Research Trainees

Nicole is a PhD Student in Counselling Psychology at McGill University under the co-supervision of Dr. Deborah DaCosta and Dr. Annett Körner. Her Master of Arts (Counselling Psychology) and Bachelor of Arts (psychology) were also done at McGill University. Nicole’s research is focused on optimizing health-related quality of life in patients with inflammatory arthritis (IA), and patients with cancer. In her newest project, Nicole is examining sleep disturbance in people with IA.

Dr. Deniz Bayraktar is a visiting assistant professor and post-doctoral research fellow from Izmir Katip Celebi University, Turkey. Deniz completed his PhD at 2017 in Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation (Dokuz Eylul University, Turkey). He is currently under supervision of Dr. Linda Li at UBC Department of Physical Therapy. His research has been mainly focused on exercise (mainly water exercises) and measuring the impact of musculoskeletal diseases. Although Deniz’s primary interest is in clinical research in the field of rheumatology, he aims to expand his knowledge about implementation studies and knowledge translation during his visit. He will be involved in the project ‘Implementing an evidence‐based exercise program to reduce falls in community‐dwelling older adults’ which is a community‐based cluster randomized trial to evaluate two different methods to deliver the Otago Exercise Program, an evidence‐based program aimed at preventing falls in frail older adults.

Vienna Cheng is a Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences student at the University of British Columbia (UBC) under the supervision of Dr. Mary De Vera. She is a practicing pharmacist who completed her Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) training at UBC. Vienna has a keen interest in pharmacovigilance and improving patient health outcomes through drug safety research.

Vienna’s goal with her MSc thesis is to evaluate the perinatal impact of arthritis medications on neonatal outcomes among females with Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Kelsey is currently completing her Doctor of Medicine at the University of Calgary. She received a Master of Science in Medical Science from the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary under the supervision of Dr. Heinrike Schmeling and Dr. Cheryl Barnabe. In her thesis, she developed and evaluated the acceptability of an adolescent self-management program for juvenile idiopathic arthritis education.

Kelsey has been actively involved in pediatric rheumatology research at the Alberta Children’s Hospital for several years. She continues to work on arthritis related research under the supervision of Dr. Cheryl Barnabe.

Dani Contreras is currently a Masters of Science student at the University of Calgary under the supervision of Cheryl Barnabe. She completed her Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Calgary. Her honours thesis focused on characterizing a “normal” metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint using high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT). She also collaborated with biomedical engineers to compare joint space parameters between healthy and arthritic metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joints. Dani’s current research will investigate acute care visits for Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions (ACSCs) for persons with inflammatory arthritis (IA).

Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, Jamon is completing his PhD under the supervision of Dr. Jackie Whittaker (UBC) and Dr. Adam Culvenor (La Trobe University). Jamon graduated from La Trobe University with a Bachelor of Health Sciences and Masters of Physiotherapy Practice before completing a postgraduate Masters in Exercise Science (Strength & Conditioning) at Edith Cowan University. He has held several academic positions at La Trobe University, including Lecturer in the Department of Physiotherapy, Podiatry, Prosthetics and Orthotics, Sessional Academic in the Department of Microbiology, Anatomy, Physiology & Pharmacology, and Research Officer within the La Trobe Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Centre. Jamon’s research interests primarily lie within the advancement of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rehabilitation protocols, in particular the prevention and management of early knee osteoarthritis in young adults following ACL injury and reconstruction.

Narsis is pursuing a PhD in the Experimental Medicine program in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia under the supervision of Dr. Antonio Aviña-Zubieta. She is studying potential retinal side effects of the Plaquenil / Hydroxychloroquine medication which is used in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematous prospectively. Her thesis project title is “RetINal Toxicity And hydroxyChloroquine Therapy: A Prospective Population-based Cohort Study (INTACT)”.

She earned her MD and then completed her ophthalmology residency and retina specialty fellowship at the SBMU University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, Iran. She is a clinician-scientist with about 10 years of experience in research in the fields of ocular basic science as well as epidemiologic and clinical research. She has over 50 publications and over 600 citations for her publications on Google Scholar and Scopus databases.

Manuel Ester (Manny) is working as a post-doctoral associate with Dr. Claire Barber at the University of Calgary’s McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint Health. He completed his BSc in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at Simon Fraser University. He completed his MSc in Molecular Techniques in Life Science at the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and his PhD in Kinesiology from the University of Calgary, specializing in the use of technology to support long-term physical activity habits.

