Scientific Advisory Committee on Metabolic and Endocrine Therapies (SAC-MET) - Membership List and Biographies

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Membership List

• Peter Walker, MD, FRCPC, CSPQ (Chair)
• Robert Dent, MD, FRCPC
• Colleen Fuller
• Irene Hramiak, MD, FRCPC
• Peter J. McDougall, CD, BA, MIR, CHRP
• Ron Sigal, MD, FRCPC
• Ehud Ur, MB, FRCPC
• George Wells, BSc, MSc, PhD
• Michael Wheeler, BSc, PhD

Related Information: The Summary of Expertise, Experience, Affiliations and Interests for the Scientific Advisory Committee on Oncology Therapies accompanies the member biographies. It summarizes the information provided by each member regarding their expertise/experience, and their affiliations and interests, which is required as part of the nominations process.

Membership List and Biographies

Peter Walker, MD, FRCPC, CSPQ (Chair)

Professor, University of Ottawa
Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Ottawa Hospital Riverside Campus
Ottawa, Ontario

Biography:

Peter Walker earned his doctor of medicine (MD) degree in 1972 from the University of Ottawa. He also holds degrees in both internal medicine (FRCPC) and endocrinology (CSPQ). In addition to teaching medicine at the University of Ottawa, he has held a range of professional positions including Head of the Department of Medicine at the Ottawa Civic Hospital and Chair of the Council of Faculties of Medicine (COFM) of Ontario and Dean of the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Medicine. He also recently led a technical working group for scaling up health worker education and training in developing countries; this project was sponsored by the World Health Organization. In 2008, he was named a Special Advisor to York University President Mamdouh Shoukri to generate a comprehensive proposal toward establishing a medical school at York.

Robert Dent, MD, FRCPC

Medical Director, Weight Management Clinic
Department of Medicine, Ottawa Hospital, Civic Campus
Ottawa, Ontario

Biography:

Robert Dent is a specialist in Internal Medicine with academic appointments in Cardiology and Psychiatry at the University of Ottawa. In 1992 he established the Weight Management Clinic at the Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa. This is a multidisciplinary clinic designed with these objectives: patient care, teaching health care professionals and research in the genotype/phenotype association of obesity. This clinic design has been adopted in several university centres including University of Montreal, McGill University, and now Dalhousie University. With respect to research he has 25 publications in peer reviewed journals in the last 7 years. These publications deal with the design and out comes of the clinic; and on the genetics of obesity. In 2009 the clinic joined forces with the newly-formed Ottawa Hospital Bariatric Centre.

He was a member (2005-2007) of the Expert Committee for the Canadian Clinical Practice Guidelines on the Management and Prevention of Obesity and contributed two chapters to that work which were published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in 2007.

He was one of the founding members of the Canadian Obesity Network and participated in writing the grant for the initial funding of this organization and is section head for the Mental Health department of that organization. He was a member of the Bariatric Surgery Panel to develop the Health Technology Utilization Guidelines of Ontario, November 2005. He was the chairman of the working group on obesity for the Champlain Primary Care Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Guidelines submitted on time in September 2006. In 2009, he worked with the Ministry of Health of Ontario as Chairman, The Ontario Bariatric Network Patient Assessment Working Group. He, along with a colleague have Canadian Institutes of Health Research funding to continue their research in the genetics and epigenetics of obesity.

Colleen Fuller

Patient advocate
Vancouver, British Columbia

Biography:

Colleen Fuller is a health policy researcher, writer and author. She has written extensively about health care and drug policy issues for the last 20 years.

In 2001, she co-founded PharmaWatch with two other patient advocates. It was North America's first and only direct-from-consumer adverse drug reaction reporting program. In 2003, Health Canada began allowing consumers to report adverse drug reactions directly to the regulator. Today PharmaWatch is working for and supports an enhanced role for consumers in Canada's system of adverse drug reaction reporting, post market surveillance and drug safety.

Ms. Fuller is also a co-founder of the Society for Diabetic Rights (SDR). Since 2003, SDR has represented Canadians with diabetes who require or prefer animal insulin. Through SDR she has worked extensively with Health Canada's Biologics and Genetic Therapies Directorate, as well as diabetes advocates and activists, to develop strategies designed to alert the public about the on-going need for natural, animal-sourced insulin in Canada.

She continues to write and speak about public interest issues in health and pharmaceutical policy. She is a published author and has consulted with a range of organizations across the country. Her most recent work was a contributing author to The Push to Prescribe, Women and Canadian Drug Policy (Canadian Scholars Press, Toronto 2009). She is currently working on a book about the diabetes industry.

Irene Hramiak, MD, FRCPC

Professor of Medicine, University of Western Ontario
Chair, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario

Biography:

Irene Hramiak practices at St. Joseph's Health Care London in London, Ontario. She has an interest in diabetes and obesity. She has been the Medical Director of the Diabetes Education Center of St. Joseph's Health Care since 2000.

