Jeff Johnson, PhD Chair
Dr. Johnson is Chair of the ACHORD Group. Jeff is currently a Professor in the School of Public Health, University of Alberta and a Fellow with the Institute of Health Economics in Edmonton.
In 2012 Jeff was appointed as the Scientific Director for Obesity, Diabetes and Nutrition, Strategic Clinical Network, Alberta Health Services. He holds a University of Alberta Centennial Professor Award and a Senior Health Scholar award from the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (now called Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions).
Jeff leads many of the ACHORD research projects, including studies of the measurement of health-related quality of life in diabetes, epidemiologic studies of diabetes and major comorbidities and complications, pharmacoepidemiologic studies of drug therapy in diabetes, economic analyses of diabetes care, and in the evaluation of policies and alternative care delivery strategies to improve the efficiency and quality of care in diabetes.
Apart from his primary interests in diabetes health outcomes, Jeff collaborates with other colleagues in areas such as dialysis, osteoporosis, stroke and cardiology, often providing support in the assessment of patient-reported outcomes in these chronic medical conditions. As a pharmacist, Jeff is also interested generally in pharmaceutical policy and the formulary decision-making process.
Jeff received a B.S.P. with Distinction in 1988 and a M.Sc. in clinical pharmacy/pharmacoepidemiology in 1994, both from the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada. He received his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from The University of Arizona in 1996, majoring in pharmaceutical economics.
Publications
Sumit Majumdar, MD, MPH
Dr. Sumit (Me2) Majumdar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, University of Alberta; a Research Fellow at the Institute of Health Economics; and a Visiting Instructor in the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention, Harvard Medical School. He is also a Population Health Investigator of the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research and a New Investigator of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Sumit received his MD in 1992 from the University of Alberta, followed by 5 years of clinical training in general internal medicine, and then went on to a combined MPH and research fellowship at Harvard Medical School. His research supervisors were Dr. Stephen Soumerai and Dr. Robert Fletcher. He then returned to the University of Alberta for his first faculty appointment in 1999. Sumit is a health outcomes researcher whose primary interests are related to evaluating and optimizing the management of chronic disease, typified by diabetes mellitus.
He has a specific interest and expertise in improving evidence-based prescribing and understanding the barriers that exist to the delivery of quality care. He recently synthesized this vast literature in a chapter of Strom’s Pharmacoepidemiology. In addition, he is a practicing academic internist, taking care of both inpatients and outpatients.
Under the ACHORD umbrella, Sumit is involved in a number of projects related to studying and improving the quality of diabetes management, with a particular focus on evidence-based prescribing. With several other ACHORD investigators, he is using administrative databases to examine patterns of practice and outcomes related to drug treatments of diabetes. With other DOVE investigators, he is evaluating (in a prospective controlled trial) the use of a diabetes outreach program to improve the outcomes for rural patients with type-2 diabetes.
With other STRIP-Type2 investigators, he is studying the policy impact (in a randomized controlled trial) of providing free glucose testing strips on the level of glucose control attained in the community.
Publications
Scot H. Simpson, PharmD
Dr. Scot Simpson received his Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from the University of Saskatchewan in 1990 and completed a hospital pharmacy residency at the Regina General Hospital in 1991.
Following this, he worked as a staff pharmacist at the Yorkton Regional Hospital in Yorkton, Saskatchewan for three years.
Scot returned to school in 1995 and completed a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Toronto in 1997, and a post-doctoral fellowship (2000) and Master of Science degree (2001) in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, at the University of Alberta.
Scot is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Alberta and a clinical pharmacist with the University Hospital Family Medicine Clinic. He currently holds a New Investigator salary award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and is the principal investigator on a number of pharmacy practice and pharmacoepidemiology studies. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Health Economics and a collaborator with the Alliance for Canadian Health Outcomes Research in Diabetes (ACHORD) in Edmonton, Alberta. In addition, he is a member of the Canadian Diabetes Association Clinical Practice Guidelines Expert Committee for Pharmacologic Management of Type 2 Diabetes.
Scot’s teaching, research, and clinical practice interests are in medication management of diabetes and its complications, medication adherence issues, and the challenges of integrating evidence into practice.
He has a published interest in evaluating the impact of medication adherence on health outcomes, identifying and overcoming patient-perceived barriers to medication use, and optimizing medication management of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Publications