2026 Allan Donner Lecture: Dr. Robert Platt
Date: Friday, March 27
Time: 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Location: PHFM 3015 (Western Centre for Public Health and Family Medicine) or Zoom (link may be requested at EpiBio@uwo.ca)
Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies at 15: Evaluating medications for Canadian stakeholders
Robert Platt
Director
School of Population and Global Health
McGill University
Albert Boehringer Chair in Pharmacoepidemiology
Short Biography:
Robert Platt is Director of the School of Population and Global Health, and Professor in the Departments of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, and of Pediatrics, at McGill University. He holds the Albert Boehringer I endowed chair in Pharmacoepidemiology. Dr. Platt is Principal Investigator of the Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies (CNODES). His research focuses on improving methods for the study of medications using administrative data, with an emphasis on methods for causal inference and a substantive focus on medications in pregnancy. Dr. Platt was an editor-in-chief of Statistics in Medicine from 2019-2025 and is on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Epidemiology and Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety. He has published over 400 articles, one book and several book chapters on biostatistics and epidemiology. Dr. Platt is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and of the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology.
Abstract:
The Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies (CNODES) is a pan- Canadian network of over 100 scientists, including pharmacoepidemiologists, clinicians, statisticians, data analysts, and other researchers studying the effectiveness and safety of drugs. CNODES was established in 2011 and is now funded by Canada’s Drug Agency. CNODES carries out studies in response to queries from government partners (e.g., Health Canada, European Medicines Agency, FDA, provincial drug plans). Using administrative healthcare data on millions of individuals across Canada as well as internationally (the United Kingdom Clinical Practice Research Datalink and the United States MarketScan), CNODES studies have examined the utilization and effects of widely-used drugs and informed regulatory decision-making. In addition to answering drug safety queries from regulators, CNODES contributes to strengthening Canadian research capacity through training, methods development, and knowledge translation. In this presentation I will review CNODES’ query responses and research accomplishments as the network approaches its’ fifteen-year anniversary, and outline some thoughts on the future of drug safety research and regulation in Canada.
Keywords:
Pharmacoepidemiology; data science; post-market research
About Allan Donner, PhD FRSC:
Allan Donner, PhD, FRSC, is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Western University and a former Director of Biostatistics at Robarts Clinical Trials, Inc. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Manitoba and obtained his Doctorate degree in Statistics from Harvard University, followed by four years at the Channing Laboratory, Harvard Medical School. He served as Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Western from 1987 to 2003.
Allan Donner's methodological research includes extensive contributions to the design and analysis of clinical trials, including many publications in leading journals, frequent invited presentations, and service on numerous Data Safety and Monitoring Committees. His interest in cluster randomization trials has led to his participation in several perinatal epidemiology trials sponsored by the World Health Organization and trials of vaccination strategies designed to prevent typhoid and cholera in developing countries, as sponsored by the International Vaccine Institute. Allan Donner is co-author (with Neil Klar, PhD) of the book “Design and Analysis of Cluster Randomization Trials in Health Research” (Wiley, 2000), the first text in this field that focused exclusively on randomized trials conducted in the health sciences.
Over the course of his career, Allan Donner has been a member of several Health Canada Advisory Committees including the Committee on Pharmaceutical Sciences and Clinical Pharmacology. He is currently a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, the American College of Epidemiology and the Royal Society of Canada.
View the complete Seminar Series Listing. View information about our Named Seminars.
View the event poster.
