#ARCC2023 – the 2023 ARCC Conference

Dr. Jackie Bender is a Scientist and Co-Lead of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the Department of Supportive Care at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and an Affiliate Scientist at the Princess Margaret Research Institute. She is also an Assistant Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. Dr. Bender has an innovative program of research in digital health, cancer survivorship and implementation science. Her research focuses on designing, implementing, and evaluating digital health innovations that improve cancer care access, experience, and outcomes, and promote health equity. Current projects include digital peer navigation and peer health coaching, optimization of virtual follow-up care and social media interventions, addressing disparities in prostate cancer care for Black men, and sustainability of innovations in cancer care. Her research is currently funded by CIHR, CCS, PHAC and Movember, and has resulted in an Early Career Award, several International Best Paper Awards, and an Innovation Award. 

Dr. Joseph Cafazzo is the inaugural Wolfond Chair in Digital Health, Executive Director of Biomedical Engineering and Senior Scientist, for both The Centre for Digital Therapeutics and Healthcare Human Factors at the University Health Network. As a biomedical engineer, Dr. Cafazzo observes healthcare delivery from the inside-out and works on ways to keep people out of hospital by creating technologies that allow for self-care at home.  

Over time he has built an intricate network of clinicians, designers, engineers, researchers, that challenge the norms of healthcare and empower patients and their families. Together they push the boundaries of what’s possible, which has led to the creation of technologies that act to facilitate patient self-care of complex chronic conditions such as diabetes, asthma, end-stage renal disease and congestive heart failure. 

Dr. Jackson is a retired General Practitioner who lives most happily with her family in Kitchener-Waterloo. In 2002, she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer following the birth of her two children. Naturally, this was devastating. After undergoing extensive treatment over many years, and experiencing many threats that her cancer had recurred, Dr. Jackson is truly grateful to be a healthy, miraculous survivor. She is thrilled to have been able to love and raise her two children, who are now thriving young adults. This arduous experience, of living with both the joys of mothering and the burdens of having cancer, has been remarkable. And, it has been the catalyst for her deep and abiding faith. Dr. Jackson is a trained spiritual director and is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Theology, at Huron University College at Western University, in London. This includes education in hospital chaplaincy with a special focus on the care of oncology patients, including those in palliative care. Dr. Jackson has lived experience with the synergistic potential for medicine and faith to facilitate health and healing. She looks forward to sharing her story of hope and long term cancer survivorship at the ARCC2023 Conference.

Dr. Fei-Fei Liu is the Scientific Director of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Cancer Research. She served as Chief of the Radiation Medicine Program and Head of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, as well as the Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto from 2012-2022. Dr. Liu is also a Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Research Institute, holds the inaugural University of Toronto/Princess Margaret Peter and Shelagh Godsoe Chair in Radiation Medicine, and serves as Past Chair of the Medical Advisory Board at the University Health Network.

Dr. Liu’s research program is focused on investigating and developing novel molecular therapeutic strategies for human malignancies, delivered in conjunction with radiation therapy, along with investigating molecular aberrancies of several human malignancies including breast, and head/neck cancers. Dr. Liu has over 200 peer-reviewed publications on these topics, and has filed three patents. She is also the founding Director of a $1.9M Terry Fox Foundation Research Training Initiative, entitled “Strategic Training in Transdisciplinary Radiation Science for the 21^st Century (STARS21)”, with the objective to train the next generation of trans-disciplinary scientists in Radiation Medicine.

Jackie Manthorne, BA, BEd, is President and CEO of the Canadian Cancer Survivor Network, a national network of patients, families, survivors, friends, community partners and sponsors. Its mission is to work together by taking action to promote the very best standard of care, support, follow-up and quality of life for patients and survivors. It aims to educate the public and policy makers about cancer and encourage research on ways to alleviate barriers to optimal cancer care in Canada.

