The OMNI Research Group was established by Dr. Mark Walker and Dr. Shi Wu Wen. With collaborations in 81 centres in more than 12 countries, OMNI is now a leading health services and clinical trials group in maternal newborn health and the team as a whole is well-recognized for their research accomplishments.
OMNI Director
Dr. Walker is a Maternal-Fetal Medicine Specialist at The Ottawa Hospital, Senior Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, and Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa. He is an internationally recognized Clinical Epidemiologist with over 360 peer reviewed publications, an h-index of 81 and has held $19 million in grants as a principal investigator. He is also co-founder and Scientific Director of the Better Outcomes Registry and Network (BORN) Ontario. Dr Walker’s research interests are broad in perinatal epidemiology including clinical trials, cohort studies, health services research and more recently artificial intelligence.
Dr. Walker is a health care executive and holds a Master’s in Health Care Management from Harvard University. He recently completed a tenure as Chair and Chief of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Ottawa. He is currently the Vice Dean of Internationalization and Global Health for the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Walker’s other leadership roles include chairing the National Society of Investigators for Obstetrics and Gynecology in Canada. He was the chair of the Canadian Perinatal Surveillance System for Health Canada and the chair of the Ontario Maternal Newborn Advisory Committee for 10 years. In these roles Dr Walker set health policy and practice improvement at both the provincial and national levels. Most recently, he was asked by the provincial government to co-chair the task force on COVID-19 and pregnancy.
*Dr. Walker is currently supervising/seeking graduate students at the University of Ottawa
OMNI Director
Dr. Shi Wu Wen is a Senior Scientist in the Clinical Epidemiology Program at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and in the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa. He is also a Visiting Professor of Central South University in China.
Dr. Wen’s research focuses on pre-conceptional and prenatal exposures (interventions) on maternal and infant outcomes, including both short- and long-term outcomes. To maximize research efficiency, in addition to large scale clinical trials and prospective cohort studies, his research has extensively used existing large population health databases in Canada, the United States, and internationally. He teaches research methodology and epidemiologic principles/applications at the undergraduate, post-graduate and fellowship levels.
OMNI Clinician Scientist
Dr. El-Chaâr is a perinatalologist at The Ottawa Hospital. She is an Associate Scientist at The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Ottawa where she holds a Junior Clinical Research Chair in Perinatal Research and Epidemiology. Dr. El-Chaâr’s research interests include assessing maternal and neonatal outcomes in pre-existing maternal health conditions, evaluating interpregnancy health and care patterns among high-risk obstetrical patients, and supporting research that promotes breastfeeding initiatives.
Dr. El-Chaâr is a co-lead of the COVID-19 Ontario Pregnancy Event (COPE) Network, an Ontario-based research network of maternity care specialists and scientists, that was setup to address critical knowledge gaps about the impact of COVID-19 on the obstetrical population and their newborns. Under her leadership, this network is pivoting to assess vaccine immunogenicity in pregnancy and during lactation (PLAN-V Study).
*Dr. El-Chaâr is currently supervising/seeking graduate students at the University of Ottawa
Senior Scientist and Associate Professor
Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa
Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute
Adjunct Scientist, ICES
Dr. Hawken completed a Master of Science in Applied Statistics at the University of Guelph in 2001 and a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Ottawa in 2015. He has nearly 20 years of experience working in the fields of biostatistics and epidemiology. As the Scientific Lead for Big Data analytics within the Ottawa Methods Centre, he provides methodological and statistical guidance to other researchers within the OHRI and The Ottawa Hospital.
He is currently working on a variety of projects in the areas of newborn screening metabolomics, maternal-newborn and pediatric epidemiology, and is serving as the lead Biostatistician and a Co-Investigator for a global preterm birth research program funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
*Dr. Hawken is currently supervising/seeking graduate students at the University of Ottawa
Senior Clinical Research Associate and Assistant Professor
BORN Ontario, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO)
CHEO Research Institute
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Ottawa
School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa
Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Dr. Corsi is an early-career researcher. He completed his PhD in Health Research Methodology at McMaster and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. As part of the OMNI research group, he is developing a ground-breaking research program on modifiable perinatal exposures and their impact on children’s neurodevelopment.
Dr. Corsi has established an internationally recognized research program on substance use in pregnancy and its effects on mothers and infants. Thus far, he has achieved several high-impact publications in JAMA and Nature Medicine. Dr. Corsi and the OMNI team have received more than $1.5 million in CIHR funding and currently have a team grant on cannabis in pregnancy (Corsi PI). This research is made possible by the BORN Ontario registry, an exceptionally robust and powerful perinatal registry with more than 1 million mother-baby dyads.
*Dr. Corsi is currently supervising/seeking graduate students at the University of Ottawa
OMNI Senior Program Manager
Ruth has an extensive background of in obstetrical nursing, business management and clinical research. As an Owner and Director of Birthcare, Inc for 10 years, she provided maternal newborn care outpatient services in the Ottawa-Carleton region. She was instrumental in establishing policies and procedures with the Senior Management Team for the Clinical Epidemiology Program at the OHRI from 2002-2005 and privacy requirements at The Ottawa Hospital/OHRI from 2002-2004. Ruth has also been the Acting Scientific Manager for BORN Ontario and the Manager of Operations for the mHealth program and the CANImmunize App at The Ottawa Hospital.
In addition to her current role as Senior Research Program Manager of the OMNI Research Group since 2000, she is the Research Operations Manager for the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Newborn Care at The Ottawa Hospital. Ruth brings invaluable international experience, content expertise, clinical guidance and mentorship to the research program and to the team members, and is instrumental in the development, implementation and execution of protocols, contract negotiation and managing the fiscal aspects of the group.
Last modified date: March 12, 2024
