Advisory Board
Activities undertaken by JointHealth™ and its parent organization, Arthritis Consumer Experts, are guided by an Advisory Board, made up of leading scientific and medical experts and people living with arthritis. Current members are: Ad-hoc advice is sought from other experts, as required.
Dr. Dianne Mosher
Dianne Mosher, MD, FRCPC is a graduate of Dalhousie Medical School, where she also completed her Internal Medicine and Rheumatology residency training. She is a professor in the Department of Medicine and clinical section chief of Rheumatology, Alberta Health Services, Calgary Zone. She has recently been appointed as Associate Dean, Strategic Partnerships and Community Engagement (SPaCE) at the Cumming School of Medicine.
Dr. Mosher is a past president of the Canadian Rheumatology Association (CRA) where she led the development of several national initiatives including Standards for Arthritis Prevention and Care, a national standard for consistent and equitable access to evidence-based treatment. She was awarded the CRA Distinguished Rheumatologist Award in 2008 and the Governor General of Canada’s Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal to honour her significant work in the area of arthritis care in Canada. Under Dr. Mosher’s leadership, the Arthritis Alliance of Canada released a framework for improving arthritis prevention and care in 2012.
Dr. Mosher’s research interests are primarily in clinical epidemiology with a focus on models of care for arthritis and outcome measures for patients with inflammatory arthritis. Her appointments include:
Dr. John Esdaile
John Esdaile, MD, MPH, FRCPC, FCAHS, MACR is the Scientific Director of Arthritis Research Canada (ARC). He is an internationally respected rheumatologist who spearheaded the creation of ARC. He completed his undergraduate medical training at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and went on to post-graduate training in Montreal, Toronto, and London, England. He returned to the Montreal General Hospital where he was responsible for setting up a clinical post-graduate program in rheumatology. He subsequently went on to study under Alvan R. Feinstein of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar’s Program at the Yale University School of Medicine and to obtain a Master’s of Public Health Degree from Yale.
Upon his return to McGill University, Dr. Esdaile was named Director of Rheumatology, initially at the Montreal General Hospital and subsequently for the University. He played a key role in the rapid expansion and success of the Clinical Epidemiology Unit at the Montreal General Hospital. Over the ensuing decade, the clinical epidemiology group grew from a tenure track faculty of four to more than a dozen faculty members with a total staff of 50.
In 1996, Dr. Esdaile accepted the positions of Head of Rheumatology at the University of British Columbia and Director of Research at The Arthritis Society, BC & Yukon Division. Dedicated to expanding Canada’s role in arthritis research, Dr. Esdaile was largely responsible for developing and establishing Arthritis Research Canada, of which he was named Scientific Director.
Dr. Esdaile has authored more than 250 publications in refereed journals, as well as more than two dozen books and book chapters. As one of five principal investigators, Dr. Esdaile was successful in receiving funding for the Canadian Arthritis Network, a federally funded Networks of Centres of Excellence, providing more than $40 million over ten years for arthritis research. This grant involves more than 150 scientists from across Canada, including many from BC.
Dr. Esdaile’s areas of research interest include rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus. His publication of the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine in systemic lupus erythematosus is considered a landmark paper that has altered the treatment of this disease for many patients.
Dr. Esdaile received the Distinguished Investigator Award at the 2005 Canadian Rheumatology Association meetings in Quebec. In 2006, he was named a Kirkland Scholar by the Kirkland Foundation in New York, NY and in 2007 he was elected a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. In 2012, Dr. Esdaile received a Master Designation from the American College of Rheumatology, which is one of the highest honours the college bestows to members who have made outstanding contributions to the field of rheumatology. And in 2013 he received the Jonas Salk award for lifetime achievement, Sanofi Pasteur and March of Dimes.
