2025

CLINICAL TRIALS
TRAINING SUMMIT

Four Clinical Trials Training Programs unite to address key challenges in the clinical trials ecosystem.

FEBRUARY

24, 25 & 26

In Vancouver, BC and online, a dialogue on making the clinical trials field more collaborative, effective, and inclusive – so we are all better prepared in future.

BETTER PREPARED.
BETTER CARE.
TOGETHER.

News and Stories

Thank for Raven and Hummingbird Tea for their comforting, generous, and delicious contribution to our Conference.

Bridging Talent and Opportunity: Canadian Clinical Trials Training Programs (CTTPs) Partner with Provincial Co-Funders to Award over $2.1 Million in Support to 87 Graduate and Postdoctoral Awardees

CANTRAIN Launches 2025 Clinical Trials Training Summit Vancouver, BC and Online February 24-26

Making Clinical Trials More Representative
Read More >>

Jean Bourbeau CANTRAIN
Principal Nominated Investigator

Creating a Community of Practice
Read More >>

Lisa Goos CANTRAIN
Chief Operating Officer

Collaborating for the Future
Read More >>

Julie Dessureault CANTRAIN
Chief Transformation Officer

A Brighter Future for Patients in Clinical Trials
Read More >>

Linda Hunter CANTRAIN National Stream Lead, Community Partners & Patients Stream

New Ways to Treat Lung Disease
Read More >>

Dan Nguyen CANTRAIN Awardee

Improving Bone Health in the Young
Read More >>

Michele Monroy-Valle CANTRAIN Awardee

Reaching Indigenous Communities
Read More >>

Lauren Lindsey CANTRAIN Awardee

Story content was kindly sponsored and supported by Innovative Medicine Canada (IMC).

AGENDA at a glance

Strengthening the Clinical Trial Ecosystem

A wide range of stakeholders from the clinical trials world come together to discuss current issues and challenges. Sessions focus on career development for graduate and postdoctoral trainees, best practices in patient engagement and education, and diversity, inclusion, and mentorship in clinical trials training.

Day 1

6.00 PM - 8.00 PM

6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Registration and Opening Plenary Session
Indigenous Welcome and CANTRAIN, UBC and Health Research BC Welcome
Presentation of the 3 Main Conference topics: Patient and Community Partners, Clinical Trials Training by CTTPs, Student Award

Day 2

7.30 AM - 6.00 PM

7:00 AM - 6:00 PM

Plenary Session: Building Capacity for Clinical Research
Moderated Poster Viewing Session and 2023-2024 Awardees Presentations
World Café: Best Practices with Indigenous Groups as Research Participants and Partners
Plenary Session: Exploring Career Opportunities: Strategies for Graduate Success and Insights for the Clinical Trials Ecosystem
Focused Conversations and Interactive Workshops

Day 3

7.30 AM - 6.00 PM

7:30 AM - 6:00 PM

Focused Conversations
Plenary Session: International Perspectives on Meaningful Approaches to Patient and Partner Engagement and Co-Creation of Research
2024-2025 Poster Prizes: Master’s, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellows
Plenary Session: Insights on Mentoring from Academic and Patient Partner Perspectives
Presentation Session: The CANTRAIN Approach
Farewell Reception

Our Speakers

Simon L Bacon CBITN, Lead

CBITN (Canadian Behavioural Interventions and Trials Network) is a specialised pan-Canadian training platform to support the development, testing and delivery of behavioural interventions using innovative approaches and trial designs.

Shrikant I. Bangdiwala ACT Consortium Training Committee

Co-Chair Director of Statistics at the Population Health Research Institute, with over 45 years of extensive experience in the design, monitoring, and analysis of multicenter randomized controlled trials, in multilevel analysis, and in the analysis of concordance.

Davina Banner-Lukaris UNBC, Professor and Associate Vice President Research Operations

Leads an interdisciplinary program of research that is focused on cardiovascular and rural health, and has worked with populations that face barriers to engagement in research, actively adopting equity principles and practices.

Deb Baranec CIHR-IMHA, Patient Engagement Research Ambassador

A retired auditor with lived experience of knee osteoarthritis (OA) and obesity, Ms. Baranec is Patient Engagement Research Ambassador (PERA) with CIHR-IMHA, and provides advice to Clinical Trial Training Programs with CANTRAIN.

Emily Bell Desjardins Centre for Advanced Training, Associate Director

Dr. Bell blends her experience in higher education and in health research to develop structured career development and mentorship programs for trainees at RI-MUHC.

Jean Bourbeau CANTRAIN, Principal Investigator

Dr. Bourbeau is a clinician scientist and professor at McGill University, and chair of the Chronic Airway Disease Clinical Trial Network as part of the Accelerating Controlled Trials (ACT).

