-specific considerations in guidelines generation and application. Canadian Journal of Cardiology, 2019. 35(5): p. 598-605.
  3. Norris CM, Johnson N, Hardwicke-Brown E, McEwan M, Pelletier R, Pilote L. The contribution of Gender to Apparent Sex differences in Health Status among patients with coronary artery disease. Journal of Women’s Health 2017 26(1) 50-56. DOI: 10.1089/jwh.2016.5744
  4. Norris CM, Murray JW, Tripplett LS, Hegadoren KM, Gender roles in persistent sex differences in health-related quality-of-life outcomes of patients with coronary artery disease. Gender Medicine- August 2010 7(4): 330-39
  5. Norris CM, Spertus JA, Jensen L, Johnson J, Hegadoren KM, Ghali WA, for the APPROACH Investigators. Sex and Gender Discrepancies in Health-Related Quality of Life Outcomes Among Patients With Established Coronary Artery Disease. Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. 2008;1(2):123-130

Website:
https://www.ualberta.ca/nursing/about/contact-us-and-people/academic-listing/colleen-norris


Valeria Raparelli

Co-Nominated Principal Investigator
(Italy)

Credentials: MD, PhD
Title/Position: Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine
University of Ferrara
Department of Translational Medicine
Ferrara, Italy
valeria.raparelli [at] unife.it

 

Education

Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, M.D. - 07/2005 - Medicine and Surgery
Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, Specialty 07/2011- Gastroenterology
Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, Post-grad University Course - 12/2012 - Planning and analysis of clinical observational and randomized trials
Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, Post-grad University Course - 12/2013 - Research, Enhancement & Development
Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, Ph. D. - 12/2014 - Endocrinology Sciences and Metabolic Disease
Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, Post-grad University Course - 08/2017 - Medical Education

Academic Career/Experience

2021-ongoing Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine, University of Ferrara, Department of Translational Medicine, Ferrara, Italy

2021-ongoing Adjunct Assistant Professor, Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

2015-20 - Assistant Professor of Endocrinology, Department of Experimental Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

2017-19 – Visiting Professorship McGill University, McGill University Health Centre Research Institute, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

2013-14 – Visiting PhD Fellow at Institute of Gender in Medicine (GiM)/Center for Cardiovascular Research (CCR), Berlin, Germany

Research Activity

Valeria Raparelli is co-leader for the McGill coordination center of the GOING-FWD Project.

Translation Research: Over the past 5 years, her principal research interests have focused on understanding sex and gender- specific issues in cardiovascular disease. Due to her previous experience in basic research and a PhD in endocrinological sciences, she is interested in exploring mechanistic pathways to explain sex differences in ischemic heart disease. She was the PI on a 5-year grant entitled “Sex and gender differences in ischemic heart disease: from bench to bedside - Endocrine Vascular Disease Approach (EVA),” at Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, funded by the Scientific Independence of Young Researchers (SIR) Program, promoted by the Italian Ministry of Education and the University and Research (MIUR) (2015-2020). This project aims to elucidate the role of platelet hyper-activation and hormone balance in women as determinants of worse outcomes in patients with ischemic heart disease. For this project, she was awarded the Elizabeth Young Investigator Award from the Organization for the Study of Sex Differences (OSSD).

International Collaboration for Gender-Oriented Research: Her current work is aimed to establish a transatlantic network of experts in gender medicine, internal medicine specialists, and outcomes researchers to identify appropriated measures of gender which can be feasible and applicable for the evaluation of different chronic noncommunicable diseases. In light of this, since September 2017, She have been a visiting Professor at McGill University in Canada where she is working closely with Dr Louise Pilote to develop specific skills and knowledge in the integration of gender dimensions to apply to my clinical research. In the last 2 years, she has been also successful in obtaining a 3 year grant from the Canadian institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for a project examining sex/gender differences in access to care among young patients with acute myocardial infarction. This work is the result of the on-going collaboration with the PI’s of VIRGO and GENESIS-PRAXY studies (Drs Louise Pilote and Rachel Dreyer).

