Division of Respirology

Neil Johnston

MSc.

Clinical Assistant Professor, Division of Respirology, Department of Medicine

Epidemiologist, Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health

 

 

Education and Professional Standing

Neil Johnston is an epidemiologist at the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health in Hamilton, Ontario which he joined six years ago. He had previously worked as a consultant in many areas of health system development including physician human resource planning, health information system design and the development of market segmentation systems for health sector application.

Research Interests

Current research interests include the role of respiratory viral infections (RVI) in asthma and COPD exacerbation and the evaluation of therapies that may reduce the risks to asthmatics of RVIs. Neil Johnston is currently the principal investigator of two major studies. The DAVIS study collects daily symptom data from a cohort of asthmatic and non-asthmatic children to identify their responses to respiratory viral infections. The international school return study examines the relation of asthma exacerbations in adults and children to school returns in Canada, the UK, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand. Current collaborators include Professor Malcolm Sears at the Firestone, Professor Sebastian Johnston at Imperial College, London, England and Dr. Anna Hansell of Imperial.

On behalf of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care and other partners, Neil Johnston founded and directs an information centre that produces and securely disseminates information for physician human resource planning in Ontario.

Selected Publications

  1. Johnston NW, Johnston SL, Duncan JM, Greene JM, Kebadze T, Keith PK, Roy M, Waserman S, and Sears MR. The September epidemic of asthma exacerbations in children: A search for etiology. J. Allergy Clin Immunol 2005; 112:132-138.
  2. Johnston NW, Johnston SL, Dai J, Norman GR, Sears MR. The September epidemic of asthma exacerbations: School children as disease vectors. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2006;117:557-62
  3. Johnston NW and Sears MR. The epidemiology of asthma exacerbations. Thorax 2006. In Press.
  4. Johnston NW, Sears MR. Seasonal patterns of asthma exacerbations. In: Johnston SL and O’Byrne P, eds. Exacerbations of Asthma. London UK. In press.