McMaster Hemophilia Research Group

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Health Sciences Centre, Room 3N27 1280 Main Street West Hamilton Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada  905.521.2100 ext. 75625  905.521.1703  akchan@mcmaster.ca

     Dr. Anthony Chan is a pediatric hematologist/oncologist at Hamilton Health Sciences, Director of the Pediatric Thrombosis Clinic and Hemophilia Clinic at McMaster Children’s Hospital, Chief of the Division of Hematology-Oncology, Department of Pediatrics, a Professor of Pediatrics at McMaster University and is the McMaster Children’s Hospital/Hamilton Health Science Foundation Chair in Pediatric Thrombosis and Hemostasis. Dr. Chan is a clinical scientist with the Thrombosis & Atherosclerosis Research Institute (TaARI) and David Braley Cardiac, Vascular and Stroke Research Institute (DBCVSRI). He is one of the leading experts in the field of pediatric thrombosis and stroke.

     Dr. Chan is also involved in designing clinical studies in pediatric thrombosis, pediatric stroke and hemophilia from a hematology perspective. His research focus is on the development, characterization and application of a covalent antithrombin-heparin complex (ATH), a potent anticoagulant that can be used as a systemic drug or can be grafted onto the surface of medical devices to render them non-thrombogenic. He is continuing to contribute his expertise in thrombosis by providing around-the-clock free consultation worldwide through the 1800NOCLOTS service. Since his faculty appointment at McMaster in 1997, Dr. Chan has made scientific presentations throughout six continents and published more than 200 peer-reviewed original and review manuscripts.

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Joint Member, Department of Medicine Director, Health Information Research Unit (HiRU) Director, Hemophilia Clinic, McMaster University McMaster University Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada  905.525.9140 ext. 22421  905.526.8447  iorioa@mcmaster.ca

     Alfonso Iorio is a Professor in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact (HEI), and Director of the Health Information Research Unit. He has a joint appointment in the Department of Medicine and is the Director of the Hamilton Health Science Hemophilia Clinic. Dr Iorio received his degree in Medicine in 1991 at the University of Perugia, Italy, where he also received fellowships in Clinical Chemistry and Biochemistry and Internal Medicine. In December 2011, he defended a PhD thesis on the psychosocial aspects of hemophilia.

     Dr. Iorio is Associate Editor for Congenital Blood Coagulation Disorders of the Cystic Fibrosis and Genetic Disorders Review Group of the Cochrane Collaboration, Chair of the Data and Demographics Committee of the World Federation of Hemophilia, and a member of the Association of Hemophilia Center Directors of Canada. He is associate editor for Thrombosis Research and serves on the Editorial Boards of the American College of Physicians Journal Club, the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis, Haemophilia, and the Rare Diseases BEST Practice Journal.

      Dr. Iorio's research interest is on risk prediction and stratification, with a focus on population pharmacokinetics, inhibitor development, and in meta-analysis application to observational trials and individual patient data. He is the Principal Investigator of the Canadian Hemophilia Surveillance Study (CHESS), the Canadian “branch” of the EUHASS surveillance scheme, and of the Web Application for Population Pharmacokinetic in Hemophilia (WAPPS) project. He lead the coreHEME project, assembling a core outcome set for hemophilia gene therapy.

      Dr. Iorio is an active member of several international organizations including ISTH, ASH, EAHAD and WFH. He has authored over 220 peer-reviewed papers and serves as a reviewer for several journals in the field.

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Director, Clinical Thromboembolism Program, McMaster University Director, Thrombosis Service, HHS-General Hospital Associate Professor, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden HHS-General Hospital 237 Barton Street East Hamilton, Ontario L8L 2X2, Canada  905.527.0271 ext. 44479  905.521.1551  schulms@mcmaster.ca

     Sam Schulman graduated from Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden in 1977 and became a specialist in Internal Medicine in 1984, with subspecialties in Hematology and in Coagulation in 1985. That year he also received his Dr Med Sc with the thesis: "Studies on the Medical Treatment of Deep Vein Thrombosis". He has worked within the field of coagulation disorders continuously since 1984 and was director of the Hemophilia Treatment Center in Stockholm 1996 to 2004. His major research activities have been clinical studies in venous thromboembolism, including several randomized trials, and in hemophilia and its complications. He is currently involved in trials with new antithrombotic agents, such as the oral thrombin inhibitors as well as studies on improvement of management with vitamin K antagonists.

     Sam Schulman has been a member of the Executive Committee of the World Federation of Hemophilia (2000-2004) and was chairman of the Subcommittee on Control of Anticoagulation of the Scientific and Standardization Committee of ISTH 2005-2008. He is President for the XXV ISTH Congress in Toronto, 2015. Dr. Schulman is associate professor in Internal Medicine at Karolinska Institutet and since September 2004 also professor in Medicine at McMaster University. He is Director of the Thrombosis Service at HHS-General Hospital in Hamilton and Director of the Clinical Thromboembolism Program of McMaster University.

     Sam Schulman has published over 170 original articles, 110 review articles or book chapters and is co-editor of the most recent, 6th, edition of the textbook ` Haemostasis and Thrombosis – Basic Principles and Clinical Practice.