Dr. Esdaile’s appointments include:
Dr. Kam Shojania
Kamran Shojania, MD, FRCPC graduated from the University of British Columbia (UBC) medical school in 1989. In 1993, he completed his specialty training in Internal Medicine at UBC and worked as Chief Medical Resident at Vancouver General Hospital. He subsequently completed his fellowship in Rheumatology in June 1995 at UBC and was awarded a Canadian Arthritis Society scholarship in 1995.
Dr. Shojania was the Medical Director of the Vancouver Pain Clinic from 1996 to 2001. From 1998 to 2007, he was the Director of Continuing Medical Education in the UBC Division of Rheumatology. From 2001 to 2006, he was the recipient of a Clinician-Teacher Award from The Arthritis Society. He was a founding member and Director of the Canadian Rheumatology Research Consortium. Dr. Shojania is the 2003 recipient of the UBC Faculty of Medicine Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is the 2013 recipient of the Canadian Rheumatology Association Teacher Educator Award. He is the 2014 recipient of the UBC Department of Medicine Master Teacher Award and the 2017 Fay R. Dirks award for excellence in teaching. From 2008 to 2017 he was the UBC Postgraduate Program Director for Adult Rheumatology. He is the Head of the UBC Division of Rheumatology since 2008.
He has been in rheumatology practice since 1995 and is on staff at St. Paul's Hospital and Vancouver General Hospital.
Dr. Shojania’s research interests are in rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, ankylosing spondylitis, biologic therapies, gout and outcome measures in rheumatic disease.
His appointments include:
Dr. Linda Li
Linda Li, BSc(PT), MSc, PhD is a Senior Research Scientist of Clinical Epidemiology at Arthritis Research Canada. She is a Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, University of British Columbia. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Physiotherapy at McGill University and Master’s of Science at the University of Western Ontario. She earned a Doctorate in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Toronto in 2004. Two years later, she completed a CIHR-funded Post-doctoral Fellowship in knowledge translation at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. In 2006, she was the first rehabilitation professional appointed as Harold Robinson / Arthritis Society Chair in Arthritic Diseases.
Dr. Li’s research centers on improving the care for people with arthritis and empowering patient self-management. Her work focuses on the integration of online, mobile, and wearable tools in health care. Examples of her work include the use of interactive decision aids for improving communication between patients and health professionals, and the use of wearables and apps to personalized physical activity levels for patients. Dr. Li’s work in knowledge translation has also led to new studies on the benefits of engaging patients and the public in the full spectrum of research process.
Dr. Li’s appointments include:
Cheryl Koehn
Ms. Cheryl Koehn is an arthritis advocate, community leader, published author and rheumatoid arthritis survivor for 31 years. She has dedicated her life to helping others living with arthritis as well as people with other chronic diseases. She is the founder and president of Arthritis Consumer Experts, a national, patient-led organization that provides science-based information and education programs in both official languages to people with arthritis. She served as Founding Chair of the Consumer Advisor Council of the Canadian Arthritis Network and was the Patient Co-Chair of the Summit on Standards for Arthritis Prevention and Care. Ms. Koehn was the first patient to be named to a federal scientific peer review committee as full voting member and she currently serves as the patient-public member on the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Standing Committee on Ethics (reporting to Governing Council).
Ms. Koehn served as the consumer (patient) representative board member of the Arthritis Alliance of Canada, is a past board member of the Arthritis Research Canada and served in a leadership capacity on numerous other national organizations and committees. As one of North America's leading arthritis advocates, Ms. Koehn provides a patient perspective on arthritis health and policy issues across Canada to governments, private payers, healthcare professionals, and media. She is frequently invited to speak at national and International arthritis and health-related conferences. As founder and president of Arthritis Consumer Experts, Ms. Koehn has led the development of numerous information and education innovations to the arthritis community, including the ArthritisID and Arthritis ID PRO iPhone apps, the blog site Arthritis Broadcast Network, the annual report card on provincial formulary performance for inflammatory arthritis medications, Canada's Best Workplaces for Employees Living with Arthritis Award, and most recently, JointHealth™ Education, a series of on-line “courses” graduating today’s modern arthritis patient.
