Temerty Faculty of Medicine
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Associate Professor

Debra A. Butt

DFCM

MD,MSc

Publications

Location
The Scarborough Hospital
Address
Scarborough General Medical Mall, 3030 Lawrence Avenue East, Suite 505, Scarborough, Ontario Canada M1P 2T7
Research Interests
Hypertension, Osteoporosis, Fractures, Falls, Elderly, Medications, Women's Health, Chronic Diseases, Health Informatics, Health Promotion, Health Service Delivery, Electronic Medical Records, Administrative Databases, Meta-analysis, Systematic Reviews, Quantitative Data Analysis, Guidelines, ,
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With the DFCM since 2000

DFCM Associate Professor

Affiliations: The Scarborough Health Network

Degrees: University of Toronto MD; University of Toronto MSc Clinical Epidemiology


Research Synopsis

Dr. Butt's interests include primary health care research, women's health, osteoporosis, and the care of the elderly. Dr. Butt also does research with electronic medical records and health care administrative databases as they pertain to various medical conditions in primary care. Example research projects include examining the relationship between bone mineral density, fractures and falls with respect to medication use in the elderly, exercises to prevent osteoporotic fractures, enhancing the use of electronic medical records in primary care via a data presentation tool, and in the validation of various medical conditions.


Recent Publications

  1. Widdifield J, Tu K, Thorne JC, Bombardier C, Paterson JM, Jaakkimainen RL, Wing L, Butt DA, Ivers N, Hofstetter C, Lyddiatt A, Ahluwalia V, Bernatsky S. Patterns of Care among Patients Referred to Rheumatologists in Ontario, Canada. Arthritis Care & Research. 2017 Jan;69(1):104-114.
     
  2. Munce SE, Butt DA, Anantharajah RS, Huang S, Allin S, Bereket T, Jaglal SB. Acceptability and Feasibility of an Evidence-Based Requisition for Bone Mineral Density (BMD) testing in Clinical Practice. Journal of Osteoporosis. Nov 2016;2016:696723 doi: 10.1155/2016/6967232
     
  3. Lee TM, Ivers NM, Bhatia S, Butt DA, Dorian P, Jaakkimainen L, Leblanc K, Legge D, Morra D, Valentinis A, Wing L, Young J, Tu K. Improving stroke prevention therapy for patients with atrial fibrillation in primary care: protocol for a pragmatic, cluster-randomized trial. Implementation Science 2016 Dec 3;11(1):159.
     
  4. Jaakkimainen RL, Bronskill SE, Tierney MC, Hermann N, Green D, Young J, Ivers N, Butt D, Widdifield J, Tu K. Identification of Physician-Diagnosed Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias in Population-Based Administrative Data: A Validation study using Family Physicians’ Electronic Medical Records. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. 2016 Aug10;54(1):337-49.
     
  5. Widdifield J, Bernatsky S, Thorne JC, Bombardier C, Jaakkimainen RL, Wing L, Paterson JM, Ivers N, Butt DA, Lyddiatt A, Hofstetter C, Ahluwalia V, Tu K. CMA Rheumatology Wait Time Benchmarks: A Data Linkage Study of Primary Care Electronic Medical Records and Administrative Data in Ontario. CMAJ Open. 2016 May 11;4(2):E205-12.
     
  6. Carroll JC, Talbot Y, Permaul JA, Tobin A, Moineddin R, Blaine S, Bloom J, Butt DA, Kay K, Telner D. Academic Family Health Teams. Part 1: Patient Perceptions of Core Primary Care Domains. Canadian Family Physician. 2016 Jan;62:e23-30.
     
  7. Carroll JC, Talbot Y, Permaul JA, Tobin A, Moineddin R, Blaine S, Bloom J, Butt DA, Kay K, Telner D. Academic Family Health Teams. Part 2: Patient Perceptions of Access. Canadian Family Physician. 2016 Jan;62:e31-9.
     
  8. Munce S, Allin S, Carlin L, Sale J, Hawker G, Kim S, Butt DA, Polidoulis I, Tu K, Jaglal SB. Understanding Referral Patterns for Bone Mineral Density Testing among Family Physicians: A Qualitative Descriptive Study. Journal of Osteoporosis. 2016;2016:2937426. doi: 10.1155/2016/2937426.2937426.
     
  9. Butt DA, Harvey PJ. Benefits and Risks of Antihypertensive Medications in the Elderly. Journal of Internal Medicine. 2015 Dec;278(6):599-626.
     
