“Effective knowledge translation is integral to the practice of medicine and public health. Traditional “bench-to-bedside” translational research has involved taking discoveries from the basic sciences and translating them into clinical applications. Another equally important type of knowledge translation takes these applications from the bedside to best practices, synthesizing the evidence on important clinical questions and translating the knowledge into clinical practice guidelines and public health policy. The PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship will allow me to apply this model to the big questions in clinical nutrition and chronic disease prevention.”
The PSI Foundation is pleased to announce Dr. John L Sievenpiper of the University of Toronto and St. Michael’s Hospital as the 2015 PSI Graham Farquharson KT Fellow. This Fellowship — valued at $150,000 per year for two years — is intended to protect a new, promising clinician’s research time, allowing the Fellow to undertake high impact translational research.
The Fellowship will allow Dr. Sievenpiper to conduct translational research to address the important questions confronting nutrition guidelines committees. There has been a recent move away from the more traditional nutrient-centric approaches (“low-fat”, “low-carb”, “high protein”) to more food and dietary pattern-based approaches, a change Dr. Sievenpiper helped to initiate and steer in the Canadian Diabetes Association 2013 Clinical Practice Guidelines for Nutrition Therapy. Coming out of this process, his work will use systematic reviews and meta-analyses to synthesize and translate the role of various food and dietary pattern-based approaches in cardiometabolic health. This work will improve health outcomes by informing clinical practice guidelines and public health policy, stimulating industry innovation and identifying gaps for future clinical investigation.
Dr. Sievenpiper completed his MSc, PhD and Postdoctoral Fellowship training in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. He completed his MD at St. Matthew’s University, School of Medicine followed by Residency training in Medical Biochemistry at McMaster University. Dr. Sievenpiper is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. He is also a Scientist in the La Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, Knowledge Synthesis Lead of the Toronto 3D Knowledge Synthesis and Clinical Trials Unit, and Consultant Physician in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at St. Michael’s Hospital. He has authored over 100 scientific papers and 12 book chapters. He remains directly involved in knowledge translation with appointments to various nutrition guidelines committees including those of the Canadian Diabetes Association, European Association for the Study of Diabetes, and the American Society of Nutrition.
Papers Published on Foundation Funded Projects:
Sugars and obesity: is it the sugars or the calories?
Effect of replacing animal protein with plant protein on glycemic control in diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and incident hypertension: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohorts
Effect of fructose on established lipid targets: a systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled feeding trials
Fructose as a driver of diabetes: an incomplete view of the evidence
The ecologic validity of fructose feeding trials: supraphysiological feeding of fructose in human trials requires careful consideration when drawing conclusions on cardiometabolic risk
