Martin Offringa

Session Chair: Child Health – 17:00 – Tuesday 7th July

Bio: Martin Offringa, MD PhD

Dr. Offringa is a is a staff physician in the Division of Neonatology in the Hospital for Sick Children and Professor at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. He is Senior Scientist and served 7 years as Program Head of the Child Health Evaluative Sciences Program in SickKid’s Research Institute. Trained in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and at Tufts University in Boston, he is Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Amsterdam, founding director of the Dutch National Paediatric Pharmacotherapy Expertise Network, the Medicines for Children Research Network, and the Netherlands’ paediatric drug prescribing tool Kinderformularium. Since 2009, he chairs the Steering Group of StaR Child Health, an international initiative that aims to enhance the design, conduct and reporting of clinical trials in children. He currently leads the Method Core of a CIHR-funded four year project in SPOR Innovative Paediatric Clinical Trials, and an international research group that develops, validates and implements a new outcome-reporting standard: Instrument for reporting of Planned Endpoints in Clinical Trials (InsPECT). This instrument will be validated in trials in neonatology, paediatric surgery, and adolescent mental health. Dr. Offringa’s work on the development, validation and harmonization of innovative research tools has identified and subsequently filled important gaps in current research methods.