Mark Clemons

Dr Mark Clemons is a Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (Cancer Therapeutics Program), staff medical oncologist (Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre) and Professor of Medicine (University of Ottawa). A proponent of high-quality clinical research trial, he is involved in a large number of studies for patients with early stage, locally advanced and metastatic breast cancer. He is the recipient of multiple peer-reviewed research grants and is widely published in the field of breast cancer management. His publications also reflect eclectic topics such as; retirement planning, oncologist quality of life and issues such as preventing spam. His work on strategies to improve tissue acquisition during systemic therapy have also improved the assessment of both the efficacy of novel therapeutic agents but also innovative ways of administering established agents. His current research vision is to remove many of the barriers that lead to the development of multiple standard of care therapies with very little data to actually show which treatment is best in the real world setting. This has cumulated in the creation of the REthinking Clinical Trials (REaCT) program in Ottawa. This program places the patient and their family at the core of designing and implementing trials that actually directly improve patient care, through the performance of patient surveys, health care provider surveys, systematic reviews, economic analysis, feasibility trials and definitive efficacy trials. This is Canada’s largest pragmatic oncology trials program.

Lead physician of the REaCT (Rethinking Clinical Trials) Program; a national, multicentre oncology trials program to improve enrollment of patients into pragmatic clinical trials that actually impact patient management. The REaCT program provides infrastructure for patient and physician surveys, systematic reviews, and pragmatic clinical trials that compare standard of care procedures. The REaCT Program is now a core program within OHRI.