We are delighted to announce that Dr. Ricky Turgeon is the latest scientist to join CHÉOS!
Dr. Turgeon is an assistant professor at UBC’s Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and clinical pharmacist specialist at St. Paul’s Hospital.
He received his BSc(Pharm) in from the Dalhousie University College of Pharmacy, his ACPR from the Lower Mainland Pharmacy Services Residency Program, and his PharmD in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC.
So what led Dr. Turgeon to pursue a career in research?
“I started my career being primarily interested in clinical care and, like many clinicians, was doing research ‘off the side of my desk,’” he explained. “Although research now takes up the majority of my time, my professional identity is still rooted as a clinical pharmacist, and all of my research ideas have come from problems or questions from patients in my clinical practice.”
“In 2016, I decided that I wanted to specialize as a cardiovascular pharmacist, and that I wanted to perform more clinical research, so I pursued a fellowship in cardiovascular pharmacotherapy,” said Dr. Turgeon. The fellowship was a two-year postdoctoral position with Drs. Glen Pearson and Sheri Koshman at the University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry (Division of Cardiology).
Dr. Turgeon is interested in a number of important research areas. He focuses on integrating high-quality observational studies and meta-analyses of clinical studies to guide the creation and evaluation of decision support tools and other knowledge translation strategies to ensure that pharmacotherapy for cardiovascular disease align with patient goals, preferences, and values.
Overall, his research is centered on implementation science, with a focus on antithrombotic agents, lipid-lowering therapies, pharmacotherapy for heart failure, and on the cardiovascular safety of medications.
At present, Dr. Turgeon’s main focus is on developing and evaluating an online point-of-care decision support tool to help patients and clinicians discuss medication options to treat heart failure.
“In parallel with this, I am developing an online app to help researchers and guidelines developers to create these decision support tools for any health problem with several evidence-based options, so that we can better engage patients in decisions about their health.”
Prior to joining the Centre, Dr. Turgeon has worked with CHÉOS Scientists Drs. Christopher Fordyce, Martha Mackay, and Joel Singer on the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (VCHA) ST-segment Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) database. He has also worked with Dr. Tara Sedlak to evaluate gaps in preventive medication use in patients with narrowing of heart vessels, and with Dr. Fordyce to evaluate emerging evidence on renin-angiotensin system blocker use in the COVID-19 pandemic.