She is also the current Co-Chair of the IMAGINE (Internal Medicine and Assessment of Gender differences in Europe) Working Group of the European Federation of Internal Medicine (EFIM).

Clinical studies: During her scientific career, she also have developed expertise in conducting clinical trials as part of the Coordination Committee of 3 multicenter observational studies in Italy on atrial fibrillation, liver chronic disease and retinal vein thrombosis (Atrial Fibrillation Registry for Ankle-brachial Index Prevalence Assessment: Collaborative Italian Study, ARAPACIS; Portal Vein Thrombosis Relevance on Liver Cirrhosis: Italian Venous Thrombotic Events Registry, PROLIVER; Retinal Thrombosis and Atherosclerosis, HEART-VISION). She was also the coordinator of the young research group of the Italian Society of Internal Medicine, and as a result, she developed leadership skills and her appointment was characterized by several peer reviewed publications.

Publication
ORCID


Alexandra Kautzky-Willer

Site Principal Investigator (Austria)

Credentials: MD
Title/Position: Professor
Professor of Gender Medicine. Interim head of the Department of Internal Medicine III as well as of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism of the General Hospital and Medical University of Vienna. Head of the Gender Medicine Unit and the University Course Gender Medicine of the Medical University of Vienna. President of the Austrian Society of Gender-Specific Medicine. President of the International Society of Gender Medicine. President of the Austrian Diabetes Association.
Medical University of Vienna, Department of Internal Medicine III, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Gender Medicine Unit
Vienna, Austria
alexandra.kautzky-willer [at] meduniwien.ac.at

Research Description

  • Gestational diabetes and fetal programming
  • Overweight, obesity, type 1 diabetes/autoimmunity, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome – generally and gender aspects in particular
  • Gender aspects of insulin resistance and beta cell function
  • Gender aspects of inflammation, adipokines, endothelial dysfunction
  • Hormonal disorders
  • Women's and Men's Health

Publication

Website:
www.meduniwien.ac.at/hp/gender-medicine/
 


Karolina Kublickiene

Site Principal Investigator (Sweden)

Credentials: MD, PhD; Associated Professor
Title/Position: Senior scientist, Head doctoral program Developmental biology and Regenerative medicine, Head experimental unit for the renal medicine
Institution for Clinical Science, Intervention & Technology | Renal Medicine
Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
karolina.kublickiene [at] ki.se

Research Description

Investigations concentrate on vascular physiology and pathophysiology with focus on resistance artery function in patients with chronic kidney disease, and in women at reproductive age, including women with preeclampsia) and after menopause. Studies involve a range of different isolated small artery bioassays, pharmacological and molecular assessments of endothelial dysfunctional markers and cellular signaling in combination with in in vivo assessment of artery function and measurements of known and recently recognized biochemical markers for increased cardiovascular risk. Specific focus is on the early vascular ageing under uremic environment and effects of senolytics. In latest EU and internationally granted projects, focus remains on implementation of the gender dimension in the research content and education, as well as identification of gender-related factors for the disease outcomes towards personalized approaches to chronic disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment, as well as assessment of the risk development on chronic kidney disease after adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Current focus

  • Chronic kidney disease and premature vascular ageing: focus on injury with potential for targeted interventions;
  • Specific targeting for prostaglandin E2 pathway;
  • Act on Gender: building Communities of Practice for gender equality in HE and R&I (Horizon 2020, grant agreement No 788204,
  • Gender Outcomes International Group: to Further well-being Development (GOING-FVD; VR Dnr 4-94/2019);
  • Small artery function in normal pregnancy and preeclampsia;

Websites:

https://staff.ki.se/people/karkub

https://staff.ki.se/gendered-innovation-alliance

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=kublickiene

https://staff.ki.se/doctoral-programme-in-development-and-regeneration-devreg-and-gendered-innovation-alliance

https://tedxstockholm.com/

 


 

Maria Trinidad Herrero

Site Co-Investigator (Spain)

