McMaster Hemophilia Research Group

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     Abha Athale is a second year masters student in the Health Research Methodology program at McMaster University. Working under the supervision of Dr. Alfonso Iorio, Abha has become involved with various haemophilia-related projects including a project to create and test two-sided decision tools for haemophilia patients and their health care providers to help make informed, evidence-based decisions of haemophilia treatment areas. She was also involved in a recently published Cochrane review entitled “Immune tolerance induction for treating inhibitors in people with congenital haemophilia A or B”. Abha is currently working on a systematic review that is looking at the efficacy of secondary prophylaxis in adult patients with hemophilia. Abha has also been fortunate to present her work locally and internationally. She presented a poster entitled, “Developing a Two-Sided Intervention To Facilitate Shared Decision Making In Haemophilia: Decision Boxes For Clinicians and Brief Patient Decision Aids For Patients” at the McMaster University Health Sciences research plenary in 2013, where she received an Award for Excellence in poster presentation, and at the 55th American Society of Hematology Annual meeting in New Orleans, LA.

      As well, Abha recently completed a MITACS-sponsored internship with Biogen Idec, to further her knowledge about the involvement of the pharmaceutical industry in treatment of hemophilia. Over the past 8 years she has worked on a number of hemophilia related studies in the following areas: infusion diary record keeping, understanding and assessing disease related knowledge, gaps and needs, and most recently a qualitative study to understand treatment decision-making among youth with severe hemophilia.

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Communications Research Laboratory, Room 124 1280 Main Street West Hamilton Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada  mammense@mcmaster.ca

     Having completed his first year of master’s study in April 2014, Sunil Eappen Mammen is an eHealth student currently interning under the supervision of Dr. Alfonso Iorio. Previously, Sunil attended the Vellore Institute of Technology University in India where he majored in bioinformatics. While his interest primarily resides with the information technologies of eHealth, Sunil also shows great enthusiasm and interest towards the business and health sciences aspect. At the moment, Sunil is an educational tool developer for the Web-based Application for the Population Pharmacokinetic Service (WAPPS) project.

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McMaster University Faculty of Health Sciences 1280 Main St. W. Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada  905-536-8868  mengchen.xi@medportal.ca

     Mengchen has been involved in hemophilia research since 2012. She has published a systematic review on inhibitor development in previously treated hemophilia A patients (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jth.12335/abstract), and is currently working on another systematic review on published evidence on the pharmacokinetic characteristics of factor VIII and IX concentrates.

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Communications Research Laboratory 1280 Main Street West Hamilton Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada  yangbj@mcmaster.ca

     Basil Yang is a master’s student in the eHealth Program at McMaster University. A highly active student at McMaster, Basil is involved in several hemophilia research projects where he has demonstrated an unprecedented level of knowledge and ability to his colleagues and supervisors. Most renowned for his contributions in the development, integration, and implementation of a national hemophilia system in Canada, Basil continues to inspire new ideas for hemophilia research every day. Other prominent projects which Basil is involved in include Web-based Application for the Population Pharmacokinetic Service (WAPPS), MASCOT, and CHARMS. In collaboration with Dawn Jerdas (Manager, McMaster Online Rating of Evidence (MORE)) and Nicholas Hobson (Programmer/Analyst), Basil is also a key contributor to the ‘McMaster Hemophilia Research Group’ website.

     Under the supervision of Dr. Alfonso Iorio and Dr. Arun Keepanasseril, Basil is in the process of fulfilling his internship at McMaster’s Communications Research Laboratory (CRL). Currently, his goal is to complete his internship and leave “knowing that [he has] made a positive impact in the hemophilia community”, quotes Basil.

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Communications Research Laboratory, Room 115 1280 Main Street West Hamilton Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada  yeungcht@mcmaster.ca

     Cindy is a first year masters student in the Health Research Methodology (HRM) program at McMaster University. Cindy’s background comes from an undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto, where she studied in the Human Biology: Health & Disease specialist program. During her studies at U of T, Cindy was involved in an independent research project at the Hospital for Sick Children working with Dr. Unni Narayanan on the development of an outcome measure for children with cerebral palsy. Cindy hopes to apply her background in health & disease and clinical research to the McMaster Hemophilia Research team. Under the supervision of Dr. Alfonso Iorio, Cindy is working on her thesis project in the development of clinical practice guidelines for the management of hemophilia. Cindy is currently working with the research group to perform a systematic review on models of care for chronic diseases and more specifically, hemophilia care.