#ARCC2023 – the 2023 ARCC Conference

Nicola Bai is the interim Program Manager for the Canadian Centre for Applied Research in Cancer Control (ARCC). Nicola has extensive clinical research experience in oncology, and is very interested in cancer survivorship research and cost-effectiveness analysis in cancer treatment. Nicola is a physician by training from China. She also received PhD in Pharmacology from the University of British Columbia (UBC), and has recently completed Master of Health Science (focusing on Health Economics) from the School of Population and Public Health at UBC.

Dr Kelvin Chan is a Medical Oncologist at the Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre, an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, and an associate scientist at the Sunnybrook Research Institute. He specializes in GI oncology and Head and Neck oncology. He has recently completed his PhD in Biostatistics (focusing on statistical methods in health economic evaluations) at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto.

As a clinical epidemiologist and biostatistician, Dr. Chan’s research interests include health services research, health technology assessment, meta-analysis including network meta-analysis, cost-effectiveness analyses, and statistical methods research in health economics. He is the Co-Director at the Canadian Centre for Applied Research in Cancer Control (ARCC), funded by the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS).

Professionally, Dr Chan has an interest in cancer drug reimbursement related issues. He is a member of multiple provincial and national committees related to cancer drug assessments and recommendations including membership at the pan-Canadian Oncology Drug Review (pCODR) Expert Review Committee (pERC), the Committee to Evaluate Drug (CED) and the Interim Chair for the Ontario Steering Committee of Cancer Drugs (OSCCD), Ontario MOHLTC and Cancer Care Ontario. He is also the Clinical Lead for the Provincial Drug Reimbursement Programs (PDRP) at Cancer Care Ontario (CCO).

Dr. Cuthbert is a Nurse Practitioner in Oncology with clinical practice experience largely focused on follow-up care of colorectal cancer patients, symptom management, and a keen interest in survivorship issues. Dr. Cuthbert is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Calgary and the Cumming School of Medicine, Department of Community Health Sciences and an adjunct assistant professor in the Cumming School of Medicine, Department of Oncology. She holds a Tier II Canada Research Chair in patient and family centered cancer survivorship. Dr. Cuthbert is focused on evaluating biopsychosocial health needs and health outcomes of cancer survivors.  Her program of research includes patient-oriented research approaches, integrated knowledge translation strategies, qualitative research, and the use of administrative health data sets. Dr. Cuthbert’s goal is to ultimately improve health and wellbeing in cancer survivors and their families by developing innovative approaches to survivorship care.

*coming soon* please see https://survivornet.ca/connect/about-us/our-team/board-of-directors/jackie-manthorne-president-ceo/

Rebecca Mercer is the Network Manager for the Canadian Centre for Applied Research in Cancer Control (ARCC). Rebecca works as a Research Lead with Ontario Health, under the Provincial Drug Reimbursement Programs. She has significant experience with knowledge translation, and an interest in facilitating information transfer among stakeholders. Rebecca received her PhD in Medical Genetics from the University of Alberta in 2012, and also holds an Honours BSc in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Guelph.

Stuart Peacock holds the Leslie Diamond Chair in Cancer Survivorship and is a Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University. He is currently Co-Director of the Canadian Centre for Applied Research in Cancer Control (ARCC). ARCC is a pan-Canadian research centre providing interdisciplinary leadership in health economics, services, policy and ethics research. Stuart is also a Distinguished Scientist in Cancer Control Research at the BC Cancer Agency, a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health, and past President of the International Society on Priorities in Health Care. He has held university positions in Canada, Australia and the UK. Over the past 20 years, Stuart’s main research interests have focused on research into developing more effective cancer services, making health system funding decisions fairer and more transparent, and improving the quality of life of cancer patients and survivors.

Dr. Raphael’s research focus is on population-based cancer care. His research aims to identify ways to optimize the coordination and delivery of cancer care services, and to describe gaps in care, disparities in access to treatment, uptake of cancer therapies, and real-world toxicity and effectiveness. His research has already influenced practice guidelines globally, and led to a new quality metric that is routinely captured by Cancer Care Ontario (“time to initiating adjuvant chemotherapy”). Dr. Raphael was awarded the 2018–2019 Canadian Association of Medical Oncologists Research Fellowship to support his ongoing productive research portfolio.

Teresa Tsui is interested in developing and applying health economic methods, including the use of real-world health utilities to inform clinical and policy decisions. Her current Research Fellowship is co-supervised by Dr. Kelvin Chan at the Canadian Centre for Applied Research in Cancer Control (ARCC) and Dr. Eleanor Pullenayegum at the Hospital for Sick Children.

Teresa completed her PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Toronto, and Toronto Health Economics and Technology Assessment (THETA) Collaborative to develop the core of a novel breast cancer preference instrument with applications in future cost utility analyses.

She has led multidisciplinary studies spanning the spectrum of real-world health systems impacts, multi-site clinical studies, and mixed methods studies. She has also worked at the University of Toronto as a Research Manager, lecturer, and small group facilitator.