During the last 20 years, we have built a strong foundation to conceptualize, implement, manage and complete high-quality systematic reviews. Our team has a breadth of research methods aligned to support every process of the systematic review and guideline development process. To that end, the McMaster Evidence Review & Synthesis Team has: a strong history of completing high-quality systematic reviews on time and on budget for a variety of stakeholders (i.e. 16 high-quality evidence reviews in the past six years); an established, in-depth knowledge of systematic review and guideline development methodologies; demonstrated understanding and use of evidence-based methods (i.e., GRADE), many originally developed here at McMaster; developed an experienced group of core staff, and an extensive network of Pan-Canada clinical and methodological expertise; adeptly responded to stakeholder feedback; and project management expertise using effective procedures, tested and refined, to deliver operational and cost efficiencies.
Diana Sherifali, RN, PhD, Lead
Diana is an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing at McMaster University, and inaugural holder of the Heather M. Arthur Population Health Research Institute/Hamilton Health Sciences Chair in Inter-Professional Health Research. She is the Lead of the McMaster Evidence Review & Synthesis Team. Diana has a PhD from McMaster University and completed a three-year Postdoctoral Fellowship with the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Her primary research interests include evidence-informed decision making, knowledge synthesis and diabetes self-care, including diabetes coaching.
Phone: +1 (905) 525-9140, Ext. 21435
Email: dsherif@mcmaster.ca
Donna Fitzpatrick-Lewis, MSW, Senior Research Coordinator
Donna is the Senior Research Coordinator and Scientific Manager with MERST. She has been working with us since 2005. Donna has a master of social work degree with a focus on social welfare policy from McMaster University. Her graduate work examined risk and reintegration of federally sentenced women in a Canadian context. At MERST, Donna has lead and co-authored several major systematic reviews. Donna has exceptional organizational skills which have ensured that the MERST maintains the highest methodological quality while delivering excellent products on complex topics in a timely manner. Donna enjoys working with a broad spectrum of people and is particularly delighted when she works through problems to come to a solution that is beneficial for everyone.
Email: fitzd@mcmaster.ca
Megan Racey, PhD, Research Coordinator
Megan has a diverse and interdisciplinary research background that focuses on creating impact from research in the field of nutrition and human health. Her graduate work focused on the co-creation, synthesis, and sharing of research through knowledge mobilization with both adolescent and older adult populations. Megan completed her PhD at the University of Guelph in the Department of Human Health and Nutritional Sciences where she used a mixed-methods approach to develop, implement, and evaluate knowledge communication strategies regarding dairy products as foods for health for adolescents. Megan is a natural project manager and excels at producing high-quality research products in an efficient and timely manner. With MERST, she leads and supports various project tasks spanning from general project coordination, to conducting multi-disciplinary systematic reviews, and communicating research results to various target audiences in both visual and oral capacities.
Email: raceym@mcmaster.ca
Muhammad Usman Ali, MD, MSc, Epidemiologist
Usman Ali is currently working as an Epidemiologist with MERST, where he has applied his clinical knowledge and statistical theory to conduct both quantitative and qualitative synthesis for various systematic reviews. Ali has a doctor of medicine degree from University of Health Sciences and master of science degree in clinical epidemiology and biostatistics from University of Western Ontario. Ali has comprehensive knowledge and skills in the field of clinical and evidence-based medicine, epidemiology and biostatistics. He is proficient in performing various statistical analyses such as meta-analysis, meta-regression, regression and survival analysis, decision analytic modelling, Monte Carlo simulations and sensitivity analyses. He has also authored/co-authored numerous publications in peer-reviewed high impact journals.
Email: aliu@mcmaster.ca
Ruth Lewis, BA, Research Assistant
Ruth is a Research Assistant who first started working with MERST in 2016. Ruth is a graduate of McMaster University (Political Science) and Mohawk College (Urban Planning). She has a keen interest in contributing to healthy, accessible communities. When she is not working with MERST, Ruth also works as a personal trainer and pilates teacher.
Milos Jovkovic, MSc (Kin), Research Assistant
Milos is a Research Assistant with MERST. Milos has a master of science degree in kinesiology from the University of Waterloo. His interests involve analyzing physical activity and nutrition literature for athletic and elderly populations. He has considerable experience training high performance youth and university student athletes across various sports.
Rose Gillespie, Research Coordinator
Rose’s role as a Research Coordinator is supporting Dr. Diana Sherifali and MERST. She comes with 45+ years of experience working at McMaster University, primarily in the area of research administration. She is extremely organized, has exceptional time management skills, and a solid working knowledge of University policies and procedures. She is very personable and strives in establishing excellent working relationships. All these attributes, and more, contribute to the successful administrative and financial management for MERST.