Credentials: MD, PhD, BJ, BSAdv

Title/Position: Director of the University Institute for Research on Aging
University of Murcia (IMIB + Institute for Aging Research)
University Professor
Department of Human Anatomy and Psychobiology

mtherrer [at] um.es

Knowledge area:

  • Human anatomy and embryology

Main lines of research:

  • Physiology of suicidal behavior
  • Transplants and axonal and myelin regeneration
  • Movement disorders (Pathophysiology of the basal ganglia)
  • Experimental applications of gene therapy

Karin H. Humphries

Site Co-Investigator (Canada)

Credentials: MBA, DSc, FAHA
Title/Position: Program Head
Program Head, Cardiovascular Health Program (ICVHealth), Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences (CHEOS)
Associate Professor, University of British Columbia
UBC-HSF Professor in Women’s Cardiovascular Health, ICVHealth
Vancouver BC, Canada
khumphries [at] icvhealth.ubc.ca
Research Description

Karin Humphries’ personal research focuses on two key areas: sex and gender differences in the diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes of subjects with ischemic heart disease and the use of information technology (IT) to facilitate the translation of evidence into practice. She is currently leading a $1.6M multi-centre randomized trial evaluating the diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes of women presenting to the emergency department with cardiac chest pain.
Dr. Humphries is also the Program Head of the Cardiovascular Health Program (ICVHealth) at the Centre for Health Evaluation & Outcome Sciences (CHEOS). In this role, she is able to focus on improving the quality of cardiovascular care by developing patient-centred and evidence-based approaches to treatment. As the co-chair of the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada’s Women’s Heart and Brain Health Research Steering Committee she directs the use of $5 million in federal funding to support research in women and cardiovascular disease.

Publications

Websites:
https://codemicanada.com
http://www.cheos.ubc.ca/our-research/cardiovascular-health/
 


Monica Parry

Site Co-Investigator (Canada)

Credentials: MEd, MSc, NP-Adult, PhD, CCN(C)
Title/Position: Associate Professor
Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing
Toronto, ON, Canada
monica.parry [at] utoronto.ca

 

Research Description

Dr. Monica Parry is an Associate Professor (tenured) at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto. She is also a Nurse Practitioner (Adult) with over 30 years of cardiovascular (CV) clinical experience. Her clinical expertise has laid the foundation for a program of research to reduce the burden of CV disease and its complications. Dr. Parry has developed three streams within her research program: 1) to identify individuals at risk of CV disease, 2) to improve care for individuals with/at risk of CV disease, and 3) to manage complications associated with CV disease. She had received advanced training from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to engage patients as partners in health research and is currently funded (CIHR) with Clinical Trials Ontario (CTO) to develop a toolkit/decision resource for patient partners, researchers and clinicians. In addition, Dr. Parry has an interest in sex and gender differences in CV health and is currently developing and testing HEARTPA♀N: An Integrated Smartphone and Web-Based Intervention for Women with Cardiac Pain (CIHR-funded).

Publications
 


Ruth Sapir-Pichhadze

Site Co-Investigator (Canada)

Credentials: MD, PhD, FRCPC
Title/Position: Scientist
2014 – Present: Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, McGill University
2019 – Present: Scientist, Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE), McGill University Health Centre Research Institute (MUHC-RI)
Centre for Outcomes Research & Evaluation
Research Institute of the McGill University Health
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
ruth.sapir-pichhadze [at] mcgill.ca
 

