About Us

Dr. Barbara Farrell is passionate about deprescribing – especially for frail older adults. As a pharmacist working in the Bruyère Geriatric Day Hospital since 1999, she sees many older people often taking more than 20 medications a day. Working closely with physicians, an interprofessional team and the patients and their families, she is able to help reduce or stop medications safely. More frequently than not, this helps patients feel better, be less confused, fatigued and dizzy. These experiences prompted Dr. Farrell to pursue research in the field of deprescribing and models that improve medication-related care for older people.

Dr. Farrell is a Senior Investigator with the Bruyère Research Institute (BRI) and the CT Lamont Primary Health Care Research Centre, an Assistant Professor with the Department of Family Medicine, University of Ottawa, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor with the School of Pharmacy, University of Waterloo. She is also a member of the Ontario Pharmacy Evidence Network and is co-founder of the Canadian Deprescribing Network.

Dr. Farrell’s research team developed rigorous methodology for constructing evidence-based “deprescribing guidelines” and have developed related tools that are now used worldwide. The guidelines and tools have been endorsed and supported by organizations such as the College of Family Physicians of Canada, the Canadian Pharmacists Association, Choosing Wisely Canada, CADTH, the Canadian Institute for Health Information and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Dr Farrell continues to conduct research examining the implementation and effect of using deprescribing guidelines.

In 2011, Dr. Farrell was named the Canadian Pharmacist Association’s “Pharmacist of the Year” for her work in pharmacist education, patient-centred care and research. In 2018, she received the Ontario Pharmacists Association “Exceptional Achievement in Research and Academia” award, and in 2019, the CIHR Betty Havens Prize for Knowledge Translation in Aging.

Grounded in her practice as a pharmacist, Dr. Lisa McCarthy leads research focused on medication management and the continuity of health care. Her goals are to reduce medication-related harm and optimize people’s, particularly older adults, experiences with their medications.

Dr. McCarthy is a Clinician Scientist with the Institute for Better Health and Pharmacy Department at Trillium Health Partners and an Associate Professor with the University of Toronto’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and Department of Family and Community Medicine. She is also an affiliate investigator with the Bruyère Research Institute, Women’s College Research Institute, and an Adjunct Associate Professor with the School of Pharmacy, University of Waterloo. Dr. McCarthy’s current practice is with Seniors Care Services at Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga, Ontario.

Dr. McCarthy has been a long-time member of the Deprescribing Guidelines Research team at Bruyère. She co-leads with Dr. Farrell, research initiatives in the area of prescribing cascades and deprescribing in long-term care. She is an executive member of the Ontario Pharmacy Evidence Network and member of the Canadian Deprescribing Network. She is co-leading development of a special interest group for the US Deprescribing Research Network. In 2020-21, she co-chaired Ontario Health (Quality)’s Medication Safety Quality Standard Advisory Committee.

Dr. McCarthy has received awards for mentorship and recognizing the accomplishments of strong teams that she has led. In 2021, Dr. McCarthy received the Ontario Pharmacists Association “Exceptional Achievement in Research and Academia” award.

Dr. Wade Thompson is a deprescribing researcher and clinician with more than a decade of experience studying and evaluating strategies to reduce unnecessary medication use to improve the well-being of older adults. He is dedicated to finding ways to ensure older adults are only taking medications that are effective, safe, and consistent with their healthcare goals and treatment preferences. Dr. Thompson’s research is inspired by his experiences as a pharmacist in long-term care and primary care, working with older people and other healthcare providers to improve older persons’ wellbeing by safely reducing or stopping medications when they are no longer a good fit.

Dr. Thompson is an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia in the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics. He completed his his BScPhm and PharmD at the University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy, MSc in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Ottawa, and his PhD at the University of Southern Denmark. Dr. Thompson is on the executive research committee for the Canadian Deprescribing Network and is co-creator and co-chair of the Network for European Researchers in Deprescribing (NERD).

Dr. Thompson was a member of the inaugural United States Deprescribing Network Junior Investigator Intensive, and is co-chair of the 1st International Conference on Deprescribing (held in Denmark in September 2022).

Dr. Thompson has been at the forefront of bringing attention to deprescribing and the benefits of good medication management. Check out some of the internationally recognized guidelines and decision-support tools he helped develop here .

Dr. Cara Tannenbaum is a leader in cutting-edge geriatric research both nationally and internationally. As a Professor in the Faculties of Medicine and Pharmacy at the Université de Montréal, she became the inaugural Chair of the Michel Saucier Endowed Fund in Geriatric Pharmacology, Health and Aging in 2008, and won the CIHR Betty Haven’s Knowledge Transfer Prize in Aging in 2013 for her work on the EMPOWER study: “Eliminating Medications through Patient Ownership of End Results”. Her EMPOWER brochure for reducing benzodiazepines has since been translated into 10 languages worldwide.  As the principal investigator on a CIHR Partnership for Health System Improvement Grant, she co-founded the Canadian Deprescribing Network, and continues to conduct deprescribing trials involving patients, pharmacists and primary care practitioners across Canada.

In 2015 Dr. Tannenbaum received a Y Woman of Distinction Award for Health, and was appointed Scientific Director of the CIHR Institute of Gender and Health. She is dedicated to her clinical practice as a geriatrician, women’s health specialist and Director of the Geriatric Incontinence Clinic at the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal, which fuels her vision for her patient-oriented research program.