Mohsen Sadatsafavi receives CIHR New Investigator award

Mohsen Sadatsafavi receives CIHR New Investigator award

MohsenSHealth outcomes researcher and AllerGen research collaborator Dr. Mohsen Sadatsafavi has been awarded a New Investigator Salary Award, valued at $300,000 over five years (2016-2021), by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

The award will support Dr. Sadatsafavi’s work in measuring the economic and healthcare burden of asthma and other respiratory diseases in Canada.

“My goal is to improve patient care and reduce the burden of respiratory diseases by ensuring that decisions by policy makers and care providers are evidence-informed and result in the most efficient use of limited resources,” says Dr. Sadatsafavi, who is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Associate Scientist at Department of Medicine, The University of British Columbia.

His project, Respiratory Evaluation Sciences Program (RESP), is developing innovative analytic approaches—in decision analysis, health economics and outcomes research—to help improve efficiency in respiratory care in Canada.

RESP uses population-based health databases to estimate the burden of respiratory diseases and to evaluate their impact on quality of life and work productivity; it investigates adherence to, and the effectiveness of, treatments; and projects the costs and health consequences of policies and interventions at the population level using mathematical modeling techniques. His approach emphasizes knowledge translation through the early engagement of patients, policy makers, and clinical experts.

Dr. Sadatsafavi previously collaborated with AllerGen investigators Drs. Mark FitzGerald and Larry Lynd in a project that measured the on-the-job productivity loss due to uncontrolled asthma. Dr. Sadatsafavi is also the Theme Leader of the Health Economics Platform of the Canadian Respiratory Research Network (CRRN), through which he is collaborating with many AllerGen-funded investigators across the country.

The New Investigator Salary Award program aims to “provide outstanding new investigators with the opportunity to develop and demonstrate their independence in initiating and conducting health research through provision of a contribution to their salary.”