Irene Hramiak has received peer reviewed funding from Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Canadian Diabetes Association, and the National Institutes of Health. She was a co-investigator in the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) - a major outcome trial in Type 1 diabetes mellitus. As a DCCT investigator she was awarded the Charles H Best Award for distinguished service by the American Diabetes Association in 1993. She is currently a Principal Investigator in the ACCORD trial which is assessing cardiac outcomes in patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus. In addition, she has been involved in many clinical trials assessing new treatment strategies in Type 1, Type 2 diabetes mellitus, and obesity. She was an author of the Canadian Obesity Guidelines published in 2007. Her focus in obesity has been in risk factor management of obese patients. She serves as an external advisor to many groups and pharmaceutical companies with regards to diabetes and obesity.

Peter J. McDougall, CD, BA, MIR, CHRP

Patient advocate
Vice President, Human Resources and Organizational Development, University of New Brunswick
Fredericton, New Brunswick

Biography:

Peter McDougall is from Fredericton, New Brunswick where he holds the position of Associate Vice President, Human Resources and Organizational Development at the University of New Brunswick.

He has several connections to diabetes. He is the parent of a 19-year old son who, since November 2001, has lived with Type 1 and he is the brother of a 45-year old who, since 1984, has lived with Type 1. In March 2003 Peter was himself diagnosed with diabetes, in his case Type 2.

For the past eight years he has been an active volunteer with the Canadian Diabetes Association (CDA). He assisted his wife Jill in the formation of a local Type 1 Diabetes Parent Support Group, he became involved in fundraising through the Team Diabetes Canada marathon program, he has served as CDA Signature Programs presenter, he was elected as the CDA's regional chairperson for New Brunswick and, most recently, he has served as a member and as Chair of the CDA's National Advocacy Council.

Ron Sigal, MD, FRCPC

Professor of Medicine and Cardiac Sciences, University of Calgary
Cross-appointment in Dept. of Community Health Sciences and Faculty of Kinesiology
Calgary, Alberta

Biography:

Ron Sigal is Professor of Medicine, Kinesiology, Cardiac Sciences and Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary. He is active in clinical medicine, teaching and research.

He completed residencies in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology at McGill University in 1987-92, and a research fellowship at the McGill Nutrition and Food Sciences Centre in 1992-93. He completed a Master of Public Health degree and a research fellowship in Epidemiology and Genetics at Harvard University in 1993-96. He was on the faculty at the University of Ottawa between 1996 and July 2006, where he was Senior Scientist in the Clinical Epidemiology Program at the Ottawa Health Research Institute, and Medical Director of the Diabetes Clinic at the Ottawa Hospital. He is a Health Senior Scholar of the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, and previously held a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) New Investigator Award from 1999-2004 and the OHRI Research Chair in Lifestyle Research.

His current research focuses on clinical trials related to physical activity, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Ehud Ur, MB, FRCPC

Professor, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia
Head, Division of Endocrinology, Vancouver Hospital and St. Paul's Hospital Vancouver, British Columbia

Biography:

Ehud Ur is Professor of Medicine at University of British (UBC) and Head of the UBC Division of Endocrinology at Vancouver Hospital and St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver. He is a graduate of the University of London, and trained in medicine and endocrinology at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London. He came to Canada in 1992 and was assistant professor of medicine at Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland until May 1997. He is a board director and the Chair (Clinical and Scientific Section) of the Canadian Diabetes Association. He also sits on the board of directors of Obesity Canada.

His research interests include neuroendocrine disorders, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and obesity. He is actively engaged in both laboratory and clinical research, and has published over 150 papers, chapters and abstracts in these fields. He has been an investigator in clinical trials of new agents in diabetes, lipid disorders, and obesity. His laboratory is currently studying the activity of the fat regulating hormones leptin and resistin in the brain and pituitary.

George Wells, BSc, MSc, PhD

Director, Cardiovascular Research Methods Centre, University of Ottawa Heart Institute
Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa
Ottawa, Ontario

Biography:

George Wells is a Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine and Department of Medicine at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Cardiovascular Research Methods Centre. He was the recipient of the 2007 Canadian Society for Clinical Investigation Distinguished Scientist. His research interests include the design and analysis of clinical trials, systematic reviews and economic evaluations. He is author or co-author of over 500 published articles and 700 scientific abstracts. He has been on the executive and steering committees of national and international research programs, data safety and monitoring boards, grant review committees, editorial committees and scientific advisory committees.

Michael Wheeler, BSc, PhD

Professor, Department of Physiology, University of Toronto
Senior Scientist, Toronto General Hospital Research Institute
Toronto, Onatrio

Biography:

The major focus of Michael Wheeler's research is to develop novel strategies to treat Type 2 diabetes and obesity using molecular and cellular approaches. Since defects in pancreatic endocrine function cause Type 2 diabetes the laboratory focuses specifically on understanding mechanisms that control insulin and glucagon secretion in normal and diseased states. There is a clear link between obesity and the development of Type 2 diabetes, so understanding how excessive dietary intake, fats and sugars can cause diabetes, is an important objective of the lab. To reach these objectives, his lab uses a multidisciplinary approach, combining information gained from genetic models of diabetes, genomics and proteomics, molecular biology, realtime cellular imaging and patchclamp electrophysiology. The laboratory is affiliated with the Endocrinology and Diabetes Research Group in the Department of Physiology and with the Toronto General Research Institute at the University Hospital Network.