Dr. Fortin obtained his medical degree from ‘Université Laval’ in Quebec City and graduated from McGill University in Rheumatology. He then obtained a Master’s in Public Health from Harvard University School of Public Health. He followed three years of special training in clinical epidemiology as a Harvard post-doctoral research fellow under the direction of Dr. Matthew H. Liang at the Robert Breck Brigham Multi-Purpose Arthritis Center of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He returned as an Assistant and then Associate Professor of Medicine at McGill University and to the Montreal General Hospital/McGill University Health Centre and Research Institute between 1992 and 2000, where he was funded uninterruptedly by operating grants from The Arthritis Society (TAS) and/or the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
Dr. Fortin joined the staff of Toronto Western Division/University Health Network (UHN) and Research Institute in 2000 as a Clinician Scientist and Director of Clinical Research for the Arthritis Centre of Excellence. He became Full Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto in 2007 and held cross-appointments as staff at the Hospital for Sick Children and as Associate Professor at the Institute of Medical Sciences and the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation of the University of Toronto. In August 2011, he moved to Quebec City, Canada and became Full Professor with tenure at Université Laval and Clinician-Scientist at the ‘Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Québec’. He’s held a senior Canada Research Chair on Systemic Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases since 2012.
Dr. Fortin has been working on a better understanding of the bio-psycho-social impact of chronic rheumatic diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), the antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (APS), systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (SARD) and rheumatoid arthritis. He is particularly interested in clinical applications of translational research and in developing interventions for the treatment of SLE, APS and SARD.
His methodological interests cover the development and validation of health status measures and other clinical tools such as measures of disease activity or damage in SLE. His other methodological interests include the development of risk profiles for arterial or venous thrombosis in APS, the testing of treatments of disease activity or cardiovascular disease in SLE, or the validation of biological markers in SLE and SARD.
In 1995, he created the Canadian Network for Improved Outcomes in SLE (CaNIOS) with the specific goal of running a multi-centre, randomized, and controlled Study of Methotrexate in Lupus Erythematosus (SMILE). CaNIOS brought together many lupus experts who, despite their limited individual cohorts, were able to pool information for the completion of SMILE. CaNIOS has conducted several CIHR and TAS funded national studies, including the project on ‘Empowering Patients as Active Partners in Their Care: Lupus Interactive Navigator (LIN)’, ‘The Dissemination of the Lupus Health Passport’, ‘Health Improvement and Prevention Program for Persons with SLE’ (HIPP study), ‘Lupus Nephritis New Emerging Team’ (LuNNET), ‘Genetic and Environmental Factors in SLE’ (GenES Study), and ‘Role of Thrombophilic Factors in Persons with SLE’ (ThromboFIL study). Also, CaNIOS is building a national database, a clinical trial infrastructure through support from the Lupus Clinical Trial Consortium and a training environment for young researchers.
Since 2011, Dr. Fortin is building an arthritis multidisciplinary research infrastructure based on the SARD Database and Biobank hosted by Université Laval and that has been a catalyst for translational research on SLE and rheumatoid arthritis locally and nationally. His efforts have culminated in the recent creation of the Centre ARThrite, which is one of the few scientific centres recognized and supported by Université Laval.
With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Fortin has undertaken research projects to evaluate the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccination in patients living with SARD.
