BIOGRAPHY Monica Parry is a Professor in the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto and a Nurse Practitioner with over 35 years of cardiovascular (CV) clinical experience at Kingston Health Sciences Centre. Her clinical expertise has laid the foundation for a program of research to reduce the global burden of CV disease in women by 2030. Her program of research addresses four of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030): #5-Gender Equality, #10-Reduced Inequalities, #3-Good Health and Well-Being, and #17-Partnerships for the Goals. Monica is a member of the Toronto Health Economics and Technology Assessment Collaborative; a co-investigator in GOING-FWD; a member of the Canadian Women’s Heart Health Alliance; a Co-PI and Chair of the Knowledge Mobilization and Implementation Subcommittee of the Health Research Training Platform in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism (myROaD). She is leading a research team to develop and test at heart, the first progressive WebApp developed for women with heart disease using the pervasive information architecture of mHealth interventions, a user-centred co-design approach, and the sequential phased approach recommended by the Medical Research Council. Monica is currently completing a Fellowship in Artificial Intelligence and Compassionate Care, with an overall aim to integrate attributes of compassion into conversations between at heart’s Chatbot and women with heart disease. Monica has received advanced training from CIHR to engage patients as partners in health research and is currently funded (CIHR) with Clinical Trials Ontario to develop a toolkit/decision resource for patients and investigators wishing to engage in Patient-Oriented Research.

What is your interest in clinical trials?
Complex interventions have implications for health. I have used the Individual and Family Self-Management Framework and the sequential phased approach recommended by the Medical Research Council to develop and systematically evaluate at heart. We completed an integrated mixed methods systematic review (Phase 1), developed the at heart content/core feature set, Chatbot and triage algorithms (Phase 2A), performed usability testing to ensure at heart was intuitive, satisfying to operate, and valuable to women (Phase 2B), and have recently completed a pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) (Phase 3). We are seeking further funding to investigate its effectiveness and implementation using a Type II hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial (Phase 4). In each Phase of development, we have engaged women who live with heart disease, which I believe to be an absolute necessity in clinical trial research.

Why do you think clinical trials are important?
I believe complex interventions need to be theory-based and evaluated/implemented in real world settings across multiple contexts. This effectiveness evaluation is underpinned by engaging end-users in usability testing and in assessing feasibility and acceptability of the intervention prior to a Phase 4 trial.

What is your personal philosophy about clinical trial training specifically or mentorship in general?
My beliefs about education and adult learning were developed during my Master of Education and have been heavily influenced by the writings of Malcolm Knowles. He believed that teaching adults (andragogy) was different than teaching children (pedagogy). Adults bring developed motivations, goals, and expectations to learning. The techniques used to teach adults must reflect these differences. I believe the natural orientation of the adult learner is task or problem-centered and experience-based, and good teaching/training must reflect this orientation to learning.

FUN FACT: I walked the Camino Portuguese Coastal Route (~280 km) in 12 days during June 2022. This took me on foot with a backpack through picturesque seaside towns and villages from Porto (Portugal), along the Atlantic coast to Santiago (Spain).