Students who study under CHEPA members work on broad areas of activity covered by the educational programs and expertise areas of CHEPA faculty (e.g., determinants of health and health inequalities; equity in health systems; health care financing and funding; organization of delivery of care; health human resources and health professions; health technology assessment; knowledge transfer and exchange; public patient and community engagement, and values and ethics in health policy).
While not representative of the diversity of our students, below are a few examples of people currently enrolled in PhD and master’s programs under the supervision of CHEPA members.
Information Box Group
Name: Alice Cavanagh
Academic Background: MA in gender studies and feminist research from McMaster University.
Research Program: MD/PhD (combined program)
Supervisor: Meredith Vanstone
Research Description: ‘Teaching Trauma: Supporting Canadian Trainee Physicians in Responding to Survivors of Sexual Violence’. Alice’s doctoral work explores how conceptions of ‘trauma and violence-informed care’ in the context of sexual violence are produced in the policies, training materials and hidden curricula of medical education.
Name: Alexandra Cernat
Academic Background: MSc in health services research with a specialization in health technology assessment from the University of Toronto.
Research Program: Health Policy PhD
Supervisor: Meredith Vanstone
Research Description: Stakeholder Perspectives on the Implementation of Pharmacogenomic Testing in Primary Care. Alex’s doctoral work examines the views of patients, clinicians and policy makers on the use of, access to and funding for genetic testing for drug-response related variants in primary care.
Name: Pushpita Samina
Academic Background: MBBS, master’s of population sciences (University of Dhaka), master’s of international health policy and management (Brandeis University).
Research Program: Health Policy PhD
Supervisor: Emmanuel Guindon
Research Description: Worked on COVID-19 prevalence survey in Bangladesh, tuberculosis diagnosis algorithm, quality of care, barriers in using long term family planning commodities and costing studies. Her thesis topic will include social investment and health technology assessment in the field of tuberculosis.
