Anick Bérard PhD FISPE
Jean-Jacques Dugoua HBSc ND PhD (cand.)
Alicja Fishell, MD, FRCPC
Shinya Ito, MD
David Knoppert, MScPhm, FCCP, MSc
Cam Battley, President, Health Strategy Group, Inc.
Anick Bérard PhD FISPE
Anick Bérard holds a BSc in statistics from Université Laval, an MSc in clinical sciences from Université de Sherbrooke, and obtained a PhD in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from McGill University in 1999. From 1999-2000, Dr. Bérard conducted post-doctoral work at Harvard School of Medicine in Boston, and was recruited in 2000 as assistant professor at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in New York City. In 2002, Dr. Bérard joined the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Université de Montréal and the CHU Sainte-Justine. Anick Bérard is associate professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Université de Montréal, chairholder of the Louis-Boivin family research chair on « Medications, pregnancy and lactation », and Director of the research unit on Medications and Pregnancy at the Research Center of CHU Ste-Justine. In addition, she holds a career award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and the Health Research Foundation of Canada.
Dr. Bérard’s research program focuses on the study of the risks and benefits associated with medication exposure during pregnancy and lactation. The major research themes focus on depression, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes, inflammatory diseases, infections, premature birth, smoking, and nausea and vomiting of pregnancy. Dr. Bérard’s research program is funded by the CIHR, the FRSQ, and the National Cancer Institute of Canada.
Jean-Jacques Dugoua HBSc ND PhD (cand.)
Dr. Jean-Jacques Dugoua, or Dr. JJ as he is affectionately known, is a researcher at the Motherisk Program at Sick Kids Hospital. He is a licensed naturopathic doctor and the Clinic Director of the Liberty Clinic in downtown Toronto. Dr. JJ is the first Naturopathic Doctor to practice at the Toronto Western Hospital in the Artist Health Center. Dr. JJ is a co-author of “Herbal Medicines in Pregnancy and Lactation – An Evidence-based Approach First Edition” (Taylor & Francis, 2006), which is a collection of 75 systematic reviews published in one textbook. Dr. JJ has over a dozen peer-reviewed scientific publications published or in press. He is a leading expect on natural health products pharmacology and pregnancy safety.
Dr. JJ is an avid public speaker. He has given over two-dozen presentations to pharmacists, medical professionals, government, academics, artists and musicians, students, teachers and the general public. Dr. JJ has also given presentations internationally, including presentations at the World Health Organization in Washington DC.
Dr. JJ is currently working on his PhD in Pharmacy Sciences at the University of Toronto. As part of his PhD research, Dr. JJ continues to investigate the safety of natural products during pregnancy and lactation at Sick Kids Hospital and he is conducting a clinical trial on the effects of cinnamon on type 2 diabetes at the Toronto Western Hospital.
Alicja Fishell, MD, FRCPC
Reproductive Life Stages Program, Women’s College Hospital
Women’s Mental Health Program, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto
Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto
Dr. Alicja Fishell is a Staff Psychiatrist and the Education Coordinator in the Reproductive Life Stages Program in the Department of Psychiatry at Women’s College Hospital and staff psychiatrist at Sunnybrook Health Science Centre. She is a Lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry and Division of Clinical Pharmacology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. After undergraduate degree in Biochemistry and doctoral work in the area of DNA structure and topology at University of Toronto, she received medical degree from University of Toronto in 1996 and fellowship in Psychiatry with focus on mood and anxiety disorders.
Her clinical interests include women’s reproductive mental health and development of clinical services for integration and continuity of care for women experiencing mental illness in the transition from pregnancy to postpartum period. As Education Coordinator she created and takes part in educational modalities in the reproductive mental health for residents in different medical specialties, in inter-professional education and public education. She is a member of multiple education committees in the Department of Psychiatry and Internal Medicine at the University of Toronto. She has been involved and published in multiple research projects in female paraphilias, in women’s reproductive mental health and in obstetrics, including Characterizing Anxiety in the Perinatal Period, An evidence-based algorithm to quantify risk-benefit decision-making for use of antidepressant medication during pregnancy and lactation, and Sleep and Mood in Women Experiencing High-risk Pregnancy.
Shinya Ito, MD
Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
Dr. Ito is a Professor of Pediatrics, Medicine, and Pharmacology, University of Toronto, and Head, Division of Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology, Hospital for Sick Children. He received his MD from Jichi Medical School, Japan, in 1979. He trained in Pediatrics, followed by Clinical and Research Fellowship in Clinical Pharmacology in Toronto under the mentorship of Dr. Gideon Koren. He joined the faculty in 1995. As a clinician-scientist, he focuses his research effort on breastfeeding pharmacology, ranging from molecular mechanisms of drug excretion into milk, to its pharmacokinetics and infant safety. His clinical safety studies address breastfeeding safety of drugs such as citalopram, St. John’s wort, cyclosporine, and fluoxetine. Molecular studies from his research program revealed a network of drug transporting proteins in the human mammary gland, and unexpected link between osmolality and expression of drug metabolizing enzymes. He serves as a review member for various granting agencies such as the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and NIH.
David Knoppert, MScPhm, FCCP, MSc
Mr. David Knoppert received his Bachelor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Toronto in 1980. He then completed a Residency in Hospital Pharmacy at University Hospital in London and began as a staff pharmacist at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. In 1986, he completed an MScPhm from the University of Toronto where he worked in Clinical Pharmacology with Drs. Michael Spino and Stuart McLeod. In 1986, he became the NICU Pharmacist at St. Joseph's Hospital in London. In 2004, he completed his MSc-Clinical Epidemiology from The University of Western Ontario.
Research Interests
Mr. Knoppert's research interests are in the areas of neonatal therapeutics (pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics), the effects of drugs in pregnancy on the newborn and drugs and breastfeeding.
Research Activities
Current research projects include subcutaneous administration of Vitamin A in premature newborns, the prophylactic use of metoclopramide in premature newborns and a dose response study of domperidone use to enhance breast milk production. Future research projects include retrospective studies on the use of enoxaparin and indomethacin in the premature newborn, in addition to the effects of SSRI exposure on the newborn.
Cam Battley, President, Health Strategy Group, Inc.
Cam Battley is a health care sector management consultant who works with health care companies and not-for-profit organizations. He combines experience in government, non-governmental organizations, the biopharmaceutical industry, communications and patient advocacy. His company’s clients include national and international health professional and patient NGOs, innovative and generic pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology firms and medical device manufacturers, in North America, Europe and Africa. Before founding Health Strategy Group, Cam was Vice President of Canada’s largest health care communications firm. He has also served as Director of Communications for Eli Lilly Canada, and as Legislative Assistant to the Canadian Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs.
Cam is also the founder of Wind Gage Communications, Inc., a multimedia software company. He speaks frequently before select groups of health charity leaders and health industry executives in Canada, the United States and Europe. He is a member of the Board of Campaign for Cancer (South Africa), is a past member of the Board of the Osteoporosis Society of Canada, and has been a visiting lecturer at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.