Scientific Advisory Panel on Opioid Use and Contraindications (SAP-OUC)

Membership List and Biographies

Mitchell Levine (Chair), MD, MSc, FRCPC, FISPE, FACP
Director, Centre for the Evaluation of Medicines
Professor, Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario

Mitchell Levine is a professor in the departments of Health Research Methods, Evidence & Impact and Medicine in the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He is also director of the Centre for Evaluation of Medicines at St. Joseph´s Healthcare Hamilton. He received his M.D. from the University of Calgary in 1979 and postgraduate training in Internal Medicine (FRCPC) and Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Toronto (1981-1987). He received a M.Sc. degree in Clinical Epidemiology from McMaster University in 1988. He is a member and Vice-Chairperson of the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board. He acts, on an ad hoc basis, as a clinical pharmacology consultant to the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Population Therapeutics and Clinical Pharmacology and an Associate Editor of the ACP Journal Club: Evidence-Based Medicine.

Lynn Cooper
President, Canadian Pain Coalition
Kitchener, Ontario

Lynn Cooper is recognized as national and international educator, community organizer, advocate and spokesperson for the prevention, understanding, management and research of chronic pain. Every day, Lynn lives with pain that resulted from an accident that occurred over 25 years ago. She knows from personal experience that it is paramount for people with pain to have a pain management plan and actively participate in their pain care.

As volunteer president of the Canadian Pain Coalition, Lynn oversees initiatives that promote awareness and education about pain, ensure the person with pain voice is integrated into pain research and health policy development, and advocate for solutions and access to improved pain care. Following her personal motto, "See the need, rise to the challenge, and take action to help", Lynn works so that 1 in 5 Canadians have the opportunity to live healthy, happy and productive lives in spite of their pain.

Andrea Furlan, MD, PhD
Physician and Senior Scientist, Toronto Rehab, University Health Network
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Physiatry, U of T
Toronto, Ontario

Dr. Andrea Furlan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto and staff physician and scientist at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. She is also Associate Scientist at the Institute for Work & Health in Toronto. She completed a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology from the Department of HPME of the University of Toronto and has extensive experience in reviewing the scientific literature for the Cochrane Collaboration and for clinical practice guidelines. She received a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) New Investigator Award and her research focus is on treatments of chronic pain including medications, complementary and alternative therapies, and rehabilitation. She was the team leader for the development of the Canadian Opioid Guideline, and is now involved with Guideline's National Faculty in dissemination and implementation of the guideline across Canada. She developed the Opioid Manager, a point-of-care tool for physicians using opioids for chronic pain, which is available in many electronic medical record platforms and as an App for iPad/iPhone. Dr. Furlan is a co-Chair of Echo Ontario for Pain and Opioid Stewardship.

David Juurlink, MD, PhD, FRCPC
Head, Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Medical Toxicologist, Ontario Poison Centre, Hospital for Sick Children
Toronto, Ontario

Dr. Juurlink is a staff internist and head of the division of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. He is also a medical toxicologist at the Ontario Poison Centre at the Hospital for Sick Children and a scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences. He received degrees in Pharmacy (1990) and Medicine (1994) from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and completed postgraduate training in Internal Medicine (1998) followed by residency in Clinical Pharmacology (2000), a fellowship in Medical Toxicology (2002), and a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology (2003), all at the University of Toronto. He has received certification from the American Board of Internal Medicine, the American Board of Emergency Medicine (Medical Toxicology), and the American Board of Clinical Pharmacology.

He is presently the Sunnybrook site director for the program in Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology and is actively involved with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons subspecialty program in Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology as a member of the Nucleus committee and Vice Chair of the Examinations committee. In addition to his clinical, teaching, and administrative activities, he maintains an active research program in the field of drug safety. His areas of particular interest include drug safety, adverse drug events, the consequences of drug-drug interactions in clinical practice, and the epidemiology of suicide and deliberate self-poisoning.

Pamela Leece, MD, MSC, CCFP, FRCPC
Public Health Physician, Public Health Ontario
Clinical Associate, Women's College Hospital - Substance Use Service
Toronto, Ontario

Dr. Pamela Leece is currently working as a Public Health Physician with the Health Promotion, Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention (HPCDIP) department at Public Health Ontario. She also practices part-time as a Clinical Associate in the Substance Use Service at Women's College Hospital.  Pamela holds certifications with the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Additionally, she has a Master of Science in Health Research Methodology from McMaster University.

Her current research focuses on opioid overdose prevention, and substance use health services research. She is currently funded by Health Canada as co-Principal Investigator on research to develop and evaluate educational and quality improvement tools for primary care opioid prescribing. Additionally, she is a co-investigator on a randomized controlled trial to study overdose education and naloxone distribution, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Owen Williamson, FRCSC, FFPMANZCA
Chair, Academic Pain Directors of Canada
President, Pain Medicine Physicians of BC Society
Vancouver, BC

Dr. Owen Williamson is an orthopedic surgeon, pain medicine physician and clinical epidemiologist. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Australia. He practices as a pain physician at the Fraser Health Authority Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre Pain Clinic in Surrey, BC and the Okanagan Interventional Pain Clinic in Kelowna, BC.

Dr. Williamson is currently the Chair of the Pain Medicine Physicians of BC Society, the Academic Pain Directors of Canada, and the Ethical and Legal Issues in Pain Special Interest Group of the International Association for the Study of Pain.