Jaqui Brinkman UBC, Director of Graduate Student Professional Development

With experience managing student educational programs within the UBC Faculty of Medicine, Ms. Brinkman’s current work focuses on improving the graduate student experience through professional development programs, orientation, and the Three Minute Thesis.

Angela Cheung CAN-TAP-TALENT, National Director

CAN-TAP-TALENT (Canadian Training Platform for Trials Leveraging Existing Networks) aims to build training and mentorship capacity for the next generation of clinical trialists and produce Canadian-led clinical trials that have global impact.

Jim Christenson UBC, Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine

Academic clinician scientist at UBC and Providence Health, with a wide range of experience in emergency care clinical research. Retired from practice after 38 years and continues to work clinically by advising patients who call the 811 nurse line.

Janis Cole CANTRAIN, Clinical Research Educator (CRE)

Ms. Cole holds a BSc from the University of Alberta, worked in the non-profit sector, and after informally training and supporting colleagues and students over the years, looks forward to standardizing institutional training.

Eileen Davidson Patient Advocate

Ms. Davidson, also known as Chronic Eileen, is a disability and chronic illness advocate, writer, and speaker, living with a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, and an active member of the Arthritis Research Canada patient advisory board.

Phillip James Devereaux ACT Consortium, Nominated Principal Applicant

Dr. Devereaux is the Director of the Division of Perioperative Care at McMaster University, and CEO and Scientific Director of the World Health Research Trust, an academic research organization focused on large international randomized clinical trials.

Maria Dutarte EUPATI, Executive Director

The European Patients’ Academy on Therapeutic Innovation (EUPATI) enhances patient involvement by providing information, education, and opportunities for collaboration for patients and researchers throughout all aspects of the health innovation ecosystem.

Christine Fahim Knowledge Translation Program Scientist, St. Michael’s Hospital

Leads the Team for Implementation, Evaluation and Sustainability (TIES), and is Assistant Professor in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.

Kristian Filion CANTRAIN, Co-Principal Investigator, Trialist Stream Lead

Associate Professor and William Dawson Scholar in the Departments of Medicine and of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, McGill University, his research interests include pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety, knowledge synthesis, and cardiovascular epidemiology.

Andrea Furlan Institute for Work & Health (IWH), Scientist

Dr. Andrea Furlan is a physician and senior scientist at the KITE Research Institute (UHN). She is author of the book 8 Steps to Conquer Chronic Pain: A Doctor's Guide to Lifelong Relief.

Lora Giangregorio University of Waterloo, Professor, Department of Kinesiology and Health Sciences

Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Bone Health and Exercise Science, leads the Bone Health and Exercise Science Lab (BonES lab), which researches physical activity for fall and fracture prevention.

Jasmine Grant CAN-TAP-TALENT, National Director

Clinical Research Manager, CCRU Education Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and a leader in Clinical Research Training initiatives, providing quality clinical research education opportunities, including ECHO Communities of Practice, to clinical research sites across Canada.

Kendall Ho UBC, Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine

Emergency medicine specialist, leads the Digital Emergency Medicine Unit, is a Medical Director for BC Ministry of Health HealthLinkBC 811, and spearheads research in virtual care, wearables, AI, and multicultural health literacy.

Erin Holve Chief Officer, PCORI

Dr. Holve serves as Chief Officer, Research Infrastructure and Innovation at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), executing strategies to advance patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) methods and study design.

Linda Hunter CANTRAIN, National Coordinator, Community Partners & Patients Stream

Semi-retired executive health care leader, former Chief Nurse Executive and ICU nurse, who has worked extensively in the quality and patient safety fields in healthcare. Co-Chair of CANTRAIN Patient, Family and Community Member Working Group (CanPartners).

Caroline Jose CANTRAIN Mentor

Dr. Jose is Health Researcher at Vitalité Health Network, and teaches at Université de Sherbrooke and Université de Moncton. Her Summit Session is titled “Sharing Leadership with Patient Partners in Clinical Trials: Why, Why Not, and How?”

Nadia Khan UBC, Head of General Internal Medicine

Dr. Khan is a clinician-scientist in health services research and epidemiology at the Center for Advancing Health Outcomes in Vancouver, Canada. Her research involves marginalized groups including ethnic and gender impacts of cardiovascular disease risk factors.

Malcolm King University of Saskatchewan, Professor

Citizen of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, Dr. King’s research aims at improving wellness and achieving health equity for First Nations, Métis and Inuit through strengths-based approaches that respect self-determination and privilege Indigenous ways of knowing.

Annie LeBlanc PASSERELLE SPOR, Nominated Principal Investigator and Director

PASSERELLE SPOR National Training Entity is a Canadian-wide hub acting as a network of networks in capacity development funded under the Canadian Institute for Health Research’s (CIHR’s) Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) initiative.

