MPH Faculty

Shehzad Ali, PhD

Associate Professor & Canada Research Chair in Public Health Economics

Research Interests / Specializations: Monitoring equity and efficiency of health systems using administrative data, Health policy analysis using observational data, Economic evaluation for health technology assessment, Developing predictive algorithms for patient outcomes, Elicitation of value judgments and treatment preferences to inform resource allocation Teaching: Thesis supervision for MSc

Danielle Battram, PhD

Associate Professor

Research Interests / Specializations: My research interests lie in the prevention of chronic disease and on improving food literacy in all society. My areas of focus have been on the implementation of school-based interventions that aim to help children and their families lead healthier lives by improving their overall food literacy levels. Additionally, I also am interested in the various factors that influence children's and adolescent's decisions to choose certain foods, and in particular, beverages.

Paula Dworatzek, PhD, RD

Profesor

Research Interests / Specializations: Dr. Dworatzek's overarching research interests are related to the school food environment (elementary, secondary, and post-secondary) and its impact on students' eating behaviours. In addition, she is involved in nutrition education program planning and evaluation with the FRESH program at Western, including projects related to food skills. Lastly, she has a long-standing interest in chronic disease prevention, particularly obesity and diabetes, and has been the lead author in the development of the Nutrition Therapy chapter for the Canadian Diabetes Association's Clinical Practice Guidelines.

Ava John-Baptiste, PhD

Associate Professor

Research Interests / Specializations: Dr. John-Baptiste is an expert in health technology assessment. She conducts research on the safety, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a wide range of health technologies, including drugs, devices and health care programs. Dr. John-Baptiste is experienced in all areas of evidence synthesis including systematic review, meta-analysis and decision analytic modeling. She applies these skills to inform clinicians and other health policy decision-makers about the health benefits and cost impacts that can result from health-related decisions.

Daniel Lizotte, PhD

Associate Professor

Research Interests / Specializations: Dr. Lizotte is Assistant Professor, jointly appointed to the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics at the University of Western Ontario. He develops methodology grounded in machine learning and biostatistics for supporting complex decision making with a focus on health, from public health to precision medicine. Dr. Lizotte's work is inherently multidisciplinary, and is situated in machine learning, biostatistics, health equity, and primary care. Although his work spans a variety of methodological techniques and application areas, his goal is always to improve support for data-driven decision-making. Key to Dr. Lizotte's research philosophy is knowledge translation, and by building relationships with healthcare organizations he works to bridge the gap between machine learning research and healthcare and public health practice.

Gerald McKinley, PhD

Associate Professor

Research Interests / Specializations: Dr. McKinley is a medical anthropologist who specializes in the social determinants of mental health and Indigenous youth suicide prevention in Ontario, Canada. Dr. McKinley conducts research in partnership with First Nations across northern Ontario. His current research focuses on change and adaption across generations and how changes to land based activities impact social processes. Dr. McKinley is also a member of the Walpole Island First Nation/Western University Ecosystem Health Research Team which is studying the long-term health effects of environmental stress on the community.

Nicole Redvers, ND

Associate Professor

Research Interests / Specializations: Indigenous Health, Planetary Health, Traditional Medicine, Indigenous Knowledge Translation, Indigenous Global Health

Bridget Ryan, PhD

Assistant Professor

Research Interests / Specializations: Dr. Bridget Ryan is an Assistant Professor and Epidemiologist in the Departments of Family Medicine and Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Western University. Dr. Ryan’s research concerns primary health care focussing on patient-centred care and health care delivery, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. She is the Measurement Lead for the CIHR-funded Patient-centred Innovations for Persons with Multimorbidity Research Team. She has an interest in large datasets including Statistics Canada surveys, electronic medical record databases and health administrative data. Dr. Ryan is a Faculty Scholar with the Western site for the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES).

Shannon Sibbald, PhD

Associate Professor

Research Interests / Specializations: As a health systems researcher, my interests span the health care continuum and focus on process, outcomes and evaluation of team-based care delievery. My program of research includes implementation science: the study of knowledge processes (capturing, sharing, using, storing). I use primarily qualitative research methods including multiple-case comparison, narrative approach, grounded theory, content and discourse analysis.

Amanda Terry, PhD

Associate Professor

Research Interests / Specializations: Dr. Terry's research in primary health care focuses on understanding issues in electronic medical record (EMR) adoption among primary health care practitioners, in developing approaches to measuring EMR data quality, and in exploring ways to enhance the value of EMRs in primary health care practice. She also works to enhance the connection among primary health care stakeholders in Canada, and to build research capacity.

Amardeep Thind, MD, PhD

Director and Professor

Research Interests / Specializations: I am a head and neck surgeon with a doctorate in health services research. My areas of research interest and expertise are access to care (especially for vulnerable populations), health equity, program evaluation, and electronic medical records. I work on these issues both in Canada and internationally.

Lloy Wylie, PhD

Associate Professor

Research Interests / Specializations: Dr. Wylie's research is primarily focused on equity and cultural safety in health services delivery. Her applied approach includes supporting the development of interdisciplinary multi-sector models of service coordination that can improve continuity of care. Her current projects examine access to and experiences with health care services for Indigenous peoples and immigrant/ refugee populations. She also focuses on cultural competency of health care providers and institutions. In addition, she examines governance and models of care among First Nations controlled health services. Her work also examines the effectiveness of educational initiatives in changing health care practices, through community based evaluation.