Fawziah Marra
About the Principal Investigator
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Training
| Degree: | BSC (Pharm.) |
| Institution: | University of British Columbia |
| Period: | 1990 |
| Degree: | Hospital Residency |
| Institution: | St. Paul’s Hospital |
| Period: | 1991 |
| Degree: | Pharm.D. |
| Institution: | University of British Columbia |
| Period: | 1994 |
| Degree: | Fellowship (infectious Diseases) |
| Institution: | University of British Columbia and Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Centre |
| Period: | 1996 |
Previous Positions
| Position: | Associate professor |
| Institution: | University of British Columbia |
| Period: | 2004 |
| Position: | Pharmacist |
| Institution: | St. Paul’s Hospital |
| Period: | 1991 – 1992 |
Current Position
| Position: | Professor |
| Institution: | University of British Columbia |
| Period: | 2010 |
| Position: | Director of Pharmacy and Vaccine Services |
| Institution: | BC Centre for Disease Control |
| Period: | 2004 - Present |
| Position: | Associate member |
| Institution: | Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine Appointed with Division of Infectious Diseases |
| Period: | 2002 - Present |
Major Awards
| Name: | Patient Care Achievement Award for Innovation |
| Organization: | Canadian Pharmacists Association (CPhA) |
| Period: | 2010 - 2011 |
| Name: | John C. McCreary Prize for Interprofessional Teamwork |
| Organization: | College of. Health Disciplines at UBC |
| Period: | 2008 - 2009 |
| Name: | Novartis Award for Pharmacoeconomics |
| Organization: | Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists |
| Period: | 2006 - 2007 |
| Name: | Hoffman La Roche Award for Specialties in Pharmacy Practice |
| Organization: | Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists |
| Period: | 2005 2006 |
| Name: | Best Podium Presentation of Research Award |
| Organization: | International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) |
| Period: | 2004 - 2005 |
| Name: | B.C. Branch, Publication Award |
| Organization: | Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists |
| Period: | 2003 - 2004 |
Links
About the Group
Training Environment
As a pharmacotherapeutic specialist in infectious diseases, my research interests lie within public health communicable disease control. My research and training environment focuses on policy-related work with respect to evaluating the clinical impact of antimicrobial agents in studies of specific patient subgroups and in population-based cohorts as well as cost-effectiveness of various public health programs.
Projects
Population-based use of antimicrobial agents and impact on diseases
I am interested in surveillance of anti-infective agents at a population level as well as use of these agents in patients with tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases and other communicable diseases. Examples include:
- Patterns of Antimicrobial Use for the Province of British Columbia: The lay and professional media has been rampant in reporting the issue of overuse of antimicrobial agents in the community setting. Left unchecked, it is believed that this overuse could result in the development of resistance and will ultimately exhaust the usefulness of our present agents. In Europe, enhanced pharmaco-surveillance has revealed that there has been a trend for reduced use of antimicrobial agents in recent years. Prior to the conduct of our research study, areas within North America had not conducted a similar evaluation to determine usage patterns, trends and factors influencing use. We have several projects in this area including implementation of the “Do Bugs Need Drugs” program in BC and continued surveillance on antimicrobial usage patterns within primary care, efforts to obtain resistance pattern data, comparison/validation of BC and IMS data, GIS mapping of consumption according to health service delivery area and multidisciplinary methods to promote appropriate use of antibiotics. These projects are being conducted in collaboration with Canadian and the European researchers.
- Pharmacoepidemiology Evaluations: The use of antibiotics or other medications may be associated with the development of diseases. I have conducted several epidemiologic studies using large population based cohorts to investigate associations between antibiotic use and development of asthma, use of proton pump inhibitors and development of community-acquired respiratory and gastrointestinal infections and adverse drug reactions associated with use of anti-TB medications. These studies have used the BC Linked Health databases. Data from these studies are being used to improve prescribing by physicians within the province.
Health outcomes associated with interventions associated with communicable diseases
I am interested in evaluating health outcomes associated with various immunization and TB control programs such as cost-effectiveness of vaccination programs for the province of British Columbia, resources and health care utilization due to communicable diseases.
- Cost-effectiveness of Immunization Programs: Rates of vaccine-preventable diseases are low in Western countries through the use of immunizations. Increasing, these vaccines are becoming more expensive to produce but are also very effective in reducing morbidity and mortality. Hence, we have conducted a number of studies to determine the cost-effectiveness of various immunization programs including pneumococcal vaccination for HIV positive populations, influenza vaccine for the 6-23 month olds, and Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine using both Markov and dynamic models. We have just finished a study to evaluate outcomes and resource utilization associated with Ontarios’s universal influenza vaccination program compared to the targeted programs.
- Health Outcomes in TB Patients: Tuberculosis remains one of the leading causes of death in the world today killing 2 million people each year. In Vancouver, with a geographic link to the Pacific Rim and a large marginalized population, tuberculosis infection rates are some of the highest in the Western World. Patients who are actively infected or who carry the tuberculosis infection latently receive potent antimicrobial agents. These agents can result in significant adverse reactions resulting in premature medication discontinuation and morbidity as well as decrease patients’ quality of life. As such, we are conducting several research projects to determine the effects of TB disease and infection on quality of life, cost-effectiveness of newer diagnostics and latent TB infection treatment.
Selected Publications
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Kwong JC, Patrick DM, Upshur RE, Marra F*. The effect of universal influenza immunization on antibiotic prescriptions: an ecological study. Clinical Infectious Diseases 2009;49(5):750-6. Marra CA, Ogilvie G, Gastonguay L, Colley L, Taylor D, Marra F*. Patients with genital warts have a decreased quality of life. Sexually Transmitted Diseases 2009;36(4):258-60.
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