Faculty of Health Sciences
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Smaller TextAnesthesia Research
Anesthesia research at McMaster University ranges from bench research to epidemiological research. Our main areas of focus are hypertension, perioperative medicine, pain medicine, anesthesia education, and research methodology.
Research in Hypertension
Our research focuses on the structure and function of blood vessels in hypertension development, and the pharmacological effect of antihypertensive agents and reactive oxygen species on smooth muscle structure and function. Major funding has been provided by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario. For inquiries on graduate or postdoctoral research opportunities, please contact Dr. Robert M.K.W. Lee.
Perioperative Medicine
Our research focuses on the prevention of cardiac events in non-cardiac surgery. Members of our department are conducting two large multicentre randomized controlled trials: the Metoprolol after Vascular Surgery (MaVS) Study (funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario) and the PeriOperative ISchemia Evaluation (POISE) Study (funded by the Canadian Institute for Health Research). The latter is a collaborative effort of the International PeriOperative Research Network. We are also involved in population research examining perioperative events in Canada. For inquiries on research opportunities, please contact Dr. James Paul.
Pain Medicine
Our research encompasses both acute and chronic pain management. Acute pain research includes multicentre clinical trials on COX-2 inhibitors for postoperative analgesia, systematic review of the evidence on the frequency of PDPH and effective prophylactic or therapeutic interventions, and development of a clinical database on acute pain management. Chronic pain research focuses primarily on acupuncture (funded by the Westin Foundation) and development of a research model for specific chronic pain syndromes. For research opportunities in our pain fellowship, please contact Dr. Norman Buckley.
Education Research and Research Methodology
In collaboration with the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, our research focuses on postgraduate anesthesia education and development and application of research methods for anesthesia. Education research includes development and evaluation of the current Royal College anesthesia OSCE for fellowship certification with other Canadian departments of anesthesia and the development of a valid and reliable scale for evaluation of residents (funded by the Medical Council of Canada). Methods research includes assessment of factors that influence estimates of treatment effect in RCTs (funded by a Father Sean O’Sullivan Research Centre Seed Grant) and validation work on scales to measure methodological quality in observational studies and RCTs in anesthesia.
