ACCORD

Hertzel Gerstein

Interim Executive Director; Senior Scientist

Hertzel Gerstein is PHRI’s Interim Executive Director and Senior Lead of the Diabetes Scientific Program. He is also a Professor of Medicine at McMaster University where he holds the Population Health Research Institute Chair in Diabetes; an Endocrinologist; Director of the Boris Clinic Diabetes Care and Research Program; Chair of Diabetes Clinical Trials Network Canada; and a Fellow of both the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and the Royal Society of Canada.

Gerstein pioneered and firmly established international long-term diabetes-focused outcomes trials as the norm to support Evidence-Based Diabetes Care. Randomized trials that he designed and led have collectively included more than 90,000 people with either diabetes or prediabetes to date, and have studied and identified clinically important, life-saving diabetes therapies. These trials were supported by the US National Institute of Health, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, other Canadian peer-review agencies, and by industry. Together, they have substantially expanded the evidence-base pertaining to the prevention, remission, and treatment of diabetes and its consequences, and some of their findings have provided the evidence base for international diabetes guidelines and novel drug indications that have improved the lives of people living with diabetes or prediabetes.

His research has been published in over 600 papers and his h index is 100. His work has been recognized by many awards, including the 2012 Canadian Diabetes Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2022 American Diabetes Association’s Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Diabetes Research Award.

Zubin Punthakee

Scientist

Zubin Punthakee is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Medicine (endocrinology and metabolism) and Pediatrics, at McMaster University. His research interests are: clinical trials of diabetes management; association between obesity and insulin resistance/diabetes, especially in youth; health care delivery and outcomes during transition from pediatric to adult care; and long-term outcomes of pediatric endocrine diseases.

At PHRI, he has held leadership roles in the TIDE trial, ORIGINALE study and RICH LEGACY study. He has published more than 22 articles, been supported by Research Career Awards from Hamilton Health Sciences and the Department of Medicine at McMaster University, and holds research grants from agencies including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Tara McCready

Program Director

Tara McCready, PhD, oversees a variety of collaborative programs at PHRI, and serves as Project Manager for PHRI research studies and registries.

She was recruited to PHRI as a Program Director for the Canadian Network and Centre for Trials Internationally (CANNeCTIN), a national network funded by the CIHR/CFI Clinical Research Initiative program to improve the prevention and treatment of cardiac and vascular diseases and diabetes.

Previously the Executive Director of the Canadian Maternal, Infant, Child and Youth Research Network, Tara holds a PhD in Biochemistry and a MBA in Technology Commercialization from the University of Alberta.

Stephanie Hall

Project Manager

Stephanie Hall has more than 25 years of experience working in research for McMaster University. With PHRI since 2006, she has managed multiple large international trials. In her current role, she coordinates various studies in diabetes care. Stephanie has a business degree, and a degree in Health Care Administration.