Dr. Elena Lopatina
Biography
Dr. Elena Lopatina, MD, PhD is a Health System Impact Embedded Early Career Researcher and a Senior Scientist with the Alberta Virtual Pain Program and the Alberta Pain Strategy at Alberta Health Services. She also holds an Adjunct Assistant Professor appointment in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary.
Dr. Lopatina leads an embedded research program aimed at transforming pain management in Alberta through virtual care, digital health, and innovative models of care delivery, all co-designed with people with lived experience, Indigenous communities, providers, and decision-makers. The ultimate goal of her work is to advance a learning health system for pain management across Alberta and facilitate the Quintuple Aim — robust population health, good experiences with health care for patients and caregivers, good experiences and a sustainable work-life for providers, affordability, and health equity.
Dr. Lopatina is also passionate about building capacity for embedded research across Canada and is the Nominated Principal Investigator for the Health System Impact Training Platform.
Education and Training
Dr. Lopatina is a physician with specialty training in Internal Medicine and Cardiology. She also has a PhD in Health Economics from the University of Calgary.
Research Interests and Expertise
Dr. Lopatina is a health services and policy researcher with expertise in economic evaluation, computer simulation modelling, real-world data analysis, evidence synthesis, mixed-methods research, patient-oriented research, program evaluation, implementation science, and policy analysis. She is interested in the design, implementation, and evaluation of complex interventions such as models of care delivery and clinical pathways, digital health technologies and virtual care, learning health systems, and embedded research.
Contact
Key Publications
Lopatina E, Faris P, Spackman E, Benzies KM. Effects of Alberta Family Integrated Care (FICare™) on the Health Care Resource Utilization and Cost Two Months Post-Discharge: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial in Neonatal Intensive Care Units. Nursing Economic$. 2024 May 1;42(3). doi:10.62116/NEC.2024.42.3.131
Lopatina E, Richer L, Round J. Regulation, assessment, and adoption of digital health technologies in Canada. Institute of Health Economics. 2023
Lopatina E, Thanh NX, Tanguay R, Pereira JX, Wasylak T. Opioid prescriptions and patients’ health services utilization and cost before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: an exploratory population-based administrative data analysis. Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology. 2023 May 26;101(9):466-74. doi:10.1139/cjpp-2022-0544
Bruce M, Lopatina E, Hodge J, Moffat K, Khan S, Pyle P, Kashuba S, Wasylak T, Santana MJ. Understanding the chronic pain journey and coping strategies that patients use to manage their chronic pain: a qualitative, patient-led, Canadian study. BMJ open. 2023 Jul 1;13(7):e072048. doi:10.1136/ bmjopen-2023-072048
Lopatina E, Miller JL, Teare SR, Marlett NJ, Patel J, Barber CE, Mosher DP, Wasylak T, Woodhouse LJ, Marshall DA. The voice of patients in system redesign: A case study of redesigning a centralized system for intake of referrals from primary care to rheumatologists for patients with suspected rheumatoid arthritis. Health Expectations. 2019 Jun;22(3):348-63. doi:10.1111/hex.12855
Lopatina E, Damani Z, Bohm E, Noseworthy TW, Conner-Spady B, MacKean G, Simpson CS, Marshall DA. Single-entry models (SEMs) for scheduled services: towards a roadmap for the implementation of recommended practices. Health Policy. 2017 Sep 1;121(9):963-70. doi:10.1016/j.healthpol.2017.08.001
Lopatina E, Donald F, DiCenso A, Martin-Misener R, Kilpatrick K, Bryant-Lukosius D, Carter N, Reid K, Marshall DA. Economic evaluation of nurse practitioner and clinical nurse specialist roles: A methodological review. International journal of nursing studies. 2017 Jul 1;72:71-82. doi:10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2017.04.012
