Christopher Parshuram

Senior Scientist
Child Health Evaluative Sciences

Dr. Parshuram graduated from Otago University of New Zealand in 1990, with prizes in medicine and pharmacology. Following a residency in Paediatrics at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, he moved to Canada where he completed specialist fellowship training in Paediatric Critical Care Medicine and clinical Pharmacology. He completed his doctorate in Clinical Epidemiology in 2005, on the subject of patient safety.

Dr. Parshuram was appointed as a staff physician in the Department of Critical Care Medicine in The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in 2003, and is a senior scientist in Child Health Evaluation Sciences in the Research Institute. In addition to formal training in systems of healthcare delivery, Dr. Parshuram has expertise in cardiac arrest prevention, medication safety, and fatigue in healthcare professionals. He has received over CAD$9M in peer-reviewed research funding from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, the Society of Critical Care Medicine, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Research

Dr. Parshuram is a Safety Scientist, with interest in the identification of significant clinical problems (medication safety, precision of pharmacotherapy, healthcare provider fatigue, cardiac arrest), their quantification, the design and development of system-level interventions, and the evaluation of these interventions (including BedsidePEWS, drug therapy, alternate physician schedules) as methods to improve patient outcomes.

He leads three research programs in the domains of Resuscitation, Pharmacotherapy and Resident Fatigue for which he has received 2 career awards. In the past 5 years he has been awarded $5 million dollars in operational funding as Principal Investigator, and has been a co-investigator in projects receiving $1·3 million operational funding. As well, his students have received salary awards from sources including the CIHR.

Dr. Parshuram’s research programs have resulted in innovation, invention, development of education programs, and resulted in practice change. His related expertise in resuscitation and resident duty hours has provided opportunities that impact health policy and practice. Change is evident in hospitals across Canada, and around the world.

Education and experience

• 1984–1990: Doctorate, Medical Degree – MBChB, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
• 1991–1998: Clinical Trainee, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
• 1998–1999: Clinical Fellow, University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, AB Canada
• 1999–2003: Clinical Research Fellow, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON Canada
• 2000–2001: Chief Fellow, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON Canada
• 2001–2005: Doctorate, Clinical Epidemiology (Supervised by A Laupacis, GR Baker) University of Toronto, Toronto, ON Canada
• 2003–2009: Assistant Professor, Department of Paedatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Canada
• 2003–Present: Staff Physician, PICU, Department of Critical Care Medicine, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON Canada
• 2004–2006: Scientist-Track Investigator, The Research Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON Canada
• 2006–2011: Scientist, The Research Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON Canada
• 2009–2015: Associate Professor, Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
• 2010–2012: Interim Head, Child Health Evaluative Sciences (CHES), The Research Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON Canada
• 2011–Present: Senior Scientist, The Research Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON Canada
• 2015–Present: Professor, Interdepartmental Division of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation; Department of Paediatrics, & Critical Care Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON Canada
• 2019–2019: Interim Division Head, PICU, Department of Critical Care Medicine, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON Canada

Patents

Bedside Paediatric Early Warning System (Bedside PEWS)
Patent Status: Granted/Issued
Year Issued: 2013

1. Parshuram C, Dryden-Palmer K. Practice in Pediatric Intensive Care: Death and Dying. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2018;19(8S Suppl 2):S1-S3.
2. Parshuram CS, Dryden-Palmer K, Farrell C, Gottesman R, Gray M, Hutchison JS, et al. Effect of a Pediatric Early Warning System on All-Cause Mortality in Hospitalized Pediatric Patients: The EPOCH Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2018;319(10):1002-12.
3. Parshuram CS, Amaral AC, Ferguson ND, Baker GR, Etchells EE, Flintoft V, et al. Patient safety, resident well-being and continuity of care with different resident duty schedules in the intensive care unit: a randomized trial. CMAJ. 2015;187(5):321-9.
4. Dryden-Palmer K, Moore G, McNeill C, Larson CP, Tomlinson G, Roumeliotis N, et al. Moral Distress of Clinicians in Canadian Pediatric and Neonatal ICUs. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2019.
5. Roumeliotis N, Sniderman J, Adams-Webber T, Addo N, Anand V, Rochon P, et al. Effect of Electronic Prescribing Strategies on Medication Error and Harm in Hospital: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. J Gen Intern Med. 2019.

See a full list of Chris Parshuram's publications