Dr. Lehana Thabane

Dr Lehana Thabane is a Professor in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact (Formerly the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics). He is an Associate member of the following Departments; Pediatrics, Anesthesia, Rehabilitation Science, Nursing, Medicine, Family Medicine, Surgery and Psychiatry at McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada). He is the Director of Biostatistics at St Joseph’s Healthcare—Hamilton (Ontario, Canada) and Senior Scientist at the Population Health Research Institute of the Hamilton Health Sciences and McMaster University. Dr Thabane has been the lead/senior biostatistician for over 80 externally funded grants. He is a research methodologist with research interests in biostatistics and clinical trials. He collaborates with researchers in primary care, HIV-AIDS, evidence-based medicine and health technology assessment, and has provided statistical leadership in several major Canadian-led trials including the COMPETE II, COMPETE III, CHAT, CHAP and VISION trials. He has co-authored over 900 publications in peer-reviewed journals and over 500 abstracts presented at national and international meetings.  

He is a member of several professional associations that include the International Statistical institute, American Statistical Association, International Society of Clinical Biostatistics, and the Society for Clinical Trials. He also served on the panels of many national granting agencies such as the CIHR Clinical Trials panel (as Scientific Officer and Chair), the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Foundation (as member) and the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation Young Investigator Awards panel (as member). He is currently the chair of CIHR HIV Clinical Trials Network (CTN) Scientific Review.

A winner of the CE&B Excellence Award in Teaching for 2004-2006; the FHS Excellence in Graduate Supervision Award for 2012 at McMaster University; and the McMaster President's Excellence in Graduate Supervision Award for 2016, Dr Thabane has extensive experience as an educator and mentor. Todate he has mentored over 100 MSc, PhD and Postdoc trainees. He is the clinical trials mentor for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He has been involved in many international capacity-building projects including the ADAPT (African Development of AIDS Prevention Trial Capacity) programme—funded by International Development Research Centre and led by CIET-Canada to build capacity in HIV prevention trials in sub-Saharan Africa.