The CART-GRAC Network
The CART-GRAC network is an interdisciplinary group of clinicians, researchers, healthcare decision makers, and knowledge experts. Our members come from a variety of backgrounds and expertise.
Dr. Wendy V. Norman
MD, CCFP, FCFP, DTM&H, MHSc
Dr. Wendy V. Norman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Practice, and an Associate Member in both the School of Population and Public Health, and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Dr. Norman is an Honorary Associate Professor in the Faculty of Public Health and Policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), in London, UK.
Dr. Norman founded and leads Canada’s Contraception & Abortion Research Team (CART) which convenes government, health system and service decision makers with national family planning organizations, and researchers and health professionals representing a wide range of disciplines. CART aims to conduct health policy and services research to enable equitable access for populations across Canada to the knowledge, methods and services they require to time and space their pregnancies and achieve their own reproductive goals. CART research has informed federal, and provincial policies for contraception and abortion services and methods, health professional licensing policies, and national clinical guidelines. From 2012 to 2020 Dr. Norman held a Scholar Award from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. In 2014 the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research awarded Dr. Norman the Family Planning Public Health Research Chair, a five-year award that UBC matched through to 2024. Dr. Norman was awarded the prestigious Darroch Award for sexual and reproductive health policy research in January 2016 by the New York-based Guttmacher Institute.
Publications:
Dr. Laura Schummers
ScM, ScD
Dr. Laura Schummers is a reproductive and perinatal epidemiologist. After completing her Doctor of Science in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health, Dr. Schummers joined the Contraception and Abortion Research Team in the Department of Family Practice at UBC as a postdoctoral fellow. Dr. Schummers’s research uses large population-based administrative health databases to examine health services, policy, and clinical research questions related to women’s reproductive and perinatal health and integrated knowledge translation methods to translate findings to practice and policy. She holds a CIHR Patient-Oriented Research Leadership award and a Research Trainee award from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research and is a Trainee with ICES McMaster. Her current work focuses on the impact of the Canada’s uniquely deregulated policies for the medical abortion drug mifepristone on abortion access, outcomes, and costs, optimal pregnancy spacing for high-risk obstetric populations, and postpartum opioid prescribing.
Other Affiliations:
Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Family Practice, UBC
Women’s Health Research Institute (Affiliate Member)
Postdoctoral Trainee, ICES McMaster
CIHR Patient-Oriented Research Leadership Trainee
Research Interests:
- Reproductive and perinatal population health
- Reproductive and perinatal health services and policy
- Patient-oriented research
- Population-based administrative health data
Publications:
View Publications on PubMed
View Publications on Google Scholar
Follow Dr. Schummers on Twitter: @DrLSchummers
Dr. Sarah Munro
PhD, MA, BA (Hons), Scientist
Other Affiliations:
Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, UBC
Scientist, Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcomes Sciences.
Women’s Health Research Institute (Affiliate Member)
Research Interests:
- Knowledge translation
- Implementation science
- Reproductive and maternal health
- Shared decision making
Dr. Sarah Munro is a qualitative health services researcher whose focus is on knowledge translation and implementation science. Her research focuses on the investigation of factors that influence implementation of patient-centred practice and policy, and the development and evaluation of tools that support shared decision-making for patients and their care teams.
Dr. Munro conducts research related to implementation of patient-centred care for choice of next birth after caesarean, choice of contraception, medical abortion practice, and breastfeeding. Through this research, Dr. Munro partners closely with stakeholders (patients, health care professionals, and policy makers) to produce evidence that is action-oriented, relevant, and supports patients and their care teams to make informed, shared healthcare decisions.
Dr. Munro completed her postdoctoral training in implementation science with the Canadian Contraception and Abortion Research Team and Dartmouth College. She is also a Scientist with the Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences.
Current Research Projects:
The Mifepristone Implementation Study: Our study of mifepristone implementation seeks to address the facilitators and barriers for successful initiation and ongoing provision of medical abortion service among health care professionals who have mifepristone certification, and how these relate to the distribution and availability of services throughout Canada. Read more here.
To learn more about Dr. Munro’s research and projects, please visit: http://www.sarahmunro.ca/
Students/Trainee Supervision:
- Kate Wahl, Vanier Scholar, Doctoral Student with the Contraception and Abortion Research Team and CIHR-PHAC Applied Public Health Research Chair- Research Student.
To learn more about Dr. Munro’s research and projects, please visit: sarahmunro.ca and Twitter.
Dr. Regina-Maria Renner
MD, MPH, FRCSC, FACOG
Other Affiliations:
Division of General Gynaecology & Obstetrics, Division of Gynaecologic Specialties
Nanaimo Regional General
Island Health Authority (VIHA)
Research Interests:
- Sexual and reproductive health services
- Family planning
- Contraception
- Abortion care
Dr. Regina-Maria Renner is a Clinical Associate Professor at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of UBC where she first joined in December 2012. Since May 2015 she is the Fellowship Co-Director of the Family Planning Fellowship at UBC. In March 2013 she also joined the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital. She has been a CART member since 2011.
She completed her Family Planning Fellowship at Oregon Health & Science University, OR USA (OHSU, 2011), where she also did her residency. She completed a Master of Public Health at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, USA (2005).
In 2018 she completed a certificate in quality improvement. Her recent research has focused on in implementation of mifepristone for medical abortion in Canada. She currently is the principal investigator on a CIHR grant to survey Canadian abortion providers.
Her prior research in pain management of first trimester surgical abortion has led to a Cochrane review and several randomized controlled trials on this topic. Additional research of Dr. Renner has focused on midlevel providers in abortion care, youth and abortion care, pregnancies with an IUD in situ, and IUD efficacy.
Current Research Projects:
The Canadian Abortion Provider Survey (CAPS): A national survey of abortion care providers in order to understand their workforce, quality of care and experiences with stigma and resilience. Read more here.
The CART Mife-Outcomes study: Relating Canada’s unique mifepristone regulations to health system events, costs and access to abortion, using linked health administrative data
Learn more about Dr. Renner’s research and projects.
Students/Trainee Supervision:
- Madeleine Ennis, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, UBC
- Mahan Maazi, Bachelor of Science, UBC
- Sydney Whiteford, MPH practicum student, UBC
Dr. Madeleine Ennis
PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Madeleine Ennis, PhD, received her BSc in Health Science from Bishop’s University (Sherbrooke, Quebec) in 2015. She then returned to her home province of British Columbia for her MSc in Reproductive and Developmental Sciences at the University of British Columbia. Under the supervision of Dr Rajavel Elango, Dr. Ennis completed 3 research projects focused on improving our understanding of nutrition during pregnancy. During this time, she transferred to her PhD, and focused her academic career on improving female reproductive health and education. Currently Dr. Ennis is a Postdoctoral Fellow, under the supervision of Dr. Regina Renner, with the Contraceptive and Abortion Research Team. As well, she is a part-time instructor at the British Columbia Institute of Technology.
Current Research Projects:
Dr. Ennis' primary research project is the Canadian Abortion Provider Survey (CAPS). Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, this study aims to better understand the current workforce (including administrators, nurse practitioners and physicians), quality of abortion care and stigma and resilience experienced by Canadian health care professionals providing abortion care in 2019. To learn more about the survey, please click here.