Regions
The CANVAS Network is a platform operating out of five provinces and one territory across the country including a Coordinating Centre located in Vancouver, British Columbia
Locations: Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec
Coordinating Centre
Vaccine Evaluation Center
BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute University of British Columbia, Vancouver 950 West 28th Avenue,Vancouver,BC, V5Z 4H4, Canada
Principal Investigator
Dr. Julie Bettinger
Investigator, BC Children’s Hospital Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia
Dr. Bettinger is a Professor at the Vaccine Evaluation Center in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of British Columbia. Her research interests include vaccine safety and vaccine preventable diseases as well as attitudes and beliefs around immunization uptake and use. She is the epidemiologist for the Canadian Immunization Monitoring Program, Active (IMPACT), an active surveillance network for vaccine preventable diseases and vaccine adverse events in 12 tertiary care pediatric hospitals across Canada and the lead investigator for CANVAS.
Data Manager
Kimberly Marty
Vaccine Evaluation Center, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute ,University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Ms. Marty has been involved in research for 30 years, working in clinical data management for the past 25 years. She is the CANVAS Project Manager. Ms. Marty obtained her BSc from UBC.
Data Coordinator and Developer
Evie Sabean-Untermann
Vaccine Evaluation Center, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Evie joined the VEC team in 2023, having previously worked in health information management and interoperability. They bring project management experience and a keen interest in data and analytics. She obtained her BSc in Environmental Toxicology from Ontario Tech University.
Alberta
ACHIEVE Research
The Alberta Children’s Hospital Infectious Diseases, Epidemiology and Vaccine Evaluation (ACHIEVE) Research Team studies vaccine preventable infections, particularly in children, vaccine clinical trials, and vaccine evaluation projects.
The ACHIEVE Research Team is affiliated with the University of Calgary, Alberta Health Services (Calgary Zone) and the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI).
Co-Investigator
Dr. Otto G. Vanderkooi, MD FRCPC DTMH
Investigator, Alberta Children’s Hospital, University of Calgary & Alberta Health Services
Section Chief, Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Alberta Children’s Hospital
Associate Professor, Departments of Pediatrics, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (MID) and Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary
Dr.
Vanderkooi is a Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist, Medical
Microbiologist, Tropical Medicine Specialist and Medical Leader at the Alberta
Children's Hospital and an Associate Professor in the Departments of
Pediatrics, Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Pathology
& Laboratory Medicine and Community Health Sciences at the University of
Calgary. He is an investigator in multiple local, national and international
studies primarily in the areas of vaccine preventable illnesses and the
epidemiology of infectious diseases. He has led a number of CANVAS projects in
Calgary for both influenza and COVID-19.
Co-Investigator
Dr. Jim Kellner, MD
Investigator, Alberta Children’s Hospital, University of Calgary & Alberta Health Services
Clinician Primary Researcher, Alberta Children’s Hospital, Calgary
Professor, Departments of Pediatrics; Community Health Sciences; Microbiology, Immunology & Infectious Diseases, University of Calgary
After a decade as Department Head of Pediatrics in Calgary (2008-2018), Dr. Kellner has returned to his focus on his scholarly interest in vaccine preventable infections through research and advisory work. He leads or contributes to several local and national research groups. He is a member of the federal COVID-19 Immunity Task Force Leadership Group (www.covid19immunitytaskforce.ca) and Co-Chair of the Task Force’s Field Studies Working Party. Dr. Kellner is leading the multi-faceted Alberta Childhood COVID-19 Cohort (AB3C) Study (www.ucalgary.ca/covidinkids). The AB3C Study has enrolled over 1000 Calgary children who will be tested longitudinally for COVID-19 immunity over two years. The AB3C study is also conducting detailed genetic and immunity testing of COVID-19 infected children.
Site Coordinator
Joslyn Gray
ACHIEVE Research Manager, Alberta Children’s Hospital, University of Calgary & Alberta Health Services
In her role with the ACHIEVE Research Team, Joslyn has managed multiple clinical trials, vaccine evaluation, and epidemiology studies. She coordinates the planning and conduct of numerous single-centre and multi-centre clinical research studies and clinical trials. Under Joslyn’s leadership, over the past decade more than 40,000 people have been enrolled into Alberta’s CANVAS surveillance program.
British Columbia & Yukon
The Vaccine Evaluation Center
The Vaccine Evaluation Center (VEC) was established in 1988. It was the first academic center for independent vaccine research in Canada and has been an international leader in vaccinology research. The VEC is engaged in an average of 20 vaccine research studies at any time and is jointly supported by BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute and the University of British Columbia.
