Acting Administrative Assistant: Laurie Kent
Phone: 416.480.6802
Fax: 416.480.6068

Education:

• MD, 1987, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Canada
• FRCPC, 1992, Internal Medicine, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, Canada
• Diplomate, 1992, Internal Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine, USA
• FRCPC, 1993, Geriatric Medicine, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, Canada
• Certificate, 1995, Clinical Pharmacology, University of Toronto, Canada

Appointments and Affiliations:

• Affiliate scientist, evaluative clinical sciences - Brain Sciences Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute
• Executive Director, Regional Geriatric Program of Toronto, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
• Associate Professor, Division of Geriatric Medicine, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
• Cross appointment, Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
• Consultant, geriatric medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto

Research Focus:

• Health services evaluation
• Pharmacoepidemiology
• Falls prevention

Research Summary:

My research focuses on evaluation of interprofessional geriatric health services, appropriate medication use and falls prevention.

Selected Publications:

See current publications list at PubMed.

1. Liu BA, Jackson LD. Principal Author/ Senior Responsible Author. Drug prescribing in the older patient. PIER [online database] 2006 [cited; Available from: http://pier.acponline.org/physicians/diseases/d169.

• This is a comprehensive, state of the art review of drug therapy in older patients.   Part of the American College of Physicians knowledge resources, PIER (Physicians’ Information and Education Resource) is a web-based decision-support tool designed for rapid point-of-care delivery of up-to-date, evidence-based guidance for clinicians. This module presents a series of guidance statements and practice recommendations, supported by more detailed levels of pertinent rationale and evidence.  The module contains sections on Prevention, Screening, Diagnosis, Consultation for Diagnosis, Hospitalization, Non-drug Therapy, Drug Therapy, Patient Education, Consultation for Management, Follow-up, Case Scenario, Clinical Alerts, Data Elements, References, Glossary. The module is over 10,000 words in length and contains 58 references, each rated for level of evidence.

2. Liu BA, Juurlink DN. Senior Responsible Author. Drug and the QT interval - caveat doctor. N Engl J Med. 2004 Sep 9, 2004;351(11):1053-6.

• This paper provides a scholarly review of drug-induced QT prolongation and the contribution of drug interactions in a high impact journal. 

3. Liu B, Anderson G, Mittmann N, To T, Axcell T, Shear N. Senior Responsible Author and Principal Author. Use of selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors or tricyclic antidepressants and risk of hip fractures in elderly people. Lancet. 1998;351:1303-7.

• This landmark paper was the first large-scale study to identify an association between the newer antidepressant class, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, and hip fracture in older patients.  It was among the early papers which used linkage of administrative datasets at ICES to evaluate an adverse drug effect.  The study has been cited widely.