Dr. Laurie Twells appointed Scientific Lead, NLSUPPORT

Jan 19th, 2018

Dale Humphries

Dr. Laurie Twells appointed Scientific Lead, NLSUPPORT

The below is a profile written by Dale Humphries, research officer for NLSUPPORT.

In late 2017, NL SUPPORT began the search for a new Scientific Lead when Dr. Brendan Barrett moved into the position of Chief Scientific Officer of the Translational and Personalized Medicine Initiative (TPMI). In early 2018, Dr. Laurie Twells was officially welcomed to the team.

A self-proclaimed townie, Dr. Twells is jointly appointed as an Associate Professor in the School of Pharmacy and Faculty of Medicine at Memorial University.

Laurie’s path to patient-oriented research began with an economics degree at Memorial, led through the Australian outback in an internship with PepsiCo, and into the streets of London with PricewaterhouseCoopers as well as merchant banking. After seven years in finance, she went into the “family business” and began making the switch to a career in the health sciences with a Masters in Epidemiology and Health Policy from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the London School of Economics.

When their eldest daughter was set to begin school, the Twells family decided to return to St. John’s. Here, Dr. Twells pursued her PhD in Clinical Epidemiology at Memorial University, focusing on obesity and its impact on the health care system, working with some of the first Canada-wide patient datasets in the early 2000s. This early work became the foundation of several research programs that she would go on to lead or co-lead, including ongoing infant nutrition and breastfeeding projects with Dr. Leigh Anne Newhook, as well as with the province’s bariatric surgery program.

How she met NL SUPPORT

Laurie met a few members of the NL SUPPORT team after returning from sabbatical in 2016, piquing her curiosity about the Unit and patient-oriented research. A long-time proponent of Integrated Knowledge Translation, she confesses that at first, she saw little difference between that approach and Patient-Oriented Research (POR). Despite years of work with bariatric surgery stakeholders, she says that “after all those monthly meetings we had for almost five years [with surgeons and policymakers and researchers], there were never patients at the table, never. We were very engaged with the patients and we listened to them, but they were never sitting at the table.”

It was only after Patient Engagement Coordinator/Training and Capacity Lead Eva Vat encouraged Dr. Twells to look into our Patient-Oriented Research Training program that her ideas of patient-oriented research began to change. She reached what she calls the “threshold moment” that reoriented her worldview, becoming a newly-converted evangelist:

“I have become...an advocate embedded in patient-oriented research now that I have been transformed in my thinking...I tell people about it all the time, I’m one of those people who say ‘oh did you know about this?’ It was pointed out to me two years ago so now I have to point it out to other people.”

When Dr. Barrett’s tenure as Scientific Lead for the Unit came to an end in late 2017, Dr. Twells applied for the position, intrigued by “a really exciting unit with lots of energy, lots of great things going on.” One thing led to another, and in January 2018 we officially inducted Laurie into the NL SUPPORT family.

A bright future

As the Unit’s work goes on, Dr. Twells sees a bright future ahead for all of us, and hopes to carry the message about patient-oriented research beyond the walls of our home at the Faculty of Medicine. “We are a distinct unit in terms of the university environment,” she says; part of our mandate going forward will be to educate and work to break down the barriers between faculties at Memorial University. She feels it’s important to the Unit that we “start embedding it [patient-oriented research] in peoples’ thinking” so that we can all work together to improve health outcomes for the people of our province.

By leading the charge for patient-oriented research in Newfoundland and Labrador, Dr. Twells is fulfilling a desire shared by many researchers at Memorial, who are dedicated to “working on research relevant to Newfoundland,” she says. “That’s why I came back, it’s why a lot of people come back...we have a responsibility in our positions to help improve the health of this population.”

As we head into the next phase of the SPOR Initiative, we are extremely fortunate to work under the direction of a Scientific Lead that is not only an outspoken advocate, but one we inspired with our initiatives, training and passion for patient-oriented research.