Co-Investigator
Dr. Manish Sadarangani
Investigator, BC Children’s Hospital Sauder Family Chair in Pediatric Infectious Diseases, University of British Columbia Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia
Dr. Sadarangani began the role of VEC Director in 2016. He joined the VEC from The Children’s Hospital in Oxford, UK, where he was a Clinical Lecturer and Consultant in Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology. Dr. Sadarangani plans to build a research program that incorporates laboratory, clinical and population-based studies. His work includes studying the relationships between bowel bacteria and responses to infant vaccines, as increasing evidence points to “good germs” being able to strengthen immunity. The ultimate goal of his research is to inform evidence-based policy to lower the burden of childhood infectious diseases through vaccination.
Co-Investigator
Dr. Julie Bettinger
Investigator, BC Children’s Hospital Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia
Dr. Bettinger is a Professor at the Vaccine Evaluation Center in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of British Columbia. Her research interests include vaccine safety and vaccine preventable diseases as well as attitudes and beliefs around immunization uptake and use. She is the epidemiologist for the Canadian Immunization Monitoring Program, Active (IMPACT), an active surveillance network for vaccine preventable diseases and vaccine adverse events in 12 tertiary care pediatric hospitals across Canada and the lead investigator for CANVAS.
Study Coordinator
Ravneet Gill
Vaccine Evaluation Center, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Ravneet joined the VEC in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, where she has been working on various COVID-19 projects as a research assistant prior to becoming the CANVAS COVID-19 study coordinator at the Vancouver and Yukon sites. She obtained her BSc in Biology and Special Education from the University of British Columbia.
Nova Scotia
The Canadian Center for Vaccinology
The Canadian Center for Vaccinology (CCfV) was established in 2007 as a collaboration between Dalhousie University, IWK Health, and Nova Scotia Health. Comprised of the Vaccine Development, Vaccine Evaluation, and the Programs, Policy and Implementation Groups, our research encompasses a wide spectrum of collaborative vaccine research from microbiology to effectiveness, and safety and social issues. CCfV is also home to the Canadian Immunization Research Network (CIRN).
Co-Investigator
Dr. Jennifer E. Isenor
Associate Professor
College of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health and Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University
Investigator, Canadian Center for Vaccinology
Scientific Staff, IWK Health Centre
Associate Scientist, Maritime SPOR Support Unit
Dr. Jennifer Isenor is an Associate Professor at the College of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health and the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University. She is an investigator with the Canadian Center for Vaccinology and a founding member of the Pharmacists as Immunizers (PAI) Research Team. Her research focuses on a variety of immunization-related topics, including various studies assessing the role and impact of pharmacists as immunizers; pain mitigation strategies during adult immunization; the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours of immunization providers and the public, including vaccine hesitancy; and network surveillance of adverse events following immunization.
Co-Investigator
Dr. Shelly McNeil, MD, FRCPC
Professor of Medicine
Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases, Dalhousie University
Deputy Head, Department of Medicine, Dalhousie University
Deputy Director, Canadian Center for Vaccinology
Halifax, NS
A native of Kentville, NS, Dr. McNeil completed her medical education and internal medicine residency at Dalhousie University followed by a three-year fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Dr. McNeil returned to Dalhousie in 2000 and is currently Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Deputy Chief of the Department of Medicine. In addition to her clinical leadership roles, Dr. McNeil is a Clinician Scientist and Deputy Director of the Canadian Center for Vaccinology where her research focuses on the evaluation of the epidemiology of vaccine-preventable diseases in adults with a focus on the elderly, assessment of the effectiveness of vaccines in the prevention of serious outcomes in adults and clinical trials of new adult vaccines. She is the Principal Investigator of the Serious Outcomes Surveillance Network of the Canadian Immunization Research Network (CIRN).
Dr. McNeil lives in Halifax with her husband, Tim and daughter, Emma, a third year Nursing student at Dalhousie.
Ontario
Unity Health Toronto
Unity Health Toronto, comprised of Providence Healthcare, St. Joseph’s Health Centre and St. Michael’s Hospital, works to advance the health of everyone in our urban communities and beyond. Our health network serves patients, residents and clients across the full spectrum of care, spanning primary care, secondary community care, tertiary and quaternary care services to post-acute through rehabilitation, palliative care and long-term care, while investing in world-class research and education.
Co-Investigator
Dr. Matthew P. Muller, MD PhD FRCPC
Clinician-investigator, St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto Investigator, Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science Medical Director of Infection Prevention and Control and Infectious Diseases Consultant, Unity Health Toronto Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto
Dr. Muller as an infectious disease physician and hospital epidemiologist at Unity Health Toronto and an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Muller chairs the Ontario Provincial Infectious Diseases Advisory Committee on Infection Prevention and Control (PIDAC). Dr. Muller’s research focusing on the epidemiology and prevention of healthcare associated infections. Dr. Muller has been the St. Michael’s Hospital principle investigator for the Canadian National Vaccine Safety (CANVAS) Network for several years and is the Ontario lead for CANVAS-COVID.
