Written by Alex Walls and Haoyuan Li
School of Population and Public Health (SPPH) post-doctoral fellow Maryam Darvishian has won a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR) Trainee Award and post-doctoral fellow Travis Salway has won a 2016 – 17 Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship.
The three year Trainee Award provides $37,000 annually as well as $4,500 for costs such as travel, and is given to highly qualified applicants to prepare for careers as independent health researchers.
Dr. Darvishian’s research, ‘The real-world effectiveness of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) treatment on decompensated cirrhosis and hospitalizations’, will look at gaps in current knowledge about how the recent direct acting antiviral (DAA) treatments for HCV affect overall and liver disease-related hospitalizations and the number of hospital admissions, prevention of decompensated cirrhosis and how these treatments interact with metformin and statins to affect the above.
“We want to see how viral clearance affects the longterm outcomes that patients are at risk of.”
Post-doctoral fellow Maryam Darvishian (pictured)
She will use the British Columbia Hepatitis Testers Cohort to look at the long-term outcomes of DAA treatment for this population. While researchers knew the effectiveness of this treatment for clearing the virus, there were knowledge gaps when it came to their long term effects on hospitalization and cirrhosis, Dr. Darvishian said. Such gaps were important for policy makers, she said, since if evidence showed, for instance, that DAAs could reduce risk of hospitalization or cirrhosis, patients could be advised to start treatment earlier.
Dr. Darvishian’s supervisor is Clinical Associate Professor Naveed Janjua.
Dr. Salway’s research is titled ‘Can specialized sexual health clinics address unmet mental health needs of Canadian sexual minorities?’ and will investigate health inequities that affect lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) Canadians.
“Suicide has likely surpassed HIV as a major cause of premature mortality for gay and bisexual men.”
Post-doctoral fellow Travis Salway
Postdoctoral fellow Travis Salway
LGB adults were four times more likely to have attempted suicide in their lifetime and two times more likely to experience depression, anxiety and drug dependence, Dr. Salway said. He is hoping to find an optimal way to deliver mental health services to LGB communities by working with sexually transmitted infection (STI) clinics that serve the LGB population, as well as non-government organizations that are dedicated to LGB health.
The Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships are awarded to 70 postdoctoral fellows annually with $70,000 per year for two years. Dr. Salway said that researchers needed to listen to the LGB community to understand the barriers they face within public health and healthcare systems. “This process of engagement takes time and focus, and the Banting Fellowship supports me in being diligent throughout.”
“The Banting Research Fellowship provides a unique opportunity to develop an independent research career.”
Postdoctoral fellow Travis Salway
Dr. Salway’s supervisors are SPPH Professor Jean Shoveller and Clinical Associate Professor Mark Gilbert.
Congratulations to Dr. Salway and Dr. Darvishian!