Karen Burns

2012 Core Research Program Grant — Practices in End of Life Care and in Discontinuing Mechanical Ventilation in Elderly Critically Ill Patients: A Nested Study within an International Observational Study (CORE 2012-11)

Karen Burns practices critical care medicine at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. She is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, a Clinician Scientist at the Keenan Research Centre/Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute and an Associate Member of the School of Graduate Studies with the Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. In addition to completing clinical training in Internal Medicine, Respirology, Critical Care and Lung Transplantation, Karen Burns completed a Master’s Degree in Health, Research and Methodology. She has developed a ‘program of research’ focusing on characterizing practice pattern variation in weaning critically ill adults from invasive mechanical ventilation, on national and international levels, and evaluating strategies to reduce weaning practice variation. Her research program includes small and large scale observational studies, national and international surveys, and a multicentre pilot randomized controlled trial. Other research interests include consent issues in critical care research, surrogate decision-making, and meta-analyses of mechanical ventilation applications.