Health Policy

PhD, expected Spring 2022

Part-Time Student

Manisha Pahwa is a PhD student in the Health Policy program at the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis (CHEPA) at McMaster University. Her PhD thesis is entitled “Inclusion of workers in lung cancer screening using low-dose computed tomography: Ethical considerations and policy implications for occupational lung cancer screening and prevention”. She has published several primary research papers and systematic reviews in the cancer, occupational, and epidemiology literature.  Manisha is a recipient of the 2019-2020 Ontario Graduate Scholarship, and currently holds a Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarship Doctoral Award (CGS-D) from CIHR. Her expected graduation date is Spring 2022.

Health Policy & Medicine

MD/PhD, expected 2024

Full-Time Student

Alice Cavanagh is an MD/PhD student, beginning her studies at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine and in McMaster University's Health Policy Doctoral Program in 2017. Alice’s doctoral research is entitled 'Teaching Trauma: Supporting Canadian Trainee Physicians in Responding to Survivors of Sexual Violence’ and uses qualitative methodologies to understand how medical learners learn to think about sexual violence through the course of their medical training. She has been supported in her doctoral studies by the Physician Services Incorporated Research Trainee Award, an Ontario Graduate Scholarship, and a Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canadian Graduate Scholarship Doctoral Award (CGS-D) from CIHR. She is expected to complete her doctoral studies in 2022 and to complete her MD in 2024.

Health Research Methodology

PhD

Sujane Kandasamy is a current CIHR Vanier Scholar and PhD Candidate in the Health Research Methodology Program studying how to design and evaluate pregnancy-focused patient and physician knowledge translation interventions (2017-present). Since 2013, Sujane and Meredith have worked together on various research projects to understand the perspectives and experiences of marginalized communities in Canada/comparable health contexts and to decolonize qualitative research methodologies. This work has occurred in relation to Sujane’s MSc thesis  "Elder women's perceptions around optimal perinatal health: a constructivist grounded theory study with an Indigenous community in Southern Ontario." (2013-2015), her doctoral thesis, and other policy responsive projects. Since 2017, Sujane and Meredith have published six systematic reviews/qualitative meta-syntheses with other researchers, experts, and advisors and four primary qualitative studies. Most recently, Meredith and Sujane partnered with Yotakahron Jonathan (medical student from Six Nations) to understand the perspectives, preferences, and experiences of Indigenous women related to participation in cervical cancer screening. To advance decolonized qualitative evidence synthesis approaches, we used a modified version of the Two Row Wampum-Covenant Chain Tradition, a Haudenosaunee two-eyed seeing analytic approach that integrates Western approaches with Indigenous worldviews. We are currently working with an Indigenous illustrator to conceptualize our findings into a visual schematic.

Master’s of Health Science Education

MHSEd, expected Fall 2020

Part-Time Student

Simone is a practicing midwife completing her Master’s of Health Science Education. Her thesis is a systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative research on the experiences of sickle cell screening and diagnosis.

Master’s of Health Science Education

MHSEd, expected Fall 2023

Part-Time Student

Cindy is a practicing medical oncologist just beginning her thesis in the Master’s of Health Science Education program. Her thesis work will concern the development and portrayal of empathy in end-of-life care providers.

Project

Decision-making about cannabis in pregnancy and breastfeeding; Canadian Patient Partner Study

Janelle holds a BSc in Psychology & Biology from the University of Toronto, and an MSc in Rehabilitation Science from McMaster. She has conducted and supported research primarily in populations with neurological diagnoses using qualitative and mixed methods. She is very interested in research focused on patient engagement and patient-centered care. Most recently, she worked as a Research Analyst for the medical affairs team of a licensed cannabis producer.

Project

Decision-making about cannabis in pregnancy and breastfeeding

Shipra is an undergraduate summer student in the Life Sciences program. In summer 2020, she will work with the team on a variety of projects.

Project

Medical Education Adaptations in a Pandemic, Medical Education Admissions

Meera has an MSc in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Brock University. She joins the team to work on a variety of medical education projects co-led with Dr. Lawrence Grierson.

Project

Decision-making about cannabis in pregnancy and breastfeeding

Anu is an undergraduate summer student in the Bachelor of Health Sciences program. In summer 2020, she will work with the team on a variety of projects.

