Anne Holbrook

BSc (Toronto), Pharm D(Philadelphia), MD (McMaster), MSc (McMaster), FRCPC, FISPE

Education and Professional Standing

Dr Holbrook is the Director of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Medicine, McMaster University; Professor, Department of Medicine, McMaster University and Senior Scientist, Centre for Evaluation of Medicines, St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton. She trained in pharmacy, clinical pharmacy, medicine and clinical epidemiology at the University of Toronto , Philadelphia College , McGill University and McMaster University .

She is an Active Medical Staff member of Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation and St Joseph 's Healthcare Hamilton and runs a teaching service specializing in the management of complex, hospitalized adults with multiple diagnoses and multiple medications.

Research Interests

Dr. Holbrook is heavily involved in evidence-based therapeutics, in practice guideline and care path development and in drug policy expert advisory work for governments at all levels – federal, provincial and regional. She has been a chair or member of several expert advisory committees for Health Canada on drug efficacy, effectiveness, safety and intervention issues.

She is the recipient of a Career Investigator award from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research for innovation in decision-making for patients, practitioners, and policy makers. For the past 5 years, her peer-reviewed grant funding support exceeds $11 million. Her research interests include the impact of policy interventions, the individualization of benefit:harm information, methodological shortfalls in complex intervention trials, factors influencing decision support success, drug interactions, patient preferences, etc. She remains the Prinicipal Investigator of Canada ’s original electronic medical record research network (COMPETE) which develops, implements and evaluates various e-health initiatives directed at improving the quality of therapeutics.

Selected Publications

1. Holbrook A, Keshavjee K, Sebaldt R, Grootendorst P, Levine M, Goldsmith C, Willison D, Brogan T, Peterson R, Tennant. Evaluation of data sources to support pharmacosurveillance. Final report of the Health Policy Research Program, Health Canada. January 2005. 84p.
2. Holbrook A, Grootendorst P, Willison D, Goldsmith C, Sebaldt, Keshavjee K. Can current electronic systems meet drug safety and effectiveness requirements? AMIA Symposium Proceedings 2005:335-339.
3. Holbrook AM, Pereira JA, Labiris R, McDonald H, Douketis JD, Crowther M, Wells, PS. Systematic Overview Of Warfarin And Its Drug And Food Interactions. Archives of Internal Medicine 2005;165:1095-1106.
4. Holbrook A. Treating insomnia. BMJ 2004;329:1198-99.
5. Holbrook A, Goldsmith C. Innovation and placebos in research: a new design of clinical trial. Lancet 2003:362;2036-37.
6. Grootendorst P, Marshall J, Holbrook A, Dolovich L, O’Brien B, Levy A. The impact of differential cost sharing of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents on the use and costs of analgesic drugs. Health Services Research 2005;40:1297-1317.
7. Pereira JA, Holbrook AM, Dolovich L, Goldsmith C, Thabane L, Douketis JD, Crowther M, Bates SM, Ginsberg JS,. Are brand-name and generic warfarin interchangeable? Results from multiple n-of-1 randomized crossover trials. Annals of Pharmacotherapy 2005;39:1188-1193.