#IamMGHresearch tells the stories of our researchers. Meet Dr. Roseann Andreou, hematologist and researcher at Michael Garron Hospital (MGH). Over the past year, Dr. Andreou has been working on important COVID-19 research, as part of a funding grant from the TD Bank Group. This is her story.
“I first became interested in medicine in high school. Education was very highly valued in my family – I am a first-generation Canadian and the first of my family to be able to go to university.
I attended medical school at Western University and did my internal medicine training there as well. While I was at Western, I became interested in both hematology and thrombosis (blood clotting) and was really lucky to get many opportunities to take part in thrombosis research. That really drove me to specialize in those areas. I did my subspecialty training in hematology at McMaster University, followed by a thrombosis clinical scholar year there as well. McMaster has always been known as being a thrombosis hub, so it was a great place to learn and gain experience.
I initially worked in academic medicine but after having my son, I decided to make the move to community medicine. That’s how I ended up at MGH! I had a special place for this hospital and this community in my heart– I was born here and had lived in the community as well. I met a fellow physician who worked at the hospital and initially started as a part-time physician in hematology. Over time, I became the benign hematology and thrombosis lead for the hospital. I have been here for 14 years and I still love it to this day!
Although I enjoy the clinical aspect of medicine the most, there is a lot of value in being able to take part in research.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, MGH clinicians and researchers were told that we had the chance to take part in vital COVID-19 research through a grant from TD Bank Group. Around the same time, my hematology and thrombosis colleagues learned that there was a huge link between COVID-19 and clotting. Until this day it’s still a bit of a mystery, but what we do know is that a lot of people who get COVID end up with clots in their lungs or legs, even when we have them on preventative medicine.
I was approached by St. Michaels Hospital to take part in an international study looking at the relationship between COVID and clotting and to be our own community site. I asked my colleague Dr. Chris Kandel, who has extensive research experience, to be my CO-PI. As part of the study, we worked with COVID-positive patients to understand whether putting them on blood thinners would be able to give them a better outcome with their illness. These outcomes included having a shorter hospital stay and having a lesser chance of them having to go to the ICU or dying. More specifically, we looked at dosing sizes and whether giving patients a smaller preventative dose or a larger treatment dose, even before developing a clot, would help them with their illness.
We gathered over 400 patients who consented to participation and began a randomized trial. Luckily for us, the money from the funding grant enabled us to hire an additional team member to help with the research and to input the data. The study has now ended and we’re in the exciting process of sharing the data.
Thrombosis is a vital area of research in general but is a particular area of excellence at MGH. I feel incredibly privileged and proud to be working at this hospital and in this field with our community. We may be a smaller hospital, but we are mighty! There’s no telling what we can do!”