Farrell Leibovitch StrokeCog, Platform Director

StrokeCog is an equity, diversity, inclusivity, and accessibility (EDIA)-centered training platform, embedding evidence-based EDIA principles at every stage, to create sustainable change in the systems of clinical trial design and conduct in Canada.

Linda Li UBC, Professor, Department of Physical Therapy

Dr. Li is Scientific Director for the BC SUPPORT Unit. Her research focuses on using wearable technology and mobile apps to support health professionals promote a healthy balance of physical activity and sleep in managing chronic diseases.

Susan Marlin CanReview, Nominated Principal Applicant

President and CEO of Clinical Trials Ontario, and former Associate Vice-Principal of Research at Queen’s University, Ms. Marlin led the development and implementation of the Ethics and Regulatory Office at the National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group.

Suzanne Morin McGill University Health Centre, Associate Professor

Dr. Morin’s research focuses on the evaluation of the epidemiology and outcomes of skeletal fragility in adults, specifically osteoporosis, and she leads clinical trials to reduce fractures in older populations. She co-chairs CANTRAIN’s Mentorship working group.

Ellen Morrison Clinical Trials Office Project Lead, University of Alberta

Ellen Morrison is a Project Lead in the Clinical Trials Office at the University of Alberta. She has been deeply involved with research and clinical trials for more than 25 years and has a focus on regulatory affairs and quality assurance.

Alison Orth Michael Smith Health Research BC, Portfolio Director

Ms. Orth provides leadership for the Clinical Trials BC, Research Ethics BC and REACH BC teams, along with provincial system change initiatives, and recently led the development of “A Vision for Clinical Trials in British Columbia.

Andrew Pinto CIHR - Applied Public Health Chair in Upstream Prevention

Director of Upstream Lab, MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, a research team focused on tackling social determinants of health, population health management, and using data science to enable Learning Health Systems.

Kimberley Rawes UBC, Manager, Career and Professional Development

A career development professional for over 15 years in Higher Education. Ms. Rawes leads a team of talented Career Educators who design programs and learning which helps students explore future possibilities and take strategic next steps.

Srijain Shrestha CANTRAIN, Mentorship Programs Coordinator

Mr. Shrestha holds a MSc. In Global Health Systems from Western University, and coordinates mentorship programs and services. He is looking forward to furthering formal clinical research mentorship programs across Canada.

Jean Smart Regulatory Affairs and Quality Officer for Clinical Trials BC, Health Research BC

Currently active on national and international project committees, teams and boards, and has specializations in global health (research), and development studies in research policy and governance.

Barry Stein CANTRAIN, Governing Council

President and CEO, Colorectal Cancer Canada, and on the Board of Directors of corporations, not-for-profit organizations, and foundations, including Exactis Innovation, the Canadian Personalized Healthcare Innovation Network (CPHIN), and FT3 – From Testing to Targeted Treatments.

George Tomlinson Toronto General Hospital Research Institute, Senior Scientist

Research scientist contributing to the design and planned analyses of clinical research studies, with an interest in clinical effectiveness and health research methods: biostatistics, randomized controlled trials, Bayesian analysis, meta-analysis.

Teresa Tsang UBC, Professor, Division of Cardiology

Dr. Tsang’s focused areas of clinical and research interests include artificial intelligence in echocardiography, atrial remodelling, atrial fibrillation and other age-related cardiac conditions, and advancing technologies to achieve health equity.

Brooke Turkalj CANTRAIN, Clinical Research Educator (CRE)

Ms. Turkalj holds a M.E. in Biological and Biomedical Engineering from McGill, has served as student advisor for the CANTRAIN Graduate and Postdoctoral Trainees (GPT) stream, and supports professional transitions by delivering accessible training material.

Catherine Turner Can-SOLVE CKD, Indigenous Liaison Manager

First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) Senior Research Coordinator, and Red River Métis professional with 30+ years of coordination, community engagement, and project development, research, and management with Indigenous communities.

Kienan Williams Indigenous Wellness Core, Program Lead, Innovation & Research

A member of Sandy Lake First Nation, a fly-in community in Northwestern Ontario, has worked with First Nation communities across Canada providing knowledge and expertise in governance, comprehensive community planning, housing, justice, education and early childhood development.

2025 Clinical Trials Training Summit Sponsors

Silver

Bronze

Friends of CANTRAIN

Location

IN PERSON

Fairmont Hotel Vancouver

900 W Georgia St, Vancouver, BC V6C 2W6

ON STREAM

To register and get the link to attend virtually:

Contact Us

Head Office

annualconference2025@wecantrain.ca

Support

ITsupport@wecantrain.ca

2025

CLINICAL TRIALS
TRAINING SUMMIT

FEBRUARY