The Clot Thickens

Stephanie Carlin is a critical care pharmacist at Hamilton Health Sciences. She recently completed an advanced practice pharmacy residency in thrombosis at Sunnybrook Health Sciences. Dr. Carlin is an active student and resident preceptor. Her research interests include optimization of antithrombotic use in clinical practice.

Dr. Carlin has been an active member of Ontario's Science Table during the COVID19 pandemic and sits on the Drugs & Biologics Clinical Practice Guidelines Working Group.

Over the past 25 years, Dr. Geerts has developed and participated in clinical research in all aspects of thromboembolism, including epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment and prevention. His primary interest has been in the prevention of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in high-risk patients, especially following trauma. He has performed the most comprehensive, prospective study of the risks of venous thromboembolism in trauma patients and found that they are the highest-risk group for thromboembolism in hospitals.

Subsequently, Dr. Geerts and his group conducted the first large randomized controlled trial of thromboprophylaxis in major trauma patients, by comparing subcutaneous low-dose heparin with low molecular weight heparin in a double-blinded manner. This study demonstrated that the early use of low molecular weight heparin is more efficacious than low-dose heparin in trauma patients without increasing bleeding.

His research interests extend to the implementation of knowledge about thromboembolism into clinical practice.

Houman Khosravani is appointed as a clinician in quality & innovation and assistant professor of medicine, in the division of neurology, department of medicine, University of Toronto. His interests are quality improvement at different levels of care relevant to hyper-acute stroke management and inpatient stroke services. At the level of hyperacute stroke care, his focus is on improvement of door-to-needle times for thrombolysis. He is also working on understanding and improving factors that are relevant to a successful thrombectomy program in a comprehensive stroke center.

He is medical director of the inpatient stroke unit, and interested in development of stroke pathways, the overlap between internal medicine and inpatient stroke neurology, and development of a framework for excellence in comprehensive neurovascular care. Dr. Khosravani is an active member of Thrombosis Canada and interested in the implementation of stroke-best practices in the area of antithrombotics and anticoagulation.