Appropriate Use Advisory Committee

The Appropriate Use Advisory Committee’s mandate is to advise Canada’s Drug Agency and provide recommendations for our appropriate use strategy and program, identify priorities, ensure alignment and maximum efficiency, share information, and champion our appropriate use program work to system partners. With input from the committee and partners, including the federal, provincial, and territorial governments, Canada’s Drug Agency will establish a pan-Canadian appropriate use and prescribing program that supports local implementation and improves the safety and quality of care.

Co-Chairs

Stephen Samis

Stephen Samis is a health policy consultant and an associate scientific director of policy and partnerships, and director of the Centre for Health Policy, O’Brien Institute for Public Health at the University of Calgary. He was deputy minister of health and social services for the Government of Yukon from 2017 to 2022. Previously he worked for the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement, The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, and the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Stephen has extensive experience in federal, provincial and territorial government relations, health policy, population health, and health program delivery.

Dr. Jim Silvius, BA (Oxon), MD, FRCPC

 Dr. Jim Silvius is the co-founder of the Canadian Medication Appropriateness and Deprescribing Network (CADeN) and is a clinical professor in the Division of Geriatric Medicine, Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. He is also the provincial medical director for Provincial Seniors Health & Continuing Care at Alberta Health Services.

Members

Julia Bareham

Julia is a pharmacist with RxFiles Academic Detailing Service in Saskatchewan and works casually as a community pharmacist. Julia joined the RxFiles team in 2009 and until 2015 she provided academic detailing services on various topics, including medication optimization in the long-term care population. In 2015, Julia joined the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan as Pharmacist Manager for the Prescription Review Program. In early 2019, Julia returned to RxFiles where her work involves providing academic detailing services across Saskatchewan and developing evidence-based drug therapy educational materials. Julia is also a member of the Drugs and Therapeutics Advisory Committee for Indigenous Services Canada’s Non-Insured Health Benefits Program  and the Saskatchewan Health Authority Research Ethics Board.

Dr. Devin Harris

Dr. Devin Harris is Chair of Health Quality BC and Executive Medical Director, Quality, Engagement, and Research, at Interior Health. He is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Harris is also currently an emergency and transport physician in Kelowna.

Dr. Wendy Levinson

Dr. Wendy Levinson is a Professor of Medicine and Past Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She is a national and international expert in the field of physician-patient communication, studying topics such as informed decision-making. She led the creation of Choosing Wisely Canada, in partnership with the Canadian Medical Association, and presently serves as Chair of Choosing Wisely Canada and Choosing Wisely International.

Dr. Lisa McCarthy

Dr. Lisa McCarthy is an Associate Professor with the University of Toronto’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and Department of Family and Community Medicine and a Learning Health System Fellow with Trillium Health Partners. She is a pharmacist with more than 20 years of experience across acute, primary, and ambulatory care settings.

Dr. McCarthy co-leads the internationally known deprescribing.org team, won awards for mentorship and education, and received the CIHR Mid-Career Investigator Prize for Research in Aging in 2023. She currently serves on the executive of the Canadian Medication Appropriateness and Deprescribing Network and the Ontario Pharmacy Evidence Network and is a member of the Ontario Health Quality Advisory Council.

Dr. Emily McDonald

Dr. Emily G. McDonald is an Associate Professor of Medicine and subspecialist in General Internal Medicine in the Department of Medicine at McGill University. She completed a master’s degree in epidemiology at McGill University, postgraduate research training in quality improvement and patient safety at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and the Program in Clinical Effectiveness at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. McDonald is a scientist at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre where she studies the appropriate use of medications and high-value care. She is the Associate Chair of Quality and Safety for the Department of Medicine and sits on the Comité délibératif permanent – remboursement et accès of the Institut national d’excellence en santé et en services sociaux (INESSS). She is the Director of the Canadian Medication Appropriateness and Deprescribing Network.

Connie Newman

Connie Newman is the Executive Director and lead consultant for the Manitoba Association of Senior Communities (MASC) which leads Age-Friendly Manitoba and Social Prescribing Initiatives. MASC is a member association currently with 82 member groups throughout the province. She also chaired the committee that developed the Manitoba Government Seniors Strategy released in 2023.

Among her many volunteer engagements, Connie continues to be very involved with the St. James-Assiniboia 55+ Active Living Centre and Friends of Living Prairie Museum. She is a primary caregiver for a friend residing in the community and another living in a personal care home.

Connie is 76 years young and holds a master’s degree in education administration from the University of Manitoba.

Dr. Danielle Paes

Dr. Danielle Paes is the Chief Pharmacist Officer at the Canadian Pharmacists Association (CPhA), where she is driving strategic efforts in the areas of pharmacy practice, workforce sustainability and diversity, equity and inclusion.

In addition to her genuine passion, her unique pharmacy portfolio gives Dr. Paes a national lens, enabling her to provide leadership and guidance on key issues facing pharmacy and health care in Canada. She stays clinically engaged through her community practice and has previously held roles in hospital, industry and academic settings.

She earned her bachelor and Doctor of Pharmacy degrees from the University of Waterloo and holds a Bachelor of Science in applied pharmaceutical chemistry from the University of Guelph.

Dr. Andrea Patey

Dr. Andrea Patey is a Knowledge Translation/Implementation Scientist at IWK Health.  She is Co-Director of the Healthcare Improvement Fellowship at the Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety and Choosing Wisely Canada . She holds a PhD in health psychology. Her work sits at the intersection of behaviour sciences and implementation research, applying psychological theory and methods to explain and change health professional behaviours across a range of clinical settings.

Dr. Danyaal Raza

Dr. Raza is a staff physician with the Department of Family and Community Medicine at St. Michael’s Hospital, founding lead physician of the Sumac Creek Health Centre, and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto. He is a graduate of Harvard University’s Masters of Public Health program, where he was awarded a Frank Knox Fellowship, and is also a former fellow in Global Health at the University of Toronto’s Department of Family and Community Medicine. Dr. Raza completed post-graduate medical training at Queen’s University, and holds a Medical Doctorate and Bachelor of Engineering Science from Western University.

Dr. Raza’s academic work focuses on Canadian health care policy and, most recently, on federal and provincial policy governing the availability and costs of prescription drugs.

Julie Weir

Julie Weir has served in several roles across the New Brunswick health care sector, including as the provincial lead for scaling up the appropriate use of antipsychotics initiative and the implementation of the interRAI Long-Term Care Facilities Assessment across all provincial nursing homes. Julie also recently served as CEO of the New Brunswick Association of Nursing Homes.

Currently, Julie is Regional Nurse Manager for the Infection Prevention and Control program with Horizon Health Network and is President-Elect of the Infection Prevention and Control Canada (IPAC) Board of Directors. Julie also provides quality improvement coaching supports through Healthcare Excellence Canada and is Clinical Co-Lead of the Long-Term Care group with Choosing Wisely Canada.