CD Contributors
Paul Peloso
Dr. Peloso grew up in southern Ontario, and attended high school in Guelph, Ontario. He then attended university at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He received a 4 year honours B.Sc. degree in Biochemistry in 1980. Following this he returned to McMaster for a fifth year to complete a BA in Sociology, which he had been working on concurrently with the biochemistry degree. The BA was awarded in 1981.
His medical training commenced in 1982 at University of Calgary, with his MD being awarded in 1985. He remained in Calgary, under the jurisdiction of the University of Calgary to complete an Internship, and subsequently Internal Medicine, from 1985 to 1989.
He holds certification from both the Royal College of Physician of Canada as well as the American College of Physicians in Internal Medicine. Following this he under took training in Rheumatology, at both the University of Calgary and the University of Toronto, finishing his training in 1991 in Toronto. He currently holds Canadian and American Certification in Rheumatology.
In 1991 he commenced research training in Clinical Epidemiology. This was carried out at the University of Toronto, and culminated in 1994 with the award of an MSc degree in Clinical Epidemiology, from the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, University of Toronto. His thesis examined the reliability and validity of a patient measured side effect scale, for use in rheumatology clinical trials. Formal instruction included courses in Clinical Screening Methods, Systematic Overviews, both relying heavily on the methodologies of literature retrieval, grading the quality of the evidence, and summarizing the evidence in both a qualitative and quantitative manner. Course work also included Design of Randomized controlled trials, Measurement theory, Decision analysis and Biostatistics.
Dr. Peloso was also a research fellow at the Institute for Work and Health, in Toronto, from 1993 to 1994, The IWH is a Workers Compensation Board funded Research Institute examining issues around the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of injured workers. His focus there was the design of an instrument to measure health care utilization after low back injury, as well as the development of a simple clinical tool to diagnose discogenic versus mechanical back pain using non-medical personnel.
He was also a research fellow of the Canadian Arthritis Society, from 1992 to 1994, under the supervision of Dr. Claire Bombardier. The focus of his research was the development of simple measures of toxicity for use in clinical trials. He also participated in many of the clinical trials ongoing at the Wellesley Hospital during this time period.
Currently Dr. Peloso practices as a rheumatologist at the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He is an assistant professor in the College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan. His clinical interests include soft tissue rheumatic pain and back pain, although he sees all rheumatic syndromes as part of clinical duties. He holds a weekly interdisciplinary clinic, involving a chiropractor, a physiotherapist, an exercise rehabilitation specialist, in close consultation with both a clinical psychologist and an occupational therapist for individuals with soft tissue injuries.
Research interests include ongoing participation in Systematic overviews, and he is a registered reviewer with the Cochrane Collaboration, in the areas of cervical pain and fibromyalgia. He is the representative to the Canadian Cochrane Network Collaboration (CCNC) for the University of Saskatchewan. The CCNC is specifically concerned with the processes of summarizing the literature in a scientifically sound manner, and disseminating the results of these summaries. As part of his adjunct appointment to the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, he teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in systematic reviews and meta-analysis.
He is engaged in clinical trials in fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis. Such trials involve medicinal as well as non-medicinal forms of therapy, including exercise and cognitive behavioural therapy.
Dr. Peloso has a strong interest in continuing medical education, both academically and practically. He has been a facilitator for small group practice based continuing medical education for over 2 years and over 30 sessions. He occasionally teaches small group facilitation techniques to family practitioners as well as medical students.
He joined the Institute for Health and Outcomes Research in January of 1997 and is involved in a study of quality of life and pain for individuals on the waiting list for joint replacement therapy.
