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.

Joey graduated with a Bachelor of Kinesiology from the University of British Columbia (UBC). He is currently preparing to apply to Medicine at UBC in 2023.As a research volunteer working with Dr. Jasmin Ma in the Movement for All (M4A) lab, Joey is focused on the knowledge translation of strategies for meaningful patient engagement in research. Specifically, in collaboration with the Arthritis Patient Advisory Board (APAB) members, he is co-developing a resource/tool to help researchers work with patients in ways that are flexible, supportive, and respectful of the skills and expertise patients bring to research.

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).

Dr. Faye Cooles attended medical school at the University of Edinburgh, UK, and graduated with Honours in 2009, having previously been awarded a Bachelors (Hons) in Pharmacology (also from the University of Edinburgh in 2006). She has continued to pursue an academic career alongside her clinical and rheumatology specialty post-graduate training and was awarded a Masters in Clinical Research with Distinction in 2013 from Newcastle University, UK. She was appointed a Medical Research Council Clinical Research Training Fellow that allowed her to work towards a PhD, which was awarded in 2016 from Newcastle University for research on type 1 interferons in early rheumatoid arthritis. As a NIHR Clinical Lecturer at Newcastle University, Dr. Cooles has continued post-doctoral research in this area with a focus on innate immunity, biomarkers and precision medicine while also continuing her specialist clinical post-graduate training in Rheumatology in the North-East of England. She will be undertaking an Arthritis Research Canada Fellowship based at University of British Columbia under the supervision of Dr. John Esdaile.  Her research project is on the effect of immunosuppression following solid organ transplant in autoimmune rheumatic disease.

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.

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.

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.

As a health geographer and health services researcher, Xiaoxiao Liu has a strong passion for examining health disparities and equity in access to care and determinants of health using spatial analysis, statistics, epidemiological analysis, and geographical information systems.

Currently, Xiaoxiao Liu is a Health System Impact Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Calgary with health system partner Primary Health Care Integration Network within Alberta Health Services (AHS). Under the co-supervision of Dr. Deborah Marshall (University of Calgary), Dr. Alka Patel (AHS) and Dr. Judy Seidel (AHS). Xiaoxiao’s project aims to improve access to care by identifying service gaps between primary and specialty care (rheumatologist), which will provide evidence for understanding local needs and planning customized integrated care that is responsive to local issues.

Xiaoxiao Liu completed her PhD in Geography from the University of Calgary, with an emphasis on environmental health. Her PhD work focused on the effect of air pollution on hospitalizations for myocardial infarction. She holds a Master of Engineering in Geography Information Sciences and a Bachelor of Science in Environment Sciences.

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.

Juliana is a PhD student under the supervision of Dr. Linda Li at the University of British Columbia. Her previous training was completed at the University of Alberta where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology, Master of Science in Rehabilitation Science, and Master of Science in Physiotherapy. Juliana’s previous research focused on osteoarthritis and bone and joint health in the ageing population. Her clinical work comprised of both community and acute care. Today she continues her clinical work with older adults in long-term care settings. Her current research interests combine her experience in both academic and clinical practice to address the needs of the ageing population, particularly as it relates to their mobility, activity, and musculoskeletal health. Outside her studies Juliana enjoys hiking and travelling with her husband and three children.

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.

Thalia’s research focuses on the psychological aspects of concussion recovery and finding ways to improve psychological care for concussion patients. Her research motivations stem from her own recovery from the injury. Her PhD focuses on exploring patient-related barriers to the adoption of evidence-based concussion care. Specifically, she wants to understand the relationships between patients’ perceptions of their injury, their help-seeking experience and coping strategies. The results of this research will be informative across disease groups, including arthritis.

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.

She is a big proponent of the Exercise is Medicine movement and using a comprehensive approach in clinical care. As such, her thesis will explore theory-based strategies for promoting exercise adherence among patients with knee osteoarthritis. This research aims to improve our understanding of how and why patients choose to engage in exercise in order to better inform future physical activity promotion interventions. With her overarching passion for supporting healthy behaviour changes in vulnerable populations, Smruthi plans to pursue a career as a clinician scientist.

Fatima completed her Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Psychology from the University of Calgary. Her honours thesis focused on the sexual health outcomes of women with pelvic organ prolapse. Currently, she is pursuing a Masters of Science in Community Health Sciences from the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary under the supervision of Dr. Cheryl Barnabe. Her research aims to investigate the biomedical and socioeconomic contributors of inflammatory arthritis hospitalizations, including disease factors, attempts to access health care prior to hospitalization, and social determinants of health.

Linda’s research focuses on understanding the role of social support after a traumatic knee injury. The goals of her research will be centered on identifying and integrating social support to interventions aimed at delaying osteoarthritis risk after a knee injury. This research will provide both researchers and clinicians strategies to leverage social support in clinical interventions and 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.