Gonzalo Alvarez

A leader in TB research, Dr. Gonzalo Alvarez is a respirologist committed to developing better tools and strategies to improve TB prevention and care for Indigenous communities and newcomers to Canada.

For more than 15 years, Dr. Alvarez has led the Taima TB research program dedicated to helping Inuit stop the spread of TB in their communities. His team develops community-driven screening, diagnostic, and education tools designed for the unique needs of remote regions. Working closely with Indigenous rights holders, the group has completed over ten studies in Nunavut, contributing to lasting improvements in TB care and prevention.

Dr. Alvarez currently leads two major multi-disciplinary projects funded by the CIHR and by Inuit partners, the Taima TB Wastewater Study and the Taima TB Household Risk Prediction Study, aimed at making community-wide TB screening more efficient, effective, and less burdensome for both health systems and community members. He is also working on several modelling and epidemiological studies examining the acceptability and cost effectiveness of different TB prevention strategies.

He is also an investigator for the McGill SSTaRLeT study, which is testing shorter, safer treatments for latent TB infection, with the Ottawa TB Clinic serving as one of the study sites.

Nunavut TB Research

Dr. Alvarez is a founding director of the Taima TB research group, a partnership dedicated to supporting Inuit communities in their efforts to stop the transmission of tuberculosis (TB). Since 2011, Taima TB has launched a series of innovative, community-driven projects aimed at improving screening, diagnosis, treatment, and awareness around TB in Nunavut.

Working closely with patients, Inuit representatives, front-line health workers, and government partners, Dr. Alvarez has helped introduce several new technologies to identify both latent TB infection (LTBI) and active TB disease. His team has piloted and evaluated community-wide awareness campaigns, a modern diagnostic test for LTBI (Interferon Gamma Release Assay), and a rapid test for active TB disease (GeneXpert). All of these initiatives were first implemented and studied in Iqaluit, where they demonstrated clear benefits and were published in peer-reviewed journals.

One of the group’s most significant advances has been introducing 3HP, a shorter, once-weekly treatment for LTBI that takes three months instead of the traditional nine months. This change reduces the number of required doses by 85% and greatly improves the likelihood of completing treatment. Taima TB was the first group in Canada to formally roll out this regimen.

The team is currently working on a CIHR-funded study exploring the use of wastewater surveillance to support TB control in northern communities.

Clinical Care
Dr. Alvarez provides inpatient and outpatient general respirology care and serves as the Nunavut consultant in respiratory medicine, including tuberculosis. He also works regularly in The Ottawa Hospital’s TB clinic.

He has established several clinical programs, including the introduction of 3HP for LTBI treatment in Ottawa and a sputum induction program that improves the diagnosis of pulmonary infections. This sputum induction program was later expanded to Nunavut, where it is now standard of care. He also founded a dedicated Non-Tuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM) Clinic at The Ottawa Hospital.

Research Administration
Dr. Alvarez has contributed extensively to research leadership and peer-review activities. He has served on CIHR grant review committees and the Ottawa Hospital Department of Medicine Research Advisory Committee. He has been a reviewer for the Canadian Lung Association and the Canadian HIV Trials Network. He has been a contributing editor for the several editions of the Canadian Tuberculosis Standards.

Education (Research and Clinical)
A committed educator and mentor, Dr. Alvarez has supervised numerous medical students, residents, and graduate students, many of whom have gone on to publish peer-reviewed research. He has long supported thesis advisory committees at the University of Ottawa’s School of Public Health and oversees the weekly respirology fellows’ clinic.

He teaches across multiple training programs, delivering academic half-day sessions for Respirology, General Medicine, and ICU fellows, and providing annual lectures at the medical school in both French and English. He has contributed to exam development, OSCE assessments, and preparatory exams for graduating fellows. Students and residents frequently join him in TB clinic for hands-on clinical learning.

Since 2015, he has been a regular lecturer at McGill University’s annual summer course on TB research methods.

Dr. Alvarez is fluent in English, French, and Spanish