A Unique and Rigorous Data Platform for Depression Screening Research

Name: Brett Thombs, PhD

Email: brett.thombs@mcgill.ca

Position: 

- Senior Investigator at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital

- Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Department of Psychiatry, with                Associate Memberships in the Departments of Medicine; Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health; Psychology; Educational and Counselling Psychology and the Biomedical Ethics Unit

- Chair of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care (2017-2021)

- Director of the Scleroderma Patient-centered Intervention Network (SPIN) (www.spinsclero.com)

- Director of the DEPRESsion Screening Data (DEPRESSD) Project (www.depressd.ca)

- Fellow of Canadian Academy of Health Sciences

- Member of College of the Royal Society of Canada

Biography:

Dr. Thombs completed his Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Fordham University in 2004, including clinical internship training at the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, then was a postdoctoral fellow and instructor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He began his career at McGill in 2006, when he was appointed as Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry. He was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2011 and to Full Professor in 2015. In addition to the Department of Psychiatry, he holds Associate Memberships in the Departments of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health; Medicine; Psychology; Educational and Counselling Psychology, and the Biomedical Ethics Unit. He is a Senior Investigator at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research of the Jewish General Hospital. In 2020, Dr. Thombs was named a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1). Since 2006, Dr. Thombs has published over 400 peer-reviewed articles, including many in the world’s leading general medical journals (e.g., JAMA, BMJ, JAMA Intern Med, CMAJ). He has been awarded over $36 million in grant funding, including $18.8 million as Principal Investigator and $17.4 million as Co-investigator. He has been awarded 31 CIHR team or operating grants as Principal Investigator. He founded and directs the Scleroderma Patient-Intervention Network (SPIN), a collaboration of over 150 investigators, health care providers, patients, and patient advocates from 9 countries and 50 scleroderma expert centers. He also founded and directs the DEPRESion Screening Data (DEPRESSD) Project, which currently includes more than 350 investigators from >50 countries, who have contributed >300 primary datasets for use in a shared database to conduct individual participant data meta-analyses. He is the Chair of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care, the first non-physician ever in this role. Dr. Thombs was one of two inaugural recipients of the McGill Principal’s Prize for Outstanding Emerging Researchers and has been awarded lifetime research awards from the Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals and the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and a member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada.

Website:

https://www.thombsresearchteam.ca/

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