Clinical Trials at the Speed of COVID-19: Flexibility and Rapid Innovation

The Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences (CHÉOS) in partnership with the UBC School of Population and Public Health (SPPH), presents the first in a symposium series dedicated to discussing clinical trials that are timely, responsive and adaptive to emergent health emergencies.

In 2020, a novel coronavirus began to spread across the world, and saving lives meant acting quickly. New vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics had to be identified and tested in record time. Please join us for a conversation about lessons learned, challenges faced, and potential opportunities to mobilize a rapid response for the next global health crisis.

Our fight with COVID-19 is not over, but preparing for the future starts now.

Click here to RSVP for this hybrid event and click here to join the event via Zoom.

Guest speakers (1:00 pm – 4:00 pm PT in order of appearance):

Dr. Aslam Anis: Event Welcome 
Director, CHÉOS; Director and Professor, School of Population and Public Health, UBC

Dr. Peter Singer: “Clinical trials, health emergency preparedness, and the Sustainable Development Goals”
Special Advisor to the Director General, World Health Organization (WHO); Adjunct Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto

Dr. Cecilia Costiniuk: “COVAXHIV: Tracking a pandemic in continuous evolution”
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Experimental Medicine, McGill University; Investigator, CIHR Canadian HIV Trials Network

Dr. Srinivas Murthy: “Sharing learnings and frustrations in implementing a global-level clinical trial”
Clinical Associate Professor, Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, UBC;  Co-Chair, Clinical Research Committee on COVID-19, WHO

Dr. Natasha Press: “Sharing learnings and frustrations in implementing a global-level clinical trial, a St. Paul’s clinician’s perspective”
Clinical Associate Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, UBC

Dr. Jim Russell: “A Tale of Two Cities – trials and tribulations in COVID-19″
Professor, Faculty of Medicine, UBC; Principal Investigator, Centre for Heart Lung Innovation

Dr. Jay Park: “Moving forward in clinical research with adaptive platform trials”
Director, Platform Trials Initiative, Canadian Critical Care Trials Group (CCCTG); Assistant Professor, McMaster University

Dr. Prabhakaran Dorairaj: “Building global networks and collaborations during COVID-19″
Vice President (Research and Policy) and Director, Centre for Control of Chronic Conditions, Public Health Foundation of India

Panelists (4:00 pm – 5:00 pm PT):

Dr. Darryl Knight
President, Providence Health Care Research Institute

Dr. Dean Regier
Senior Scientist, Cancer Control Research; BC Cancer; Associate Professor, School of Population and Public Health, UBC

Dr. Gina Ogilvie
Executive Committee Member, COVID-19 Immunity Task Force; Professor, School of Population and Public Health, UBC; Senior Public Health Scientist at BC Centre for Disease Control; Associate Director of Women’s Health Research Institute.

Dr. Joel Singer
Program Head, Clinical Trials, Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences (CHÉOS) and Professor, School of Population and Public Health, UBC (SPPH).

Dr. Megan Bettle
Executive Director, Clinical Trials, Canadian Institutes of Health Research | Instituts de recherche en santé du Canada