Scientific Advisory Panel on Anti-Infective Therapies (SAP-AIT)

Biographies

Dr. Gerald A. Evans (Chair)
Dr. Gerald Evans is the Chair of the Division of Infectious Diseases and a Professor in the Departments of Medicine, Biomedical & Molecular Sciences, and Pathology & Molecular Medicine at Queen's University and an attending physician in Infectious Diseases and Internal Medicine at Kingston General Hospital (KGH). He is the Medical Director of Infection Prevention & Control at KGH, Hotel Dieu Hospital, and Providence Continuing Care.

He is a Past President of the Association for Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease (AMMI) Canada. He was the Chair of the Committee to Evaluate Drugs, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care's expert advisory committee on optimal drug utilization for the province of Ontario from 2006-2012. He is an Adjunct ICES Scientist and a co-investigator with the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network (ODPRN). He is the current ASP physician lead at KGH and also the medical lead for Antibiotic Stewardship in the Southeast LHIN and at Public Health Ontario.

Over the last 7 years, Dr. Evans has co-authored five national clinical practice guidelines for the management of infectious diseases in Canada.

Dr. Andrew Morris
Dr. Morris obtained his BSc (1990) and MD (1994) degrees from the University of Toronto. He trained in Internal Medicine at the University of Toronto, where he subsequently completed sub-specialty training in Infectious Diseases in 1999. He went on to complete a Master of Science degree in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health in 2000, while completing a research fellowship under Dr. Allison McGeer.

Dr. Morris spent 6 years with the Department of Medicine at McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences before returning to the University of Toronto in 2007, where he joined the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital, University Health Network and University of Toronto as an Associate Professor. He is the founding Director of the Mount Sinai Hospital-University Health Network Antimicrobial Stewardship Program, formed in 2009. Dr. Morris is also the Chair of the Specialty Committee of Infectious Diseases with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and Chair of the Antimicrobial Stewardship and Resistance Committee of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Canada, and Member of the parallel committee at the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.

Edith Blondel-Hill, MD, FRCP
Dr. Edith Blondel-Hill, MD FRCP(C), graduated from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta with specialty training in internal medicine, infectious diseases and medical microbiology. In 2008 Dr. Blondel-Hill accepted a position as medical microbiologist and infectious disease specialist at Kelowna General Hospital, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada after holding similar positions with BC Children's Hospital in Vancouver and the Royal Alexandra Hospital and Dynacare Kasper Medical Laboratories in Edmonton. With a long interest in antimicrobial utilization, she has chaired antimicrobial advisory committees in Edmonton and Vancouver, and has been actively involved in guideline and policy development for antibiotic use and prescribing. Dr. Blondel-Hill and Susan Fryters have shared a long working relationship and together have authored the Bugs and Drugs - Antimicrobial Reference Book which is now in an electronic form for both iPhone and android device users. Dr. Blondel-Hill is a founder and medical director of the Do Bugs Need Drugs? program. Other interests include mechanisms of resistance and susceptibility testing and she is co-author of the Guide to Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing and Reporting.

John Conly MD
A graduate of the University of Saskatchewan (Distinction), John Conly is medically trained in internal medicine and infectious diseases and is Board certified in both Canada and the United States. He is the past Chairman of the Department of Medicine, University of Calgary and Alberta Health Services, past President of the Canadian Infectious Disease Society, past Board Chairman for the Canadian Committee on Antibiotic Resistance, the inaugural Vice Chair for the Canadian Expert Drug Advisory Committee and founding Co-Chair for the Canadian Hospital Epidemiology Committee which in collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Canada established the current Canadian Nosocomial Infection Surveillance Program. He is currently the Co-Director for the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases at the University of Calgary, the Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of the Association of Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology Canada, an Academic Editor for PLoS One, a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Technical member of the Group for the Global Infection Prevention and Control Network and aConsultant to the WHO Advisory Group on Integrated Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance. He has published over 300 papers and has received multiple career honours in teaching, research, mentorship, innovation and service. He was the recipient of the Ronald Christie Award in 2012 from the Canadian Association of Professors of Medicine which is awarded to a former Chair of a Canadian Department of Medicine who has made outstanding contributions to academic medicine in Canada. He continues as an active consultant in clinical infectious diseases and his current interests focus on antimicrobial resistance, patient safety and innovations in healthcare.

Susan Fryters, BScPharm, ACPR
Antimicrobial Stewardship/Infectious Diseases Pharmacist
Alberta Health Services Edmonton

Susan is an Antimicrobial Stewardship/Infectious Diseases Pharmacist with Alberta Health Services in Edmonton, Alberta. She graduated with distinction from the University of Alberta, Faculty of Pharmacy in 1990, completed her hospital pharmacy residency at the University of Alberta Hospital in 1991, and has worked at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton since then in the area of antimicrobial utilization and stewardship with a clinical practice in infectious diseases. Susan focuses on utilization and evaluation of antimicrobials, and education regarding appropriate use of these valuable drugs. She is the secretary of the AHS Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee and precepts numerous PharmD students and pharmacy residents for their infectious diseases rotations.

Susan is the co-author and editor of Bugs & Drugs, a reference written to promote antibiotic stewardship and prevent the development of resistance. This reference has been distributed to pharmacists, physicians and dentists, as well as healthcare professional students, in Alberta and British Columbia and beyond.

Susan is also the Pharmacist Coordinator of the Do Bugs Need Drugs? program, an educational program to address antimicrobial resistance. She is also a member of Safer Healthcare Now! Surgical Site Infection Faculty.

Tim T.Y. Lau, PharmD, FCSHP
Tim Lau works as a Clinical Supervisor and Pharmacotherapeutic Specialist in Infectious Diseases & Antimicrobial Stewardship at the Vancouver General Hospital (VGH), and is involved in initiatives to promote rational antimicrobial prescribing based on best practices. He is the Pharmacy Lead for ASPIRES (the Antimicrobial Stewardship Programme at Vancouver Coastal Health) and a member of the Infection Control Committee at VGH.

Tim is also a member of the Provincial Antimicrobial Stewardship Clinical Expert (PACE) Working Group of the BC Ministry of Health, and the Sexually Transmitted Infections Expert Working Group of the Public Health Agency of Canada. In addition, he is the president-elect for the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists (CSHP) BC Branch and the CSHP representative on the Antimicrobial Stewardship and Resistance Committee of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada.

Tim is a Clinical Professor in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Associate Member in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine at The University of British Columbia. His main research interests have been focused on antimicrobial stewardship, antimicrobial consumption, Clostridium difficile infection, and vaccine utilization.