Co-Investigator
Dr. Allison Mcgeer, MsC MD FRCPC
Microbiologist and Infectious Disease Consultant, Mount Sinai Hospital Senior Clinician Scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute of the Sinai Health System Professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
Dr. McGeeris a Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology and at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. She is the principal investigator of the Toronto Invasive Bacterial Diseases Network, a collaborative surveillance network that performs surveillance for serious bacterial and viral diseases, including COVID19, in south central Ontario. Dr. McGeer has years of experience leading CANVAS- Toronto Site.
Dr. McGeer currently serves as an external expert to the influenza working group of Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization and is a meeting of Canada’s COVID19 Immunity Task Force Leadership Group. She was the lead for the hospital investigation of SARS-CoV-1 in Ontario in 2003, investigated the first outbreak of MERS in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2013, and worked for the World Health Organization as the infection prevention and control focal point in Liberia during the 2014/15 West African Ebola Outbreak
Dr. McGeer major research interests are in the prevention of infection in hospitals and nursing homes, the use of surveillance to advance the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases, and emerging infectious diseases including antimicrobial resistance.
Site Coordinator
Saman Khan MBBS MPH
Ontario Site Coordinator
Saman has been working at Sinai Health Systems since 2007 in The Department of Microbiology, Toronto Invasive Bacterial Disease Network (TIBDN) and Infectious Disease Research Unit (IDRU). Saman has worked on various research projects on population-based surveillance for serious bacterial and viral infections and conducted several vaccine safety & efficacy studies at multiple TIBDN hospitals throughout GTA and surrounding areas.
She is the CANVAS COVID-19 research coordinator at Ontario site. She is an International Medical Graduate and obtained her MPH from University of Waterloo.
Quebec
CRCHUS Research
An approach combining fundamental, clinical, epidemiological, and evaluative research is the distinguishing feature of the CHUS’ research centre. Some 220 top researchers and their teams devote their efforts to six research axes, which address major health concerns:
- Cancer: biology, prognosis, and diagnosis
- Diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular complications
- Health: populations, organization, practices
- Inflammation - Pain
- Medical imagery
- Mother and child.
Investigator
Dr. Louis Valiquette
Professor and chair of the Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Québec
Dr. Valiquette is a professor and chair of the Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Université de Sherbrooke. He has been involved in CANVAS as the Sherbrooke site lead investigator since the beginning of this project. His other research interests include antimicrobial stewardship with a focus on the development and validation of clinical decision support systems and Clostridium difficile infections. With his team, he has developed an expert system (called APSS) to optimize antimicrobial usage that has been associated with a substantial decrease in antimicrobial consumption, length of stay and savings since its installation in his center.
Site Coordinator
Cynthia Grenier Pharmacologue, MSc
Cynthia is working at Centre de Recherche du CHUS since 2010 in the microbiology and infectious diseases research team.
She is working on many epidemiological studies including those on pneumonia, flu and the annual flu vaccine safety surveillance. She is also in charge of COVID19 vaccine safety surveillance.
CRCHU de Quebec
The Research Center is part of the CHU de Québec-Université Laval and is affiliated to Université Laval.
The Research Center rounds up all research activities at the CHUL, Hôtel-Dieu de Québec, l’Enfant-Jésus, Saint-François d’Assise and Saint-Sacrement hospitals.
Study Coordinator
Marilou Kiely, Inf, PhD
Institut national de santé Publique du Québec et Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec-Université Laval.
Marilou Kiely is a registered nurse and an epidemiologist at the Quebec National Institute of Public Health. She is also a regular researcher in the Infectious and Immunity Diseases Axis at the CHU de Québec-Université Laval Research Center. She works on the field of immunization and vaccine-preventable diseases. Her research focuses on vaccination coverage and vaccine safety for vaccines used in routine immunization programs.
Research Coordinator
Sandrine Hegg, Ph.D
Sandrine Hegg has a PhD in Kinesiology with a specialization in Exercise Physiology.
She has been in Quebec for 16 years and resumed her university studies upon her arrival. She has been working as a research coordinator at the Centre de Recherche du CHU de Québec-Université Laval for more than 5 years, first in nursing science, then for doctors in the emergency room (Axis in population health and optimal health practices). Sandrine joined the Infectious and Immunity Diseases Axis in 2020. She also teaches at Laval University and the University of Quebec in Rimouski since 2013.