Bringing evidence to the patient

Asthma is becoming more common throughout the world. It is a major cause of hospitalization and an avoidable cause of death in a minority of patients. Dr. Mark FitzGerald, who has taken a leading role in developing national and international asthma guidelines, is evaluating new treatment strategies for asthma. These include drug therapies and strategies specifically designed for patients with near fatal asthma (NFA). In collaboration with other researchers, Dr. FitzGerald is also assessing how variations in asthma management affect outcomes. Tuberculosis (TB) is a global health problem that affects high risk groups in Canada, such as injection drug users and Aboriginal persons. Currently there is no way to determine an individual’s risk of developing active TB when the disease is latent, unless there are other risk factors such as HIV or diabetes. In collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. FitzGerald is researching how to better identify those at risk of developing TB and investigating better strategies for the treatment and the prevention of TB. In the area of outcomes-related research, Dr. FitzGerald is the Director of the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluation where he coordinates a multi-disciplinary group of investigators interested in the development, implementation and evaluation of evidence based interventions.