Along with co-authors Dr. John Esdaile and Taysha Palmer, Cheryl Koehn authored Rheumatoid Arthritis: PLAN TO WIN, published by Oxford University Press in January 2002. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where she enjoys ocean swimming, indoor and road cycling and walks with friends and her faithful dog, Molly.
Kelly English
Kelly English has been a member of the Arthritis Patient Advisory Board of Arthritis Research Canada (ARC) since 2013 and a co-chair since 2017. Belonging to ARC’s Patient Board has improved her quality of life by giving her a chance to help shape research. The researchers have welcomed her as a participant in research but also as a patient-partner in research. Kelly has participated in focus groups for medication adherence, exercise motivation with a Fitbit and with limited coaching from a physio, walked 10 blocks a day and tested a health journal, as well as others.
As a patient-partner, Kelly has participated on a team composed of a scientist, a trainee and several patients to develop a framework for Patient Engagement in Research which can be used by many disease groups – not just arthritis. She is on several other projects as a team member as well.
With the support of her fellow board members, she has attended rheumatology conferences, written newsletter articles, learned to tweet and had numerous speaking engagements. A very big challenge for her was a poster she wrote for the American College of Rheumatology on how being a participant as a research partner has improved her quality of life with arthritis. One recent experience was with Sheila Kerr on a webinar “Patient’s Experiences of Engaging in Research,” found here: https://www.msfhr.org/ktconnects#Dance.
Activities undertaken by JointHealth™ and its parent organization, Arthritis Consumer Experts, are guided by an Advisory Board, made up of leading scientific and medical experts and people living with arthritis. Current members are: Ad-hoc advice is sought from other experts, as required.
Dr. Dianne MosherDianne Mosher, MD, FRCPC is a graduate of Dalhousie Medical School, where she also completed her Internal Medicine and Rheumatology residency training. She is a professor in the Department of Medicine and clinical section chief of Rheumatology, Alberta Health Services, Calgary Zone. She has recently been appointed as Associate Dean, Strategic Partnerships and Community Engagement (SPaCE) at the Cumming School of Medicine.
Dr. Mosher is a past president of the Canadian Rheumatology Association (CRA) where she led the development of several national initiatives including Standards for Arthritis Prevention and Care, a national standard for consistent and equitable access to evidence-based treatment. She was awarded the CRA Distinguished Rheumatologist Award in 2008 and the Governor General of Canada’s Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal to honour her significant work in the area of arthritis care in Canada. Under Dr. Mosher’s leadership, the Arthritis Alliance of Canada released a framework for improving arthritis prevention and care in 2012.
Dr. Mosher’s research interests are primarily in clinical epidemiology with a focus on models of care for arthritis and outcome measures for patients with inflammatory arthritis. Her appointments include:
- Past President of the Canadian Rheumatology Association
- Past Co-Chair and current President of the Arthritis Alliance of Canada
- Member of the McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint Health and the Alberta Health Services’ Bone and Joint Strategic Clinical Network
Dr. John EsdaileJohn Esdaile, MD, MPH, FRCPC, FCAHS, MACR is the Scientific Director of Arthritis Research Canada (ARC). He is an internationally respected rheumatologist who spearheaded the creation of ARC. He completed his undergraduate medical training at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and went on to post-graduate training in Montreal, Toronto, and London, England. He returned to the Montreal General Hospital where he was responsible for setting up a clinical post-graduate program in rheumatology. He subsequently went on to study under Alvan R. Feinstein of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar’s Program at the Yale University School of Medicine and to obtain a Master’s of Public Health Degree from Yale.
Upon his return to McGill University, Dr. Esdaile was named Director of Rheumatology, initially at the Montreal General Hospital and subsequently for the University. He played a key role in the rapid expansion and success of the Clinical Epidemiology Unit at the Montreal General Hospital. Over the ensuing decade, the clinical epidemiology group grew from a tenure track faculty of four to more than a dozen faculty members with a total staff of 50.