Manny is interested in applied health research that leverages health behavior change, technology-based interventions, and implementation science. His research with Dr. Barber will include an implementation pilot for patient-initiated follow-up care in rheumatoid arthritis as well as an upcoming physical activity behavior change project.

She is currently pursuing a one year post-doctoral clinical and research fellowship in the emerging field of Autoinflammatory Diseases under the supervision of Dr. Daniel Kastner at the American National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and Dr. Diane Lacaille at Arthritis Research Canada.

Upon returning to British Columbia, she plans to establish a quaternary Autoinflammatory Disease clinic and prospective cohort while completing a Master of Health Science at UBC. Using these tools, she aims to improve our understanding of the epidemiology of autoinflammatory diseases in adults in British Columbia and collaborate with international clinical and translational research efforts while providing consultative expertise in the management of autoinflammatory diseases.

Kara has a MSc in Clinical Psychology, and undergraduate degrees in Psychology and International Development Studies. She is currently completing her PhD in Community Health Services under the supervision of Dr. Cheryl Barnabe. Her thesis research involves understanding the factors that complicate management of arthritis and supporting improved community care to prevent hospital use. The foundation to all her clinical and academic work is bringing parsimony to complexity.

Under the supervision of UBC and Arthritis Research Canada scientists, Drs. Diane Lacaille and Juan Antonio Avina-Zubieta, Derin is studying the effects of treating metabolic comorbidities like obesity and type 2 diabetes on patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. Upon completion of his rheumatology residency, he plans to pursue a PhD, focussing on pharmacoepidemiology and models of care. His goal is to establish an interdisciplinary metabolic-rheumatology clinic in order to better characterize and manage the unique needs of patients with excess adiposity and inflammatory arthritis.

Jenny is a post-doctoral fellow supervised by Dr. Ian Graham in the School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, and Centre for Implementation Research at The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. She is also a visiting post-doctoral fellow at Arthritis Research Canada. Jenny’s research interests lie in relational ethics, integrated knowledge translation and qualitative methodologies. Her post-doctoral work is centred around ethical issues experienced in partnerships between patients and academics in research.

Lingyi Li is a PhD student in the Experimental Medicine program at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and a trainee at Arthritis Research Canada. In 2017 she completed a Master’s degree in the same program at the UBC and was employed as a full-time data analyst at Arthritis Research Canada following her thesis defense.

During the past four years, she has been involved in different projects on treatment side effects for arthritis diseases. This work inspired her to pursue her PhD to help patients make more informed decisions regarding treatments. She will be studying the risk of multiple sclerosis among users of anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha medications, using the administrative datasets from four Canadian provinces. Her PhD training is supported by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Doctoral Award. She is also the UBC Four Year Doctoral Fellowship Designate.

Justin Losciale earned his Bachelor in Science degree in Kinesiology from California State University, Northridge (USA) in 2013 and earned his clinical Doctorate in Physiotherapy from Duke University (USA) in 2017. He went on to complete a post-professional residency in sports physiotherapy at The Ohio State University (USA) in 2019. Today, Justin is a PhD student in Rehabilitation Sciences under the supervision of Dr. Jackie Whittaker at UBC. Justin’s research will focus on understanding the interactions between modifiable risk factors for knee osteoarthritis after knee injuries. This research will guide clinicians to the key items to target rehabilitation efforts in individuals following a knee injury.

Darren wants to investigate the socioeconomic impacts of osteoarthritis management with the goal of improving patients’ access to evidence-based services. Darren’s thesis is centered around the cost-effectiveness analysis and budget impact assessment of the Good Life with Osteoarthritis Denmark (GLA:D) program that is being offered at community rehabilitation clinics in Alberta. GLA:D is an eight-week standardized education and exercise program internationally recognized as an evidence-based clinical pathway and early intervention to manage osteoarthritis.

In her post-doctoral fellowship, Natalie is building upon her skills in analyzing large data sets to assess the natural history, long-term effects of medications, and contributors to negative outcomes in patients with lupus and other forms of inflammatory arthritis. Natalie held a CIHR Doctoral Research Award during her Ph.D. and has been granted a three-year CIHR Fellowship Award for her post-doctoral research.

