Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

Research News

	A simple feedback letter improves how family doctors prescribe antibiotics July 23, 2024 - “As the main prescribers of antibiotics, family doctors play a leading role in preventing the overuse and misuse of these precious medications. This trial demonstrates that feedback is an effective way to support them.”
	COVID-19 vaccines may help reduce inappropriate use of antibiotics May 3, 2023 - Antibiotics were commonly prescribed to older outpatients with COVID-19 in Ontario during the first two years of the pandemic, even though antibiotics do not work against the virus.
	New Scientist Profile: Dr. Giorgia Sulis fights antibiotic resistance through research and education April 18, 2023 - Infectious disease epidemiologist Dr. Giorgia Sulis knows that antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest health threats of our time. Because antibiotics are overused world-wide, bacteria that cause conditions like pneumonia, tuberculosis, blood poi
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	Healthcare crises affect how survivors of sexual assault seek help January 3, 2023 - Pandemic restrictions were associated with reduced rates of emergency department visits for sexual assault, signaling the need for trauma and violence-informed measures during healthcare crises, according to a new study using ICES data.
	Physician mental health care visits increased 27 percent during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic January 21, 2022 - Annual rates of outpatient visits for mental health and substance use among Ontario physicians increased by 27 percent during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open. There were 1,038 visits per 1,
	Expanding plasma donation to be more inclusive October 28, 2021 - Research led by Dr. Elisabeth Vesnaver, a postdoctoral fellow on Dr. Justin Presseau’s team, directly contributed to the development of Canadian Blood Services’ new donor screening processes for source plasma donation, a type of blood donation.
	Stopping COVID-19 with behavioral science and artificial intelligence June 8, 2020 - Dr. Justin Presseau and colleagues plan to use state-of-the-art behavioural science and artificial intelligence to develop an app that can help people reduce how much they touch their eyes, nose and mouth.
	New COVID-19 projections show how physical distancing can make a huge difference in Ottawa April 8, 2020 - Researchers from The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa, in partnership with Ottawa Public Health, have created a new interactive Ottawa COVID-19 website, that predicts various scenarios around the number of hospitalizations and deaths in O
	Dr. Doug Manuel awarded title of Distinguished University Professor September 24, 2019 - The physician and researcher has dedicated his career to improving the health of communities and reducing inequities in health care.
	Dr. Jeremy Grimshaw elected into Royal Society of Canada September 10, 2019 - Dr. Jeremy Grimshaw has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a group called upon to make significant and substantial contributions of knowledge, understanding, and insight through engagement with the larger society.
	New scientist profile: Dr. James Downar wants more people to benefit from palliative care August 7, 2019 - Dr. James Downar has many ideas about how to improve end of life care, and in Ottawa he’s found enthusiastic colleagues and an integrated palliative care system well suited to the task.
	Researchers get $745,000 boost from NSERC May 29, 2019 - Four scientists from The Ottawa Hospital, affiliated with the University of Ottawa, were successful in the recent discovery grant competition from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
	Do-not-resuscitate (DNR) and do-not-hospitalize (DNH) orders not enough to prevent potentially avoidable hospital visits: study April 15, 2019 - Do-not-resuscitate (DNR) and do-not-hospitalize (DNH) orders in long-term care homes (nursing homes) across Ontario led to reductions in rates of hospitalizations and hospital deaths, but did not eliminate these potentially inappropriate transfers, a
	Guidelines can help patients avoid unnecessary blood transfusions April 15, 2019 - Dr. Dean Fergusson played a lead role in an important set of guidelines for patient blood management published in JAMA.
	Helping evidence-based public health guidelines work in the real world April 3, 2019 - Dr. Jeremy Grimshaw played an important role in an international exercise to strengthen how the World Health Organization develops guidelines to improve public health.