In 1996, Dr. Esdaile accepted the positions of Head of Rheumatology at the University of British Columbia and Director of Research at The Arthritis Society, BC & Yukon Division. Dedicated to expanding Canada’s role in arthritis research, Dr. Esdaile was largely responsible for developing and establishing Arthritis Research Canada, of which he was named Scientific Director.
Dr. Esdaile has authored more than 250 publications in refereed journals, as well as more than two dozen books and book chapters. As one of five principal investigators, Dr. Esdaile was successful in receiving funding for the Canadian Arthritis Network, a federally funded Networks of Centres of Excellence, providing more than $40 million over ten years for arthritis research. This grant involves more than 150 scientists from across Canada, including many from BC.
Dr. Esdaile’s areas of research interest include rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus. His publication of the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine in systemic lupus erythematosus is considered a landmark paper that has altered the treatment of this disease for many patients.
Dr. Esdaile received the Distinguished Investigator Award at the 2005 Canadian Rheumatology Association meetings in Quebec. In 2006, he was named a Kirkland Scholar by the Kirkland Foundation in New York, NY and in 2007 he was elected a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. In 2012, Dr. Esdaile received a Master Designation from the American College of Rheumatology, which is one of the highest honours the college bestows to members who have made outstanding contributions to the field of rheumatology. And in 2013 he received the Jonas Salk award for lifetime achievement, Sanofi Pasteur and March of Dimes.
Dr. Esdaile’s appointments include:
- Professor of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia
- Adjunct Professor of Medicine, University of Calgary
Dr. Kam ShojaniaKamran Shojania, MD, FRCPC graduated from the University of British Columbia (UBC) medical school in 1989. In 1993, he completed his specialty training in Internal Medicine at UBC and worked as Chief Medical Resident at Vancouver General Hospital. He subsequently completed his fellowship in Rheumatology in June 1995 at UBC and was awarded a Canadian Arthritis Society scholarship in 1995.
Dr. Shojania was the Medical Director of the Vancouver Pain Clinic from 1996 to 2001. From 1998 to 2007, he was the Director of Continuing Medical Education in the UBC Division of Rheumatology. From 2001 to 2006, he was the recipient of a Clinician-Teacher Award from The Arthritis Society. He was a founding member and Director of the Canadian Rheumatology Research Consortium. Dr. Shojania is the 2003 recipient of the UBC Faculty of Medicine Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is the 2013 recipient of the Canadian Rheumatology Association Teacher Educator Award. He is the 2014 recipient of the UBC Department of Medicine Master Teacher Award and the 2017 Fay R. Dirks award for excellence in teaching. From 2008 to 2017 he was the UBC Postgraduate Program Director for Adult Rheumatology. He is the Head of the UBC Division of Rheumatology since 2008.
He has been in rheumatology practice since 1995 and is on staff at St. Paul's Hospital and Vancouver General Hospital.
Dr. Shojania’s research interests are in rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, ankylosing spondylitis, biologic therapies, gout and outcome measures in rheumatic disease.
His appointments include:
- Clinical Professor and Head, Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
- Chief of Rheumatology, Vancouver General Hospital
- Chief of Rheumatology , St. Paul’s Hospital
- Investigator at Arthritis Research Canada
- Medical Director, Mary Pack Arthritis Program (BC’s Provincial Arthritis Program)
Dr. Linda LiLinda Li, BSc(PT), MSc, PhD is a Senior Research Scientist of Clinical Epidemiology at Arthritis Research Canada. She is a Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, University of British Columbia. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Physiotherapy at McGill University and Master’s of Science at the University of Western Ontario. She earned a Doctorate in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Toronto in 2004. Two years later, she completed a CIHR-funded Post-doctoral Fellowship in knowledge translation at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. In 2006, she was the first rehabilitation professional appointed as Harold Robinson / Arthritis Society Chair in Arthritic Diseases.
