I am a pediatric respirologist with an interest in clinical research and quality improvement, and director of the BCCH Home Tracheostomy and Ventilation (HTV) clinic.
My clinical work is based in the HTV, sleep, and rare lung diseases clinics, as well as inpatient care of babies and children with a wide range of acute and chronic respiratory disorders.
My postgraduate research studies (Doctor of Research, MD(Res), University College London / Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health) focused on children born with Pierre Robin sequence, and how optimal health outcomes can be achieved through different approaches to management of airway obstruction.
My current main areas of research interest include respiratory management and long-term outcomes of children with neuromuscular disorders (including spinal muscular atrophy and Duchenne muscular dystrophy) and prematurity-related lung disease (bronchopulmonary dysplasia). Examples of my quality improvement work include delivering care to HTV patients outside of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and improving the transition of HTV patients from Pediatric to adult medical services.
I have expertise in a range of study methodologies including systematic reviews and meta-analysis, active surveillance studies and reporting card systems, prospective and retrospective observational studies, and qualitative research. I have also received formal training in quality improvement methodology through the PHSA Physician Quality Improvement training program (2022-23 cohort).
I am a strong advocate of collaborative and team-based research, and have led multi-center research studies both in Canada and the UK, as well as mentoring allied health colleagues, trainees and medical students who have a desire to participate in clinical research.
My passion for clinical research is based on a desire to better understand the causes and long-term outcomes of lung and airway diseases affecting children, particularly those that are rare, complex, or under-studied. My quality improvement work is perhaps even more rewarding because it enables us to identify barriers to delivering excellent clinical care and to quickly implement sustainable and patient-focused changes.
Publications
Airway management in infants with Robin sequence in the United Kingdom and Ireland: A prospective population-based study Pediatric Pulmonology Marie Wright and Rachel L. Knowles and Mario Cortina-Borja and Sheila Javadpour and Felicity V. Mehendale and Don Urquhart DOI: 10.1002/ppul.27140 06/2024
Conservative and Surgical Modalities in the Management of Pediatric Parapneumonic Effusion and Empyema CHEST Clara Fernandez Elviro and Bryn Longcroft-Harris and Emily Allin and Leire Leache and Kellan Woo and Jeffrey N. Bone and Colleen Pawliuk and Jalal Tarabishi and Matthew Carwana and Marie Wright and Nassr Nama and Roshan A. Ananda and Priyadharshini Ramakrishnan and Tala J. Alhejazi and Alyssa Chen and Amin Sharifan and Mohamed M. Shawqi DOI: 10.1016/j.chest.2023.06.010 11/2023
Epidemiology of Robin sequence in the UK and Ireland: an active surveillance study Archives of Disease in Childhood Marie FA Wright and Rachel L Knowles and Mario Cortina-Borja and Sheila Javadpour and Felicity V Mehendale and Donald S Urquhart DOI: 10.1136/archdischild-2023-325556 09/2023
Long-term respiratory outcomes following solid organ transplantation in children: A retrospective cohort study Pediatric Pulmonology M. F. A. Wright and T. Blydt-Hansen and M. A. Chilvers DOI: 10.1002/ppul.25968 09/2022
Quantifying fluctuation in glucose levels to identify early changes in glucose homeostasis in cystic fibrosis Journal of Cystic Fibrosis Brugha, R. and Wright, M. and Nolan, S. and Bridges, N. and Carr, S.B. DOI: 10.1016/j.jcf.2017.12.004 2018
Case of paediatric neuromuscular disease with a surprising clinical outcome: Time to challenge the dogma? Thorax Wright, M. and Manzur, A. and Bush, A. DOI: 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2017-211058 2018
Epidemiology of Robin sequence with cleft palate in the East of Scotland between 2004 and 2013 Pediatric Pulmonology Wright, M. and Mehendale, F. and Urquhart, D.S. DOI: 10.1002/ppul.24038 2018
An infant with congenital respiratory insufficiency and diaphragmatic paralysis: A novel BICD2 phenotype? American journal of medical genetics. Part A Hui-Lin Chin and Huynh S and Ashkani J and Castaldo M and Katherine Dixon and Selby K and Shen Y and Wright M and Cornelius Boerkoel and Hendson G and Steven Jones DOI: 10.1002/ajmg.a.62578 PubMed: 34825470 11/2021