	Clinicians at The Ottawa Hospital launch 14 innovative projects to improve health-care delivery, thanks to funding from TOHAMO and The Ottawa Hospital’s Research Institute March 22, 2019 - The Ottawa Hospital Academic Medical Organization (TOHAMO) has awarded $1.169 million in Innovation Grants to 14 teams, with supporting funds provided by the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.
	Can behavioural science help reduce unnecessary medical tests? March 11, 2019 - Up to one in three medical tests and treatments in Canada are not needed, and can expose patients to harm, stress, and longer wait times.
	Jeremy Grimshaw and David Moher ranked among world’s top researchers March 8, 2019 - Drs. Jeremy Grimshaw and David Moher have once again been ranked among the world’s top scientists. According to Clarivate Analytics, they are both among the most highly cited scientists in the world in the field of Social Sciences, with tens of thous
	Researchers use leading-edge technology to study teamwork and communication in the operating room February 15, 2019 - Researchers at The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa are studying whether improving teamwork and communication among operating room staff can make surgery safer for patients. Studies suggest that over half of surgery complications can be l
	Can a calculator predict your risk of heart attack and stroke? July 23, 2018 - Canadian researchers have built and validated an online calculator that empowers individuals to predict their risk of cardiovascular disease. Their process was published today in the journal CMAJ, and the calculator is available at projectbiglife.com
	Finding better ways to bring health research to life: World-leading Centre for Implementation Research opens at The Ottawa Hospital January 18, 2018 - Researchers regularly make discoveries that have the potential to improve patient care and quality of life. However, getting those findings adopted by health-care systems can be a challenge. Researchers at The Ottawa Hospital are already world l
	Researchers tap into human behaviour to improve patient safety February 2, 2017 - The Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI) announced a new partnership with Dr. Jeremy Grimshaw and his colleagues at The Ottawa Hospital’s Centre for Implementation Research. They will apply their knowledge of implementation and behavioural scie
	15 tips for giving feedback to health-care providers June 8, 2016 - A key tool for improving quality in health care is to audit how it is being provided and give feedback on how to improve. However, some kinds of feedback are more helpful than others. Dr. Jamie Brehaut and colleagues set out to learn what feedbac

Researchers

Name	Scientific appointment	Diseases, conditions and populations of interest	Research and clinical approaches
Boet, Sylvain MD, PhD	Scientist (ACR)	COVID-19	Anesthesiology, Behaviour, Clinical trials, Knowledge translation and implementation research, Patient engagement, Psychology, Qualitative methods, Quality Improvement, Surgery, Systematic reviews, Translational research
Brehaut, Jamie PhD	Senior Scientist (MIR)		Behaviour, Health professional behaviour change, Health services research, Knowledge translation and implementation research, Patient decision aids, Patient engagement, Psychology, Psychometrics, Qualitative methods, Shared decision making, Surveys
Dennis, Kristopher MD FRCPC PhD	Clinician Investigator (CR)	Cancer, Colorectal cancer, First Nations, Inuit and Métis Health, Gastric cancer, Liver cancer, Pain, Pancreatic cancer	Behaviour, Biomarkers, Clinical research, Clinical trials, Cohort studies, Health professional behaviour change, Health services research, Palliative care, Pragmatic trials, Qualitative methods, Quality Improvement, Systematic reviews
Grimshaw, Jeremy MBCHB, PHD	Senior Scientist Emeritus (MIR)	COVID-19	Behaviour, Cluster randomized trials, Health professional behaviour change, Health research methods, Health services research, Knowledge translation and implementation research, Patient engagement, Qualitative methods, Quality Improvement, Surveys, Systematic reviews
