Cancer Survivorship

Darryl Leong

Scientist

Darryl Leong is a Scientist at PHRI, Director of the McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences Cardio-Oncology Program, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine (Cardiology), McMaster University, and Staff Cardiologist at Hamilton Health Sciences. He has methodological expertise in clinical epidemiology and clinical trials, and content expertise in physical frailty, echocardiography, and cardio-oncology. His research is supported by the CIHR, and he has published more than 150 manuscripts including all the leading internal medical and cardiovascular journals.

He graduated from the University of Adelaide Medical School with Deans Listing and Honours for academic excellence, completed his cardiology training, Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Public Health, and Master of Biostatistics degrees at the University of Adelaide in Australia, and completed a post-doctorate fellowship in cardiovascular imaging at the Leiden University Medical Centre in The Netherlands, before re-locating to Canada.

PJ Devereaux

Senior Scientist

PJ Devereaux is Senior Scientific Lead, Perioperative and Surgery, PHRI, Professor and University Scholar in the Departments of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact (HEI) and Medicine at McMaster University, and Director of the Division of Cardiology at McMaster.

The focus of his clinic research is vascular complications around the time of surgery, leading several large, international RCTs and observational studies addressing this issue. He has published more than 250 peer-reviewed papers and more than 50 book chapters and editorials. He is supported by a Tier 1 Canadian Research Chair in Perioperative Medicine, and holds the Yusuf Chair in Cardiology at McMaster University.

David Conen

Scientist

David Conen is a Scientist at PHRI, which he joined in 2016, and an Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, McMaster University. A trained internist and cardiologist from Basel, Switzerland, he obtained a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University.

His research activities involves the conduct of large epidemiological cohort studies to study risk factors for the occurrence of atrial fibrillation and its consequences, and research into therapies to prevent and treat perioperative atrial fibrillation. David is the Co-Principal Investigator of a large national cohort study to assess the relationship between atrial fibrillation and cognitive decline in Switzerland (Swiss-AF). He has published more than 130 peer-reviewed manuscripts in leading scientific journals as well as several reviews and editorials.

Filipe Cirne

Research Fellow

Filipe Cirne completed his medical degree at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande in Brazil (2012). His internal medicine and cardiology residency trainings were completed at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, also in Brazil. Additionally he completed an echocardiography fellowship at Instituto de Cardiologia do Rio Grande do Sul, where he is currently completing a MSc.

His main research interests include cardio-oncology and structural heart disease. He is finishing an advanced echocardiography fellowship at McMaster University. Filipe is working on cardio-oncology research projects under the mentorship of Darryl Leong, including on the studies RADICAL-PC and SCHOLAR-2, and doing systematic reviews on prostate cancer risk factors and survivorship/CV outcomes.

Harry Klimis

Research Fellow

Harry Klimis is a Clinical and Research Fellow at PHRI and McMaster University, supervised by Darryl Leong and Salim Yusuf. His training features an integrated cardio-oncology research and clinical program dedicated to understanding the evolution of cardiovascular risk factor patterns in healthy populations and people with cancer, and their association with CVD and mortality. Harry is an investigator in the RADICAL-PC and SCHOLAR-2 studies, and will be working on the PURE study.

Harry is an Australian cardiologist and completed both his MBBS and PhD at the University of Sydney. His research has primarily focused on primary prevention of cardiovascular disease and digital health interventions. Other research interests include cardio-oncology and echocardiography.

Deborah Siegal

Associate Scientist

Deborah Siegal is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine within the Division of Hematology at the University of Ottawa. Her primary research interests include improving patient outcomes after anticoagulant-related bleeding; management of anticoagulants in patients who have acute bleeding complications or require urgent surgery; understanding the factors that influence patient and physician decision-making after anticoagulant-related bleeding; and reducing red blood cell transfusion by minimizing iatrogenic blood loss for laboratory testing.

With expertise in the design and conduct of pragmatic cluster randomized trials, individual patient randomized trials, mixed-methods studies, observational studies and meta-analyses, Deborah Siegal has received peer-reviewed grant support as principal investigator from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the American Society of Hematology, CanVECTOR/Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, Ontario AFP Innovation Fund, and Hamilton Health Sciences Foundation. She has published 70 peer-reviewed articles including several in high-impact journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation, Blood, and Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

Hira Mian

Associate Investigator

Hira Mian is a hematologist at the Juravinski Cancer Centre and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Oncology, McMaster University where she specializes in multiple myeloma. Hira completed her clinical training at the University of Toronto, and furthered her research training at McMaster where she obtained her Masters in Health Research Methodology, and completed the Royal College Accredited Clinician Investigator Program.

Hira’s research interests center around clinical trials and health services and outcomes, with a specific focus on disparities in access to care/outcomes and quality of life among patients with myeloma. She is involved in research activities with the Canadian Myeloma Research Group (CMRG), the Canadian Cancer Clinical Trials Group, as well as the International Society of Geriatric Oncology. She also currently holds local research grants.

Sumathy Rangarajan

Program Director

Sumathy Rangarajan has been Program Director, Global Health, since 2016, preceded by many years’ service at PHRI in other roles. She oversees the PURE study team, as well as the INVICTUS rheumatic AF treatment trial, the CANPWR pediatric weight management registry, and others.

She holds both a Bachelor of Science Degree and a Master of Science degree from Pune University in India.

Maha Mushtaha

Project Manager

Maha Mushtaha has been employed by the Population Health Research Institute since 2011, working currently in the global health research group on the following studies: PURE, SCHOLAR-2 and TIMING. She has experience with site and database management of large, international observational studies as well as investigator-initiated clinical trials.

She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from McMaster University and a Biotechnology Diploma from Mohawk College.

Sarah Karampatos

Senior Research Coordinator

Sarah Karampatos has been employed by Population Health Research Institute since 2017, working currently in the Global Health Department on the following cancer survivorship studies: RADICAL PC and ORCHID. She has experience working on large international investigator-initiated studies.

She holds a Masters of Science from McMaster University, Bachelor of Applied Science in Kinesiology from the University of Guelph and a Diploma in Fitness and Health Promotion from Humber College.