PERC-CANADA.CA - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
- National Coordinator for the PERC
- PERC Network National Coordinator
Andrea Eaton is the national coordinator for the PERC network. She is responsible for providing full scope research administrative support for the entire network and ensures the sustainability and running of the network. She is a registered nurse and has been involved in pediatric emergency research since 2014 as a clinical research nurse and research coordinator.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Board
Dr. Burstein graduated from the McGill University combined M.D/Ph.D program (2010), followed by residency in General Pediatrics (2013) and fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine (2015) at the Montreal Children's Hospital, where he has been a PEM Attending and Trauma Team Leader ever since. He obtained an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health (2018) and was subsequently appointed as a Clinician-Scientist at the McGill University Health Centre Research Institute. Dr. Burstein is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and holds a Clinical Research Scholar career award from the Quebec Health Research Fund (FRQ-S). He serves on the Research Committee of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP), and he is also a Decision Editor for the Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine. He has authored over 50 peer-reviewed articles, commentaries and book chapters with over 4500 citations. The primary focus of his research program is the management of febrile young infants, and he is the principal author on national guidelines from the Canadian Paediatric Society and TREKK Bottom Line Recommendations.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Board
Dr. Bruce Wright completed his Doctor of Medicine and Pediatric Residency at the University of Manitoba in 1999 and his emergency medicine fellowship training at Cincinnati Children's Hospital in 2002. Dr. Wright joined the Department of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine in 2002 at the Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2008. He is cross appointed to the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Alberta. His research interests include many areas including respiratory diseases, trauma and mental health in the pediatric emergency department.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Board
- Physician at the Hospital for Sick Children
Dr. Gabrielle Freire is a pediatric emergency physician at The Hospital for Sick Children and a Clinician-Scientist Track Investigator at the Peter Gilgan Center for Research and Learning. She holds an assistant-professor position within the Department of Pediatrics and Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Freire completed her medical degree at McGill University, a Masters in Translational Research at the University of Toronto, and a Graduate Diploma in Clinical Epidemiology from McMaster University. Her CIHR-funded research program is focused on improving Canadian pediatric injury care using principles of implementation science and knowledge translation. Dr. Freire also has an interest in equitable and inclusive access to optimal pediatric emergency and injury care, and is helping develop guidelines to better study and monitor equitable access to care for Canadian children.
Dr. Freire is also a PERC representative and member of the executive committee for the Pediatric Emergency Research Networks (PERN). In this role, she collaborates with national and international pediatric emergency research leaders in shaping the direction, and accelerating the execution of pediatric emergency research globally.
Job Titles:
- Fellow
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Representative
Dr. Kellie Cloney is a 2nd year Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellow at Western University and London Health Sciences Centre. She is currently one of the co-chief fellows for the program. She completed a Master of Science degree prior to entering medical school at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, focusing on developmental biology and molecular genetics. During her medical training, she used her skills in research to complete a project investigating a rare pediatric genetic condition through the development of a zebrafish model for CHARGE syndrome. She is passionate about research of all types and has more recently focused her efforts on quality improvement in pediatrics. Firstly, investigating how we can optimize our use of High-Flow Nasal Cannula in infants, and most recently investigating how we can improve outcomes in the care of pediatric patients with traumatic brain injury.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Executive Committee
- Vice - Chair
- Physician at the Stollery Children 's Hospital
Dr. Samina Ali is a pediatric emergency physician at the Stollery Children's Hospital (Edmonton, Alberta) and a Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at the University of Alberta. She recently completed a Mayday Pain and Society Fellowship in Science Communications (2019). Dr. Ali is a national award-winning researcher (CAEP Research of the Year Award, 2021), mentor (CAEP Dr. Richard Kohn Memorial Award for Mentorship, 2018), educator (CAEP Dr. Helen Karounis Memorial Award for Professionalism in EM, 2019), and leader (CAPHC National Individual Leadership Award, 2018). She is currently Vice-Chair of Pediatric Emergency Research Canada (PERC), Research Director for Pediatric Emergency Medicine (PEAK, University of Alberta), and the Western Canadian hub lead for Solutions for Kids in Pain (SKIP), a national knowledge mobilization network. She is also a Steering Committee member for the Alberta Pain Strategy.
Her research program concerns better treatment of children's acute pain, with a focus on responsible prescribing of opioid analgesia and the management of medical procedure-related pain. She has holds national and international funding for studies informing best care for children with acute injury and illness, and has published over 150 articles in this area. You can check out Dr. Ali's research here.
Job Titles:
- Emergency Medicine Physician
- Member of the Executive Board
Dr. Waleed Alqurashi is a pediatric emergency medicine physician in the Division of Emergency Medicine at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. His main academic activity is clinical research and knowledge translation, particularly on allergy and anaphylaxis. Dr. Waleed Alqurashi is the Content Advisor for anaphylaxis at the Translating Emergency Knowledge for Kids (TREKK) and a member of the TREKK Editorial Committee and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (AAAAI) Anaphylaxis Committee. Dr. Alqurashi has received several awards recognizing his clinical and research contributions to anaphylaxis. He is currently leading the Canadian Anaphylaxis Network, a CIHR-funded multicenter research program that aims to develop a biphasic anaphylaxis prediction model and a risk score to guide anaphylaxis care in emergency departments.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Executive Committee
- Vice - Chair
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Chairman of the Executive Committee
- Pediatric Emergency Physician
Dr. Zemek is a Pediatric Emergency physician, a Professor and Clinical Research Chair in Pediatric Concussion at the University of Ottawa, a Senior Scientist at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Research Institute, and Director of the CHEO Clinical Research Unit. He holds several national and international leadership positions including Past-Chair of the Pediatric Emergency Research Canada (PERC) network, and a member of international committees for concussion including NIH-NINDS, International Traumatic Brain Injury Research (InTBIR), and the Canadian Concussion Network.
His program of prospective multicentre research through the PERC network has helped to advance the care and management of pediatric concussion through the derivation and validation of a clinical prediction score for prolonged recovery (5P study), and has helped provide key evidence for the paradigm shift in the acute post-injury management which now recommends the assimilation of early physical activity in order to promote recovery (PedCARE study). He also has studied asthma, bronchiolitis and COVID through the PERC network.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Representative
- Research Coordinator
Tyrus has been with the CHEO Research Institute since 2012. During this time, he has worked as a Research Assistant, Research Coordinator, and as the REDCap Administrator for the Research Institute and CHEO. From these roles, Tyrus has gained experience in both the coordination of clinical trials and also data management for these studies using REDCap. During this time Tyrus has coordinated and managed many single and muti-centre trials, including Health Canada Regulated and PERC studies. Tyrus has been a member of the PERC Executive since 2022.