Manthorne is currently Lay-Reader-in-Training at St. Martin’s Anglican Church in the Diocese of Ottawa and is studying towards a B.Th. at Thorneloe University, which is part of the Laurentian University federation and affiliated with the Anglican Church of Canada. She is on the Board of Directors of Beechwood Cemetery, the national cemetery of Canada, which, in addition to being home of the National Military Cemetery, the RCMP National Memorial Cemetery and the Ottawa Police Service Memorial Cemetery, is the final resting place for over 75,000 Canadians from all walks of life and of all religious affiliations.

Manthorne was President and CEO of the Canadian Breast Cancer Network for 12 years. She was a representative on the Global Metastatic Breast Cancer Advocacy Board; a member of the Episodic Disabilities Network; an external reviewer for Health Canada’s Population Health Fund and the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Ontario Chapter; a judge on the Radio Science Programs Panel and the Annual Book Award of Science Writers & Communicators Canada; and a member of the Project Advisory Group of the Ovarian Cancer Information Project.

Manthorne was also national administrator of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts; executive director of the Canadian Centre for International PEN (PEN Canada) and is a director of www.womencan.ca. She was the 2017 recipient of the Jack Shapiro Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Cancer Action Network (CCAN).

Dr. Navaratnam is the President & CEO of CancerCare Manitoba, and Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba. She is committed to bringing achievable and sustainable strategies toward cancer control to Manitobans. These are built upon the commitments identified in the Roadmap to Cancer Control for Manitoba 2020 which include research and innovation, timely access and delivery of evidence-based, high-quality cancer treatment and care, strong patient and community engagement, and patient- and community-centred care provided closer to home whenever possible.

As the Chair of the Canadian Association of Provincial Cancer Agencies (CAPCA), Dr. Navaratnam works closely with national health and research partners, including the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (CPAC), to move the cancer control agenda forward nationally and globally.

Dr. Navaratnam is a strong champion of the responsibility shared by global partners to come together to improve cancer control, and of the benefits awarded when bilateral knowledge sharing occurs between countries. She has developed working partnerships with Uganda Cancer Institute and the Northern Province of Sri Lanka/University of Jaffna, and is pursuing additional partnerships through collaboration with the World Health Organization and other global partners.

Dr. Sauro is a Health Services Researcher, whose research focuses on improving the quality and safety of care for patients with Head & Neck Cancers to optimize the health of these patients. Dr. Sauro has a particular interest in leveraging routinely collected administrative data to evaluate the quality of healthcare and the application of knowledge translation, implementation science and quality improvement methodologies for improving healthcare delivery.

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.

Jackie Manthorne, BA, BEd, is President and CEO of the Canadian Cancer Survivor Network, a national network of patients, families, survivors, friends, community partners and sponsors. Its mission is to work together by taking action to promote the very best standard of care, support, follow-up and quality of life for patients and survivors. It aims to educate the public and policy makers about cancer and encourage research on ways to alleviate barriers to optimal cancer care in Canada.

Manthorne is currently Lay-Reader-in-Training at St. Martin’s Anglican Church in the Diocese of Ottawa and is studying towards a B.Th. at Thorneloe University, which is part of the Laurentian University federation and affiliated with the Anglican Church of Canada. She is on the Board of Directors of Beechwood Cemetery, the national cemetery of Canada, which, in addition to being home of the National Military Cemetery, the RCMP National Memorial Cemetery and the Ottawa Police Service Memorial Cemetery, is the final resting place for over 75,000 Canadians from all walks of life and of all religious affiliations.

Manthorne was President and CEO of the Canadian Breast Cancer Network for 12 years. She was a representative on the Global Metastatic Breast Cancer Advocacy Board; a member of the Episodic Disabilities Network; an external reviewer for Health Canada’s Population Health Fund and the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Ontario Chapter; a judge on the Radio Science Programs Panel and the Annual Book Award of Science Writers & Communicators Canada; and a member of the Project Advisory Group of the Ovarian Cancer Information Project.

Manthorne was also national administrator of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts; executive director of the Canadian Centre for International PEN (PEN Canada) and is a director of www.womencan.ca. She was the 2017 recipient of the Jack Shapiro Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Cancer Action Network (CCAN).

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.