Research Programs

The Clinical Epidemiology Axis is housed in the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology at the Jewish General Hospital. Its mission is to improve the health of individuals and populations through clinical, epidemiological, and methodological research. Investigators in this area focus on cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological, genetics, infectious, mental health, and rheumatic diseases, as well as reproduction, diabetes, and cancer. Several teams from the Clinical Epidemiology Axis conduct knowledge translation (KT) activities to provide the scientific community and decision makers with generated research evidence to improve patients’ health and the quality of the health care system. The research of this axis specifically aims to improve medical practices by evaluating risks and benefits incurred and treatments of different diseases.

The Center for Clinical Epidemiology is also the headquarters for the Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies (CNODES), which undertakes collaborative, multi-year studies to gauge the effects and safety of prescription drugs on those who use them.

One of the principal tools of this axis which has been developed in recent years is the use and exploitation of existing databases, such as those of the RAMQ and the CPRD, which permit access to historical data on different treatments and clinical results. The axis has therefore developed methodological expertise, specifically in the area of medications, and the necessary technologies for the management and statistical analysis of these mega-databases. A more recent focus of its researchers is to work on transforming in-patient hospital care through a high-risk/high-benefit program which harnesses recent advances in genomics and machine learning to prevent adverse drug reactions, as well as identifying genetic causes of disease to use genetics and genomics to improve patient care and screening programs.