Mina Tadrous, Assistant Professor

Mina

Tadrous

Drug Safety

Health Services Research

Toronto ON
Canada

Area of Research

Mina Tadrous leads research focused on evaluating drug policies and post-marketing surveillance of medications. He works closely with policymakers and uses large data sets to answer questions about medication real-world safety and effectiveness and improving the optimal use of medications. Tadrous is currently a scientist at Women’s College Hospital (WCH) Institute for Health System Solutions and Virtual Care (WIHV), an investigator with the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network (ODPRN), and ICES adjunct scientist. He also holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Real World Evidence and Pharmaceutical Policy,

Research Challenge

Medications are an important cornerstone of the health care system, but in order to optimize their effectiveness and minimize their risks, health care providers need to know how to use them properly. When they are prescribing a drug, health care providers must decide which patients should receive a medication and at what dosage, as well as consider the high costs of many new medications.

Determining a medication’s optimal use is often challenging. Clinical trials are essential to determining whether a drug is safe and effective, but they are conducted under highly controlled conditions that are often not representative of the real world. As a result, safety and effectiveness are usually not similar to clinical trials. In addition, many new drugs are prohibitively expensive. Drug payers, such as the government and private insurance, need information about a medication’s optimal use when they consider whether a drug will be covered under their plan and for which patients.

Proposed Solution

Tadrous focuses his research on leveraging big data sets to help policymakers and health care practitioners make evidence-based decisions. His work aims to answer questions about real-world medication safety, effectiveness and optimal use. For example, he analyzes health care data about government-funded medical care in Ontario to track the health care use of patients prescribed a specific medication, which provides information about safety and effectiveness in the real world.

Tadrous works closely with policymakers, including the provincial government, to focus his research on relevant questions and communicate the results to impact policy decisions.

Impact to Date

Through Tadrous’ partnerships with policymakers, his work has contributed to policy changes that have improved access to critical medications for patients. For example, Tadrous led an ODPRN drug class review for chronic hepatitis B treatments that informed a policy expanding access to these medications, improving access to life-saving treatments for thousands of patients in Ontario. In recent work, he has studied the distribution of naloxone (used to counter an opioid overdose) by both pharmacies and public health agencies across Ontario. Public health agencies have used this information to build strategies to improve naloxone distribution in their regions.

In addition, Tadrous works is working to develop data-derived quality indicators to improve care. Through this work he aims to help clinicians use data to improve prescribing practices, and he plans to expand this project to provide pharmacists with data to better understand their impact on patients.

Awards

2024 Dr. Maurice McGregor Award for a Rising Star in Health Technology Assessment – Canada's Drug Agency (CDA-AMC)
2024 Exceptional Achievement in Research and Academia -- Ontario Pharmacists Association (OPA)
2018 Professor of the Year – Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy
2021 APPE Preceptor of the Year - Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy