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Research Interests

My research interests are in health status assessment, lung cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). My research in lung cancer focuses on the detection of lung cancer especially in early stages. I am interested in assessing the effectiveness of different diagnostic techniques. These included existing technology as well as newer developments such as induced sputum. I am also interested in assessing the impact of endobronchial palliative treatment on health-related quality of life and health care utilization in these patients.

In COPD patients, I am interested in assessing the effectiveness of different interventions both in terms of physiologic parameters as well as health-related quality of life. These interventions include pharmaceuticals, rehabilitation, education, and smoking cessation. In particular, I like to look at the impact of the Respiratory Outreach program on health-related quality of life and health care utilization on these patients.

In health status assessment, I am interested in development of new instruments and in the assessment of currently available instruments. Currently, I am involved in the development and evaluation of a new instrument for asthma.

Highlighted Publications

• McGhan SL, Wong E, Wells HM, Jhangri GS, Michaelchuk DR, Boechler VL, Befus AD, Hessel PA. Evaluation of An Education Program for Elementary School Children with Asthma. Journal of Asthma 2003;40(5):523-533.

• Wong E, Cronin L, Griffith L, Irvine EJ, Guyatt GH. Problems of HRQL assessment: How much is too much? Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 2001;54:1081-1085.

• Cook D, Guyatt G, Wong E, Goldstein R, Bedard M, Austin P, Ramsdale H, Jaeschke R, Sears M. Regular versus as-needed short-acting inhaled beta agonist therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2001;163:85-90.

• Lacasse Y, Wong E, Guyatt GH, Cook DJ. Transthoracic needle aspiration for the diagnosis of localized pulmonary lesions: a meta-analysis. Thorax 1999;54:884-893.

Current Sources of Funding

• Janssen-Ortho A/R Grant Corporation
  2003
  $50,000
  Development of guidelines

• Aventis Pharma Inc.
  2003
  $26,022
  Patient recruitment and assessment

• Canadian Institute for Health Research
  2003
  $2,850/patient
  Patient recruitment and assessment

Current Research Personnel

• Heidi Haupt
• Marian Langevin