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Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact (HEI) Michael Gent Chair in Healthcare Research McMaster University Health Sciences Centre, Room Area 2C 1280 Main Street West Hamilton, ON L8N 4K1, Canada  schuneh@mcmaster.ca

     Prof. Schünemann is chair of the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact (HEI) at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, widely considered the birthplace of evidence-based medicine and problem- based learning. He began his research career in respiratory and exercise physiology as a medical student in the Department of Physiology at the Medical School of Hannover (Department head Prof. Gerolf Gros) and the University at Buffalo (UB), State of New York, in the laboratories of Prof Robert Klocke. The research on CO2 gas exchange in isolated perfused lungs showed that dissolved CO2 behaves like an inert gas and that CO2 exchange is not limited by diffusion of the gas. He also explored hemoglobin carbamate formation during simulated exercise.

     He received his MD degree (1993) and a “doctor medicinae” degree for his work in physiology (1994) from the Medical School of Hannover where he then completed an internship in internal and respiratory medicine. With a postdoctoral fellowship award from the German Research Association he went on to work in cellular and molecular lung biology at UB researching expression of cell adhesion molecules (integrins) in early postnatal lung development. Realizing the importance of high quality skills in data analysis, general health research methods and developing a stronger sense for patient and population focused research he studied epidemiology and biostatistics during his postdoctoral fellowship (MSc in Epidemiology, 1997). He then conducted population-based studies on the association between micronutrients and respiratory health leading to a PhD degree (Epidemiology and Community Medicine, 2000) and completed training in internal medicine, public health and preventive medicine at UB, where he joined the faculty in 2000.

     Stints at McMaster University, working with Prof Gordon Guyatt, to stronger focus on health research methodology followed and he joined McMaster’s faculty as a part-time member in 2002. From 2005 to 2009 he was at the Italian National Cancer Center in Rome, Italy, before moving to McMaster University as full-time Professor and Chair of Clinical Epidemiology and Medicine. He has authored or co-authored nearly 400 peer- reviewed publications across the areas of his training and research interest with an h-index of 60. His scientific work now focuses on evidence synthesis, presentation and development of health care conducting recommendations spanning clinical medicine to public health and supporting various organizations in conducting systematic reviews and developing guidelines. His research team has recently created a “go to” crowdsourcing portal for developers of health care recommendations (cebgrade.mcmaster.ca/guidecheck.html). He is co-chair of the GRADE working group (www.gradeworkinggroup.org), a member of the Cochrane Collaboration Steering Committee, the Guidelines International Network Board of Trustees and the Advisory Committee on Health Research (ACHR) at the World Health Organization (WHO).

     At McMaster University, Prof. Schünemann is also co-director of the WHO collaborating center for evidence informed policy-making. He has planned to ride the course of a Tour de France for a while but fails to take the time off.

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St. Joseph's Healthcare, Biostatistics/FORSC, 3rd Floor, H325 50 Charlton Avenue East, Hamilton, Ontario L8N 4A6, Canada  905.522.1155 ext. 33720  905.308.7212  thabanl@mcmaster.ca

     Dr Lehana Thabane is a professor of biostatistics and associate chair of the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact (HEI), associate member of the Departments of Pediatrics and Anesthesia at McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada). He is the Director of Biostatistics at St Joseph’s Healthcare—Hamilton (Ontario, Canada) and Senior Scientist at the Population Health Research Institute of the Hamilton Health Sciences and McMaster University. Dr Thabane has been the lead/senior biostatistician for over 80 externally funded grants. He is a research methodologist with research interests in biostatistics and clinical trials. He collaborates with researchers in primary care, HIV-AIDS, evidence-based medicine and health technology assessment, and has provided statistical leadership in several major Canadian-led trials including the COMPETE II, COMPETE III, CHAT, CHAP and VISION trials. He has co-authored over 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals and over 300 abstracts presented at national and international meetings.

     He is a member of several professional associations that include the International Statistical institute, American Statistical Association, International Society of Clinical Biostatistics, and the Society for Clinical Trials. He also served on the panels of many national granting agencies such as the CIHR Clinical Trials panel (as Scientific Officer and Chair), the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Foundation (as member) and the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation Young Investigator Awards panel (as member). He is currently the chair of CIHR HIV Clinical Trials Network (CTN) Scientific Review.

      A winner of the Excellence Award in Teaching for 2004-2006 and Excellence in Graduate Supervision Award for 2012 at McMaster University, Dr Thabane has extensive experience as an educator and mentor. To date he has mentored over 100 MSc, PhD and Postdoc trainees. He is the clinical trials mentor for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He has been involved in many international capacity-building projects including the ADAPT (African Development of AIDS Prevention Trial Capacity) programme—funded by International Development Research Centre and led by CIET-Canada to build capacity in HIV prevention trials in sub-Saharan Africa.

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Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Centre, Room: A3-65 711 Concession St. Hamilton, Ontario L8V 1C3, Canada  905.521.2100 ext. 76384  905.575.7320  walkeri@mcmaster.ca

     Dr. Walker has maintained a broad interest in hematology over many years. Most recently, in the field of bone marrow transplantation, he is a past-President of the Canadian Blood and Marrow Transplant Group, and has held a CIHR grant for the development of haploidential donor transplantation. Relating to hemophilia, he has held a series of grants relating to the development of hemophilia related software programs, the Canadian Hemophilia Registry, and epidemiological data relating to hemophilia.

     He is a member of the World Federation of Hemophilia Data and Demographics Committee and together with his pediatric colleague, Dr. Anthony Chan, has “Twinned” the Hamilton Hemophilia Program with Belgrade, Serbia