CCRE Platform

Decisions within our cancer care systems are made with limited evidence – we often don’t know the true effect of drugs in the real world.

CCRE is a pan-Canadian team of experts who evaluate the real-world safety and effectiveness of cancer drugs in practice. Our work will help policy-makers, clinicians and patients make informed decisions on cancer therapies.

Who we are

The CCRE Platform is one of four Core Network Partners of CDA’s CoLab network, and is the only partner that focuses on cancer. The CoLab Network generates real-world evidence (RWE) for drugs that are on the market and available to patients in Canada.

The specific focus for the CCRE Platform is to generate RWE for cancer drugs, leveraging expertise in the cancer field within cancer agencies in Alberta (Alberta Health Services) and British Columbia (BC Cancer), as well as the Canadian Health Data Research Network (HDRN). We respond rapidly to decision-maker questions by directly accessing and linking oncology-related health administrative databases. Our team has extensive expertise in pharmacoepidemiology, health services research, health technology assessment, biostatistics, cancer-related health policy, and patient engagement. To learn more about the team, click here

What we do

The CCRE Platform receives queries from the CDA-CoLab. These queries are questions about the safety or effectiveness of cancer drugs that CDA has received from policy decision-makers. Once a query project is assigned to the CCRE Platform, the team uses best-in-class practices to produce an answer to the query and ultimately help those who submitted the query make informed policy decisions.

Through the CCRE Platform’s participating sites the team conducts meaningful and generalizable analyses on the safety and effectiveness of cancer drugs in Canada. This work enhances provincial funders’ ability to administer drug funding programs and supports market access as well as funding recommendations at provincial and national levels.

Meet the CCRE Platform Team

Kelvin Chan
Nominated Principal Investigator, Platform Lead, Ontario Co-Lead

Kelvin Chan is Medical Oncologist at the Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre, a Professor at the University of Toronto, an Associate Scientist at the Sunnybrook Research Institute, a Scientist with ICES, the Co-Director of ARCC. Dr. Chan’s research interests include health services research, health technology assessment, meta-analysis including network meta-analysis, cost effectiveness analyses, and statistical methods research in health economics.

Winson Cheung
Alberta Lead

Winson Cheung is a Medical Oncologist, the Principal Director of Oncology Outcomes (O2), a Professor in the Departments of Oncology, Medicine and Community Health Services at the University of Calgary, and the Provincial Director and Chair of the Health Services Researcher and RWE Generation Program at Cancer Control Alberta. Dr. Cheung has research interests in using big data for health services and outcomes research as well as generating RWE across all tumor sites.

Stuart Peacock
British Columbia Lead

Stuart Peacock is a Distinguished Scientist in Cancer Control Research at BC Cancer, a Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University, the Co-Director of ARCC, and a member of the Board of Directors of CADTH. Dr. Peacock has research interests in developing more effective cancer services, making health system funding decisions fairer and more transparent, and improving the quality of life of cancer patients and survivors.

Mina Tadrous
Ontario Co-Lead

Mina Tadrous is an Assistant Professor at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at University of Toronto leading research focused on evaluating drug policies and post-marketing surveillance of medications. Dr. Tadrous is also a Scientist at Women’s College Hospital Institute of Health System Solutions and Virtual Care, and an Investigator with the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network and an adjunct scientist at ICES. Dr. Tadrous has additional research interests in leveraging big data sets to help policymakers and health care practitioners make evidence-based decisions regarding real-world medication safety, effectiveness, and optimal use.

Kimberlyn McGrail
HDRN Liaison

Kimberlyn McGrail is a Professor in the UBC School of Population and Public Health and Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, Director of Research for UBC Health, and Scientific Director of Population Data BC and HDRN Canada. Dr. McGrail has key research focus in the areas of policy intervention evaluations, the use and cost of health care services, health care financing, aging, equity, and population data science.

Rebecca Mercer
Platform Manager

Rebecca Mercer is a Program Manager with Sunnybrook Research Institute who supports the CCRE Platform and the Canadian Centre for Applied Research in Cancer Control (ARCC). She has significant experience with real-world evidence, patient engagement, and knowledge translation, with a keen interest in facilitating information transfer among stakeholders. Rebecca received her PhD in Medical Genetics from the University of Alberta in 2012, and also holds an Honours BSc in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Guelph.

Reka Pataky
Sr. Methods Advisor

Reka Pataky is a Senior Health Economist in the department of Cancer Control Research and BC Cancer, and is the analyst for the BC arm of the CCRE Platform. She completed her PhD in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia, focusing on economic evaluation of precision medicine using real-world data. Her previous work with the Canadian Centre for Applied Research in Cancer Control has included evaluation of cancer drugs and programs using both administrative data analysis and simulation modeling methods.

Shiraz El Adam
British Columbia Analyst

Shiraz El Adam is a Senior Health Economist in the department of Cancer Control Research at BC Cancer, and is the analyst for the BC arm of the CCRE Platform. After completing her MSc in population and public health at the University of British Columbia, Shiraz worked as a health economist at BC Cancer, as well as an epidemiologist at the BC Centre for disease control monitoring vaccine effectiveness and contributing to provincial and national immunization policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. More recently, she worked in research consulting managing multiple projects including oncology, and collaboration with pharmaceutical partners.

Nicola Bai
British Columbia Program Manager

Nicola Bai is a Health Economist and Program Manager for the Canadian Centre for Applied Research in Cancer Control (ARCC). Nicola has extensive clinical research experience in oncology, and is very interested in cancer survivorship research and cost-effectiveness analysis in cancer treatment. Nicola is a physician by training from China. She also received PhD in Pharmacology from the University of British Columbia (UBC), and has recently completed Master of Health Science (focusing on Health Economics) from the School of Population and Public Health at UBC.

Christie Farrer Rogers
Alberta Research Program Manager

Christie Farrer Rogers is an experienced research program manager, and has led numerous cancer research programs and initiatives at the University of Calgary and Alberta Health Services. She has a clinical background in nursing and has worked in various administration and operations roles within oncology over the last decade. Christie oversees operations for Oncology Outcomes, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, including program development, strategic planning, project management, research facilitation and human resources activities. Christie also holds a staff position with the Cuthbert Lab, Faculty of Nursing, University of Calgary, focusing on patient and family centered cancer survivorship research.

Mariet Mathew Stephen
Alberta Analyst

Mariet Mathew Stephen is the statistical associate for Oncology Outcomes, University of Calgary. She has an educational background in statistics, epidemiology and molecular biology. As an analyst for the CCRE Platform, she is primarily involved in multivariate statistical analysis and interpreting quantitative data. Mariet designs statistical models that validate real-world cancer data, and is experienced in reproducible reporting.