MacPherson, Paul PhD, MD, FRCPC	Scientist (MIR)	Anxiety, Depression, Gay men's health, HIV, Infectious disease, Men's health, Sexually transmitted infections	Behaviour, Cohort studies, Epidemiology, Health promotion, Health services research, Knowledge translation and implementation research, Prevention, Psychology, Qualitative methods, Surveys
Poulin, Patricia C. Psych.	Associate Scientist (NS)	Addiction, Anxiety, Cancer, Chronic pain, Depression, Health equity, Musculoskeletal conditions, Pain	Anesthesiology, Behaviour, Biomarkers, Clinical research, Clinical trials, Emergency medicine, Epidemiology, Health professional behaviour change, Health services research, Knowledge translation and implementation research, Palliative care, Patient decision aids, Patient safety, Peri-operative medicine, Pragmatic trials, Psychology, Qualitative methods, Quality Improvement, Systematic reviews
Presseau, Justin PhD	Senior Scientist (MIR)	Chronic pain, COVID-19, Diabetes, Health equity, Hepatitis C, Immigrant and refugee health, Inflammatory bowel syndrome, Retinal disease, Vision	Artificial intelligence and data science, Health services research, Patient engagement, Psychometrics, Public health, Qualitative methods, Quality Improvement, Rapid reviews, Transfusions, Transplantation, Behaviour, Psychology, Health professional behaviour change, Knowledge translation and implementation research, Health promotion, Cluster randomized trials, Surveys
Ramsay, Timothy PhD	Senior Scientist (MIR)	Addiction, Alzheimer's, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Anxiety, Ataxia, Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Autism, Bipolar, Brain and neuromuscular disease, Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Colorectal cancer, Concussion, Cystic fibrosis, Dementia, Depression, First Nations, Inuit and Métis Health, HIV, Immigrant and refugee health, Influenza, Kidney disease, Lung cancer, Macular degeneration, Men's health, Multiple sclerosis, Muscular dystrophy, Myasthenia gravis, Obesity, Ovarian cancer, Parkinson's, Pulmonary hypertension, Septic shock, Spinal cord injury	Artificial intelligence and data science, Behaviour, Biomaterials, Biostatistics, Cell therapy, Clinical decision rules, Clinical research, Clinical trials, Cohort studies, Critical care, Drug development, Emergency medicine, Epidemiology, Health professional behaviour change, Health promotion, Health research methods, Health services research, Health technology, Immunization, Immunotherapy, Palliative care, Patient decision aids, Pharmacology, Pharmacy, Prevention, Psychology, Psychometrics, Public health, Qualitative methods, Quality Improvement, Regenerative medicine, Rehabilitation, Risk assessment, Shared decision making, Surgery, Surveys, Systematic reviews, Transfusions, Translational research, Transplantation, Viral therapy
Santos, Marlise MD (FRCPC), MSc, MPH	Clinician Investigator (NS)	Alzheimer's, Anxiety, Ataxia, Autoimmune disease, Autoimmune diseases of the nervous system, Blood cancer, Brain and neuromuscular disease, Brain cancer, Cancer, Concussion, Dementia, Depression, Global health, Head and neck cancer, Health equity, Health in disadvantaged peoples, Infectious disease, Intellectual disabilities, Multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, Population health, Sickle cell anemia, Spinal cord injury, Stroke, Subarachnoid hemorrhage, Thrombosis / thromboembolism, Traumatic brain injury, Traumatic injuries, Vascular cognitive impairment, Vascular, heart and metabolic disease	Artificial intelligence and data science, Basic research, Behaviour, Biostatistics, Cancer biotherapeutics, Clinical decision rules, Clinical research, Clinical trials, Cohort studies, Critical care, Epidemiology, Health economics, Health research methods, Health services research, Health technology, Imaging, Patient safety, Pragmatic trials, Prevention, Public health, Qualitative methods, Quality Improvement, Shared decision making, Surgery, Surveys, Systematic reviews
Walker, Lisa PhD, C.Psych	Clinician Investigator (NS)	Anxiety, Autoimmune disease, Autoimmune diseases of the nervous system, Brain and neuromuscular disease, Dementia, Depression, Mental health, Multiple sclerosis	Behaviour, Biomarkers, Clinical research, Exercise, Imaging, Psychology, Psychometrics, Rehabilitation, Stem cells, Systematic reviews, Translational research