Research Description

Clinical Epidemiology, Kidney Transplantation, Nephrology
Dr. Sapir-Pichhadze is a Clinician Scientist at the McGill University Health Centre and an Assistant Professor with the Division of Nephrology and Multi-Organ Transplant Program at McGill University. She completed subspecialty training in nephrology and kidney transplantation at the University of Toronto, as well as the Eliot Phillipson Clinician Scientist Program and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Clinician Investigator Program, leading to a Doctorate in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research. Dr. Sapir-Pichhadze’s PhD focused on the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and prognosis of antibody-mediated injury secondary to antibodies against human leukocyte antigens in kidney transplant recipients and candidates.
Dr. Sapir-Pichhadze current research program is translational in nature and seeks to identify genetic determinants of donor and recipient compatibility and inform strategies to prevent kidney transplant rejection. She is particularly interested in contributing to the appreciation of each patient’s status across a continuum of risk, which extends from rejection, on one side, and adverse effects of immunosuppression drugs such as infection, malignancy, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease on the other. This line of inquiry is geared towards optimizing organ allocation schemes, developing clinically applicable instruments, guiding personalized surveillance schedules, and informing individually tailored therapies. Dr Sapir-Pichhadze is a Co-Lead of the Genome Canada LSARP, CanPREVENT AMR, and is acting as the Co-Chair of the Research Training and Mentorship Committee of the Can-SOLVE CKD Network Strategy for Patient Oriented Research. 
 

Publication


Carole Clair 

Collaborating Investigator (Switzerland)

Credentials: MD, MSc
Title/Position: Lecturer Associate Professor (in July 2019)
Center for Primary Care and Public Health (Unisanté)
Department of Training, Research and Innovation
University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Lausanne, Switzerland
Carole.clair [at] unisante.ch


Research Description

Dre Carole Clair is a physician and a researcher. She is the co-head of the Department of Training, Research and Innovation in the Center for Primary Care and Public Health, Lausanne University, Switzerland. She trained as a general internist, obtained her board certification in general internal medicine in 2007 and her doctoral thesis at the University of Lausanne in 2008. In 2009, she got a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) to conduct a postdoc in Boston, USA on the association between smoking, metabolism and cardiovascular diseases. She worked as a research fellow at the Tobacco Research and Treatment Center of the Massachusetts General Hospital. In parallel, she completed a Master in Science her in Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health and got an MSc in Epidemiology in 2012. After returning from her postdoc, she developed gender and health at the Faculty of Biology and medicine in Lausanne. She is actively involved in integrating gender dimension in medical education. She leads a SNSF granted research project assessing the impact of a smoking cessation intervention among people with type 2 diabetes, with a special focus on gender (gendered intervention, metabolic impact, microbiota). She also developed several side project assessing gender awareness among medical students and healthcare professionals and gender stereotypes in clinical management and its impact. She is part of the Horizon 2020 expert group to update and expand “Gendered Innovations/Innovation through Gender”.

Publication

Website:
https://www.pmu-lausanne.ch/espace-recherche/groupes-de-recherche/centre-de-recherche-et-developpement


Rachel Dreyer

Collaborating Investigator (USA)

Credentials: Bsc (Hons), PhD
Title/Position: Assistant Professor
Department of Emergency Medicine
Yale University School of Medicine
New Haven, CT, USA
rachel.dreyer [at] yale.edu




Research Description

Rachel Dreyer, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the section of Policy and Public Health and the Division of Informatics in Emergency Medicine at Yale University. She trained in epidemiology, clinical research, outcomes/health services research, and mixed methods. Over the past 8 years, Dr Dreyer’s research has endeavored to improve health care quality by accelerating the implementation of patient-centered outcomes research. More specifically, her work has largely pioneered efforts to improve outcomes for patients with heart disease, with a focus on understanding disparities in women. As a result, her scholarly work has identified significant delays and disparities in receiving treatment for women with coronary heart disease. More broadly she is interested in clinical informatics, health IT and the incorporation of humanism within the structure of medical care, both for patients and providers.

Her current work is highly interdisciplinary and focuses on collaborative efforts with psychologists, computer scientists, cardiologists, informaticists, and key stakeholders to define advanced methods to facilitate the psychosocial aspects of recovery for women with coronary heart disease. By implementing participatory methods, her team is currently developing novel stakeholder-informed mobile health applications that augment traditional cardiac rehabilitation programs at Yale University, to assist patients, particularly women, in recovery after acute myocardial infarction. The goal is to increase adherence to cardiac rehabilitation programs and to improve uptake of secondary prevention targets in the long-term – to ultimately improve outcomes and prevent hospital readmissions in these women.

Publications

Website:
https://medicine.yale.edu/emergencymed/people/rachel_dreyer-1.profile
 

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