Project

Evaluating Health and Social Provider Education about Family Violence Prevention

Ilana holds an MA in International Development Studies from York University. With Meredith, she has worked on projects related to Family Medicine education and direct observation and feedback. She currently coordinates a national study to implement and evaluate education materials encouraging health and social service providers to recognize and respond to people who have experienced family violence. Ilana works out of the Offord Centre for Child Studies with Dr. Melissa Kimber.

Health Research Methodology

Graduated October 2019

Thesis

"Exploring Physician Assistant Role Integration in the Ontario Healthcare System"

Current Position

Assistant Dean, Physician Assistant Program, McMaster University

Master's of Health Science Education

Graduated September 2019

Thesis

“Medical Student Mistreatment: A Journey”

This work was funded in part by the Canadian Association for Medical Education Wooster Family Grant. In this work we describe the experiences of medical students who undergo mistreatment during their training in five phases and look at student suggestions for improved support and changes to the learning environment. Through her Masters studies, Amanda has twice received the Faculty of Health Sciences Graduate Programs Excellence Award and presentation of her thesis results also received an outstanding oral presentation award in 2019 at the Faculty of  Health Science Research Plenary.

Current Positions

Regional Assistant Dean   of the Niagara Campus of the Michael G. DeGroote School of  Medicine

Assistant Clinical Professor, part-time, in the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster

Member of   McMaster's program for Education Research, Innovation, and Theory

Amanda is the past recipient of the McMaster Faculty of Health Science’s John C. Sibley Award for Excellence in Education of a Part-Time Faculty and has been awarded the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario Council Award.

Master's of Health Science Education

Graduated August 2019

Thesis

"Aspiring Physicians from Low-income Backgrounds: Experiences of Barriers and Facilitators to a Career in Medicine"

This work identified several dimensions to the obstacles that are faced by aspiring physicians from low-income backgrounds and how they work around these challenges. It was funded by an Ontario Graduate Scholarship and the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University. Chanté is a member of McMaster's program for Education Research, Innovation, and Theory (MERIT) and has won awards for Graduate Student Excellence, Outstanding Oral Presentation, and Outstanding Thesis Research. She uses her background in anthropology and her interest in design to understand and address social problems in medical education and health care. She recently published an article in Medical Education entitled "When I Say...Merit." Chante’s work was funded by a Ontario Graduate Scholarship Award.

Current Position

User Researcher at   Therapy Innovation Inc.

Master's of Health Science Education

Graduated April 2019

Thesis

"How clinical environments shape the medical learner -clinical teacher relationship"

This work was supported with funds by an overarching project that examined unprofessionalism, mistreatment and abuse that medical learners experienced during their medical training at McMaster University.  Emily’s thesis project found that there are key types of interactions that build trust in the medical learner-clinical teacher relationship. These interactions play a critical role in how the learner perceives a learning environment where they feel they can confidently co-navigate with their teacher, learning within the dynamics of a work environment that can often make learning difficult (i.e. learning from mistakes).

Current Position

Curriculum Design and Education Research Lead, Continuing Health Sciences Education, McMaster University

Inspired by this project, Emily went on to work in Continuing Health Sciences Education at McMaster as a curriculum developer and education research lead. She is actively participating in a McMaster simulation learning community of practice (INSIGHT) and in the process of joining McMaster's program for Education Research, Innovation and Theory (MERIT).

Master's of Health Science Education

Graduated December 2018

Thesis

"The Pearls and Pitfalls of Inter-Organizational Collaborations: Health Systems and Natural Disasters"

Current Position

Registered Nurse, Trauma & Surgical Services, Alberta Health Services

Master's of Health Science Education

Graduated December 2018

Thesis

"Optimization of Faculty Development at a Distributed Medical Campus"

This work examined the role of faculty development in the maturation of a newly implanted community medical campus. We found that a community undergoes a process of transformation to a medical campus as more learners move through the site, and more teachers are recruited and developed. Expert teachers can emerge and communities of practice for faculty development can promote the ongoing development and maintenance of community medical teachers.

Current Position

Geriatrician-Internist, Kitchener-Waterloo

Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Medicine, Waterloo Regional Campus of the McMaster Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine

She is currently conducting research on the use of social media for education in Geriatrics, and can be contacted through her Facebook page The Wrinkle.

Arts & Science

Graduated 2017

Thesis

"Reconciling ethical and economic conceptions of value in health policy using the capabilities approach: A qualitative investigation of Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing"

This work addressed a problem in the discipline of health technology policy-making, wherein ethical vs. economic frameworks used to assess health technologies have different, and sometimes contradictory, ideas of a technology’s value or optimal use. Mia's thesis offered evidence that the Capabilities Approach could be used to align economic and ethical evaluations in HTA, using Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing as an example case.

