Membership List and Biographies for the Scientific Advisory Panel on Opioids (SAP-Opioids) - Health Canada

Jason Busse, DC, PhD (Chair)
Associate Professor, Department of Anesthesia, McMaster University
Joint Member, Department of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics
Hamilton, Ontario

Dr. Jason Busse is a chiropractor and clinical epidemiologist with appointments as an Associate Professor in the Departments of Anesthesia and Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics at McMaster University. He has been active clinically in the management of disability secondary to chronic pain since 1999. Dr. Busse has authored over 160 peer-reviewed publications with a focus on chronic pain, disability management, predictors of recovery, and methodological research. His academic efforts have been supported by a New Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and he is the principle investigator for the update and revision of the Canadian Opioid Guideline, which will be published in 2017.

Feng Chang, PharmD
Assistant Professor, University of Waterloo
Clinical pharmacist, Huron Community Family Health Team
Waterloo, Ontario

Dr. Chang is Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy, pharmacist with the Huron Community Family Health Team, and Board member and Chair of Rural Pharmacy with the Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health. She completed her pharmacy degree from the University of Toronto Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy followed by Doctor of Pharmacy degree and post-PharmD specialty training in Geriatric Pharmacotherapy in the US. She is an Associate Editor with the Canadian Pharmacists Journal.

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.