Timothy Caulfield and Stephen Scherer
Monday June 10, 2013 - Manulife Healthcare Policy Roundtable Series Feature Event - Genomics: The Evolving Science and Its Implications for Health Policy
For our second healthcare roundtable of the year, the Institute is pleased to host Timothy Caulfield and Stephen Scherer to discuss the study of genomics. Due to the unique insight it provides into personalized medicine and gene interactions, genomics will be essential in understanding the genetic, infectious, mental health, and chronic diseases that our population will face in the future. This field of study already plays an essential role in health policy development, and its importance will only increase as our population continues to age. Our speakers discussed an emerging field of study that will play a critical role in the decisions that shape the future health of Canadians.
Timothy Caulfield is a Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy and a Professor in the Faculty of Law and the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta. He was the Research Director of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta from 1993 to 2011 and is now leading the Faculty of Law’s Health Law and Science Policy Group (HeaLS). Over the past several years he has been involved in a variety of interdisciplinary research endeavours that have allowed him to publish over 250 articles and book chapters. He is a Health Senior Scholar with the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research and the Principal Investigator for a number of large interdisciplinary projects that explore the ethical, legal and health policy issues associated with a range of topics, including stem cell research, genetics, patient safety, the prevention of chronic disease, obesity policy, the commercialization of research, complementary and alternative medicine and access to health care. Professor Caulfield is and has been involved with a number of national and international policy and research ethics committees, including Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee, Genome Canada’s Science Advisory Committee, and the Federal Panel on Research Ethics. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. He writes frequently for the popular press and is the author of The Cure for Everything: Untangling the Twisted Messages about Health, Fitness and Happiness.
Stephen Scherer, PhD, DSc, FRSC, is a Canadian scientist, whose research has revolutionized the understanding of genetic variation in human disease. He founded Canada's first human genome centre, The Centre for Applied Genomics (TCAG) at the Hospital for Sick Children. He continues to serve as Director of the multi-million dollar TCAG, and is also Director of the McLaughlin Centre, a $50M initiative in genomic medicine at the University of Toronto. His group has made several discoveries, documented in 350 publications and patents cited more than 30,000 times, positioning him as one of the most prolific scientists of his generation.
The C.D. Howe Institute would like to thank Manulife Financial for sponsorship of the Healthcare Policy Roundtable Series.