Current Position

Medical Student, University of Toronto

Mia went on to work as a Research Assistant at the University of Toronto, on a team investigating an HIV epidemic among street-connected youth in Eldoret Kenya, and afterwards as a Research Assistant at the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. She has published in Social Science and Medicine and the Journal of Adolescent Health. Mia started medical school at the University of Toronto in the fall of 2019.

Health Research Methodology

Graduated June 2017

Thesis

"Appraising Qualitative Research for Evidence Syntheses: A Compendium of Quality Appraisal Tools"

This work reviewed the characteristics, content, and usage of high-utility tools for appraising qualitative research in qualitative evidence syntheses. Umair has also worked with Meredith on multiple projects for health technology assessment agencies, for example, HPV testing for primary cervical cancer screening for the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health and non-invasive prenatal testing for Health Quality Ontario.

Current Position

PhD student, Health Services Organization and Management, University of Toronto

Umair also completed his MEd in innovative curriculum planning from Queen’s University in December 2018. In his current position, he is formulating recommendations for hospitals on engaging patients in health service planning and improvement activities. He is expected to graduate from this program in June 2021. Umair is also an Instructor at McMaster University teaching courses on epidemiology, the Canadian healthcare system, pathophysiology, organizational behavior, and performance measurement. He continues to consult with health technology assessment agencies to provide evidence on patient perspectives and experiences as well as implementation considerations for interventions, drugs, and technologies.

Project

Provider Experiences of Medical Assistance in Dying; Black women’s experiences of cervical cancer screening

Kayonne Christy graduated from McMaster’s Health Studies undergraduate program in June 2019. Meredith supervised Kayonne’s independent reading course on Black feminist approaches to understanding health inequities. The final product of this course was a comprehensive literature review and research proposal entitled, “Let’s talk about stress, baby: A Black feminist approach to understanding prenatal sources of stress among pregnant Black women”. This review found that mutually reinforcing systems of oppression (i.e. racism, sexism and classism) intersect to act as chronic psychosocial stressors in the lives of Black women, and contribute to a variety of negative maternal and perinatal health outcomes. The findings from this literature review have been presented at two academic conferences, Meredith's Qualitative Health Research Lab meeting, and a McMaster Medicine OBGYN and LGBTQ+ Health Interest Group meeting. Kayonne is currently a Board Member of the Hamilton Urban Core Community Health Centre, and a member of the Race, Racialization & Racism working group of McMaster’s Presidents Advisory Committee on Building an Inclusive Community (PACBIC). Kayonne is a SSHRC CGS-M award recipient, and is currently completing her MA in Sociology (with a double specialization in Health & Healthcare, and Race, Ethnicity & Immigration) at the University of British Columbia.

Project

Women and clinician’s experiences of non-invasive prenatal testing

Alexandra Cernat graduated from the Honours Life Sciences program at McMaster University in June 2018. She worked with Meredith as a Research Assistant for two years, studying stakeholders' perspectives, and the social and ethical implications of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT). During that time, Alexandra was the first author of a systematic literature review and qualitative meta-synthesis of women's experiences of informed choice around NIPT titled "Facilitating informed choice about non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT): a systematic review and qualitative meta-synthesis of women’s experiences" published in BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. Alexandra also contributed to the authorship of a systematic literature review on the social and ethical implications of NIPT commissioned by Health Quality Ontario, called "Perspectives of pregnant people and clinicians on noninvasive prenatal testing: a systematic review and qualitative meta-synthesis", as well as to a qualitative paper published in BMC Medical Ethics called "Women's perspectives on the ethical implications of non-invasive prenatal testing: a qualitative analysis to inform health policy decisions," which found that the main ethical issues for women seeking NIPT are its place in the prenatal pathway, clinician counselling about NIPT, and industry influence on the diffusion of the test.

Alexandra is currently a Master's student in the Health Services Research program at the Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation (IHPME) at the University of Toronto.

Project

3 Wishes Project, Making & Enacting Decisions about Excess Gestational Weight Gain

Marina is currently a Research Assistant with the Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University.

Project

Physician Experiences of Clinical Intuition

Eamon is currently completing his PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Ottawa.

Project

Medical Education Admissions, Women and clinician’s experiences of non-invasive prenatal testing

Raquel is currently completing her PhD in Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Yale School of Public Health, Yale University.