Long term respiratory outcomes following solid organ transplantation in children: a retrospective cohort study. Marie Wright and Mark Chilvers and Tom Blydt-Hansen DOI: 10.22541/au.163255287.73643413/v1 09/2021
Conservative and surgical modalities in the management of paediatric parapneumonic effusion and empyema: a protocol for a living systematic review and network meta-analysis. BMJ open Emily Allin and Nassr Nama and Michael Irvine and Colleen Pawliuk and Wright M and Carwana M DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045010 PubMed: 33762243 03/2021
Impact of an Integrated Framework on Care Transition of Infants with Medical Complexity Complex Care Journal 2021
Assessment and management of viral croup in children Prescriber Marie Wright and Andrew Bush DOI: 10.1002/psb.1490 08/2016
Research
Patient, caregiver, and healthcare provider experiences of transition from pediatric to adult services for users of home mechanical ventilation: a qualitative study and quality improvement project.
“The Right Care, in the Right Place, at the Right Time”: supporting children on home mechanical ventilation during hospital admission: an interdisciplinary quality improvement project
Respiratory health in children with Spinal Muscular Atrophy treated with disease modifying therapies Studies underway involving respiratory and bulbar function in children with SMA who were treated with disease modifying therapies before and after the introduction of newborn screening in British Columbia (2022)
Use of home respiratory support for preterm infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia in British Columbia A retrospective cohort study reviewing management and long-term clinical outcomes (respiratory health, growth, neurodevelopment) of infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia who were discharged from the NICU on home respiratory support (supplementary oxygen, non-invasive ventilation, tracheostomy ventilation) over a 10-year period.
Grants
BCCHR Practice Based Research Program (2023)
MASES/ Doctors of BC Facility Engagement Initiative (2023)
MASES/ Doctors of BC Facility Engagement Initiative (2023)
Honours & Awards
UBC Department of Pediatrics, Resident Teacher of The Year (2024)
3rd International Robin Sequence Consensus Meeting Abstract Award (2022)
Sir Peter Tizard Research Bursary (Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, UK) national award recipient (2014)
British Paediatric Respiratory Society travel award (2016)
Rare Diseases Foundation micro-grant award (2015)
European Respiratory Society award for best abstract in the field of Paediatric Respiratory Epidemiology (2014)
Research Group Members
Ellie Kalutycz, FLEX Research Trainee Charuta Saha, FLEX Research Trainee
A pan-Canadian team has developed a new way to quickly find personalized treatments for young cancer patients, by growing their tumours in chicken eggs and analyzing their proteins.
The team, led by researchers from BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute and the University of British Columbia, is the first in Canada to combine these two techniques to identify and test a drug for a young patient's tumour in time for their treatment.
Congratulations to the investigators and their teams who were awarded funding through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Fall 2024 Project Grant competition!
The findings from a BCCHR study played a part in integrating the multiple breath washout test into recent recommendations to screen children for pulmonary chronic graft-versus-host disease, a lung complication that can affect children who undergo a bone marrow transplant.
New research published in Nature Communications, identifies a key molecule that might be critical for the development of stem cell-based therapies for treating type 1 diabetes.
Dr. Kirk Schultz, an investigator at BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, has been awarded the 2024 Geoffrey L. Hammond Lectureship in recognition of his leadership and significant contributions to improving the health and well-being of children in British Columbia and around the world.
We believe there’s nothing we can’t do with your support. It can take years to turn scientific breakthrough into new interventions and treatments. Funding helps speed the pace of change. When given the resources, we can bring transformative therapies – and hope – out of the laboratory and into the clinic to save and improve children’s lives.