  10. Tu K, Widdifield J, Young J, Oud W, Ivers NM, Butt DA, Leaver CA, Jaakkimainen RL. Are family physicians comprehensively using electronic medical records such that the data can be used for secondary purposes? A Canadian Perspective. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making. 2015 Aug 13;15:67.
     
  11. Widdifield J, Ivers N, Young J, Green D, Jaakkimainen RL, Butt DA, O’Connor P, Hollands S, Tu K. Development and Validation of an Administrative Data Algorithm to estimate the Disease Burden and Epidemiology of Multiple Sclerosis in Ontario, Canada. Multiple Sclerosis. 2015 Jul 12;21(8):1045-54.

Honours and Awards

Name:
Description:

INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH AWARDS

2012: ASBMR Young Investigator Award, American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Awarded to best international abstract in clinical research pertaining to bone health. Only recipient from Canada.

2006: NAMS New Investigator Research Award, North American Menopause Society, Tennessee, United States.
Awarded to best international abstract in the field of menopause. Only four New Investigator awards were presented. Only recipient in the category of clinical research from Canada.

LOCAL RESEARCH AWARDS

2013: Outstanding Research Publication Award, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto.

2008: Outstanding Research Publication Award, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto.


Grants

2017–2021: Tu K, Lix L, Butt DA, Jaakkimainen L, Reimer K, Smith M, Singer M, Katz A, Widdifield J. Validating Administrative Data Algorithms to Identify Patients with Chronic Diseases-Ontario, Manitoba, and British Columbia team. Public Health Agency of Canada. 500,000 CAD.

2017-2018: Tu K, Bernatsky S, Hawker G, Bombardier C, Butt DA, Ivers N, Jaakkimainen L, Jenkinson R, Kreder H, Kuriya B, Meaney C, Paterson M, Pope J, Ravi B, Thorne C, Thomlinson G, Wasserstein D, Widdifield J. Leveraging Electronic Medical Records and Health Administrative Data to Evaluate Patient Care and Outcomes in Osteoarthritis. Canadian Institutes of Health Research 100,000 CAD.

2017-2018: Giangregorio L, Ashe M, Bauman A, Brien S, Butt D, Canfield C, d’ Avernas J, Faulkner G, Funnel L, Jain R, Mehan U, Milligan J, Mitchell S, Windt R, Ashe M, Chilibeck P, Faulkner G, Papaioannou A. Patient-Oriented Implementation Science on Exercise (POISE). Canadian Institutes of Health Research. 24,993 CAD.

2016-2018: Drummond N, Birtwhistle R. Principal investigator for UTOPIAN, Toronto, Ontario: Butt DA. Co-PI: Greiver M. The Implementation of the “CPCSSN Data Presentation Tool” in primary care clinics to enhance the Surveillance, Prevention and Management of Chronic Disease. Public Health Agency of Canada. 1,000,000 CAD.

2015-2016: Tu K, Bernatsky S, Hawker G, Kreder H, Bombardier C, Butt DA, Ivers N, Jaakkimainen L, Jenkinson R, Kuriya B, Morris Q, Paterson M, Pope J, Ravi B, Thorne C, Tomlinson G, Wasserstein D, Widdifield J. Leveraging EMRs and Health Administrative Data to Evaluate Patient Care and Outcomes in Rheumatic Diseases. Canadian Institutes of Health Research. 100,000 CAD.

2014-2016: Tu K, Tobe, S, Ivers N, Jaakkimainen L, Butt DA. Measuring Performance in Vascular Disease Management in Primary Care Setting based on the Canadian Cardiovascular Harmonization of National Guidelines Endeavour. Canadian Vascular Network Seed Funding Grant Application. Canadian Vascular Network/CIHR and C-Change eHealth. 183,500 CAD.

2013-2016: Jaakkimainen L, Barnsley J, Bronskill S, Butt DA, Del Giudice L, Durbin J, Glazier RH, Ivers N, Tu K, Upshur R. Measuring wait times along the pathways of care in primary care. Canadian Institutes of Health Research.448,802 CAD.

2013-2016: Dante M, Tu K, Bhatia S, Butt DA, Meshkat N, Leblanc K, Thorpe K, Dorian P, Ivers N, Valentinis A, Saposnik G, Gladstone D, Jaakkimainen L. Improving Stroke Prevention for Patients with Atrial Fibrillation in Primary Care. Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. 211,261 CAD.