Dr. Li’s research centers on improving the care for people with arthritis and empowering patient self-management. Her work focuses on the integration of online, mobile, and wearable tools in health care. Examples of her work include the use of interactive decision aids for improving communication between patients and health professionals, and the use of wearables and apps to personalized physical activity levels for patients. Dr. Li’s work in knowledge translation has also led to new studies on the benefits of engaging patients and the public in the full spectrum of research process.
Dr. Li’s appointments include:
- Harold Robinson Chair / Arthritis Society Chair in Arthritic Diseases
- Canadian Research Chair in Patient-oriented Knowledge Translation
- Professor, Department of Physical Therapy, University of British Columbia
Cheryl KoehnMs. Cheryl Koehn is an arthritis advocate, community leader, published author and rheumatoid arthritis survivor for 31 years. She has dedicated her life to helping others living with arthritis as well as people with other chronic diseases. She is the founder and president of Arthritis Consumer Experts, a national, patient-led organization that provides science-based information and education programs in both official languages to people with arthritis. She served as Founding Chair of the Consumer Advisor Council of the Canadian Arthritis Network and was the Patient Co-Chair of the Summit on Standards for Arthritis Prevention and Care. Ms. Koehn was the first patient to be named to a federal scientific peer review committee as full voting member and she currently serves as the patient-public member on the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Standing Committee on Ethics (reporting to Governing Council).
Ms. Koehn served as the consumer (patient) representative board member of the Arthritis Alliance of Canada, is a past board member of the Arthritis Research Canada and served in a leadership capacity on numerous other national organizations and committees. As one of North America's leading arthritis advocates, Ms. Koehn provides a patient perspective on arthritis health and policy issues across Canada to governments, private payers, healthcare professionals, and media. She is frequently invited to speak at national and International arthritis and health-related conferences. As founder and president of Arthritis Consumer Experts, Ms. Koehn has led the development of numerous information and education innovations to the arthritis community, including the ArthritisID and Arthritis ID PRO iPhone apps, the blog site Arthritis Broadcast Network, the annual report card on provincial formulary performance for inflammatory arthritis medications, Canada's Best Workplaces for Employees Living with Arthritis Award, and most recently, JointHealth™ Education, a series of on-line “courses” graduating today’s modern arthritis patient.
Along with co-authors Dr. John Esdaile and Taysha Palmer, Cheryl Koehn authored Rheumatoid Arthritis: PLAN TO WIN, published by Oxford University Press in January 2002. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where she enjoys ocean swimming, indoor and road cycling and walks with friends and her faithful dog, Molly.
Kelly EnglishKelly English has been a member of the Arthritis Patient Advisory Board of Arthritis Research Canada (ARC) since 2013 and a co-chair since 2017. Belonging to ARC’s Patient Board has improved her quality of life by giving her a chance to help shape research. The researchers have welcomed her as a participant in research but also as a patient-partner in research. Kelly has participated in focus groups for medication adherence, exercise motivation with a Fitbit and with limited coaching from a physio, walked 10 blocks a day and tested a health journal, as well as others.
As a patient-partner, Kelly has participated on a team composed of a scientist, a trainee and several patients to develop a framework for Patient Engagement in Research which can be used by many disease groups – not just arthritis. She is on several other projects as a team member as well.
With the support of her fellow board members, she has attended rheumatology conferences, written newsletter articles, learned to tweet and had numerous speaking engagements. A very big challenge for her was a poster she wrote for the American College of Rheumatology on how being a participant as a research partner has improved her quality of life with arthritis. One recent experience was with Sheila Kerr on a webinar “Patient’s Experiences of Engaging in Research,” found here: https://www.msfhr.org/ktconnects#Dance.
Arthritis Consumer Experts
ACE thanks Arthritis Research Canada (ARC) for its scientific review of ACE and JointHealth™ information and education programs.