Kasra is an international medical graduate from Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran, and is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Experimental Medicine at the University of British Columbia. He has started his research under the supervision of Dr. Diane Lacaille. Using administrative data analysis, Kasra will be investigating the risk of adverse events, such as infections, malignancies, and mortality, associated with different classes of biologic agents used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

Kamso is a doctoral student in the faculty of Community Health Science at the University of Calgary under the supervision of Dr. Glen Hazlewood and Dr. Rob Deardon. His research focuses on comparative effectiveness research which is a broad field of research that aims to provide ‘real-world’ estimates of treatment benefits and harms to help inform treatment decisions. Patients’ preferences for these benefits and harms should then be used to guide decision-making. Bayesian methods offer advantages as they facilitate the incorporation of multiple sources of evidence, while readily accounting for the uncertainty in their estimation. In this project, he will explore the use of network meta-analysis using Bayesian methods to synthesize comparative effectiveness research and evaluate the certainty of evidence from the results using the GRADE framework. His research will focus on rheumatoid arthritis treatment, which is of high interest to multiple stakeholders, given the increased availability of highly effective, but expensive treatment options.

Maureen is pursuing a Masters of Science in the Medical Science program at the University of Calgary under the supervision of Dr. Ranita Manocha and Dr. Cheryl Barnabe. Maureen recently completed a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Health at St. Francis Xavier University (2022). She is interested in improving the rehabilitation of musculoskeletal injuries. Her research will examine the effectiveness of a novel app that teaches people how to use walking aids called Improving Canadians’ Walking Aid Skills, Learning, and Knowledge (ICanWalk©). The results of this research will help those who use canes, crutches, and walkers, such as people living with osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, sports injuries, and joint sprains.

For his PhD thesis, André will be looking at the relationships between rheumatic diseases and occupational outcomes, such as work disability, presenteeism and absenteeism. He will evaluate data obtained from “Making it Work”, a study designed to understand the effectiveness and cost-utility of a multidisciplinary e-learning program at preventing work cessation and improving at-work productivity. The research project resources were granted by the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR).

Anh Pham is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta under the supervision of Dr. Allyson Jones. She completed her PhD at the University of Alberta and her medical degree in Eastern Medicine at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

Anh is interested in supporting community-dwelling older adults by improving quality of primary care. Her postdoctoral fellowship research focuses on using data from electronic medical records to study rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis and management in primary care.

Dr. Codie Primeau (he/him) has completed a BSc in Human Kinetics (University of Ottawa – 2014), a research-based MSc in Kinesiology (Western University – 2016), and a combined clinical Masters of Physical Therapy (Western University – 2022) and PhD in Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (Western University – 2022).

Codie is a postdoctoral fellow through Arthritis Research Canada and the University of British Columbia under the supervision of Dr. Linda Li. His graduate work focused on clinical trials for knee osteoarthritis (OA) including both exercise and surgical interventions. His postdoctoral work focuses on the experiences with healthcare and living with chronic pain for individuals who identify as a sex and/or gender minority (SGM). His work will use a patient-oriented research design and includes a stakeholder committee involved in all stages of the research. The aim is to identify important research priorities and develop strategies for improving healthcare experiences and outcomes in SGM populations.

In addition to his postdoctoral work, Codie will work in orthopaedic physiotherapy practice. He has also begun continuing education courses in pelvic health physiotherapy (emphasis on male pelvic health) and gender-affirming care which he hopes to incorporate into his clinical practice.

John is a master’s student in Rehabilitation Sciences under the supervision of Dr. Jackie Whittaker at the University of British Columbia. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree at UBC in 2019. John’s research will seek to understand the cause of muscle function decline resulting from knee joint injuries. This research will guide the development of preventative and therapeutic interventions to enhance muscle function and reduce burdensome musculoskeletal conditions.

Vivienne is a PhD student at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University under the supervision of Dr. Hui Xie. She completed her Bachelor of Science Degree majoring in quantitative and population health sciences at Simon Fraser University in 2019. Upon graduation, she started working at Arthritis Research Canada as a research trainee. Her PhD research focuses on using novel statistical models to evaluate the impact of biological disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) on the risk of different outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis patients including risk of total joint arthroplasty, severe infection and cardiovascular events. The study’s findings will help policymakers make decisions about how to regulate and manage bDMARDs as an effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.