Nova Scotia CANVAS-COVID
The Canadian Center for Vaccinology

The Canadian Center for Vaccinology (CCfV) was established in 2007 as a collaboration between Dalhousie University, IWK Health, and Nova Scotia Health. Comprised of the Vaccine Development, Vaccine Evaluation, and the Programs, Policy and Implementation Groups, our research encompasses a wide spectrum of collaborative vaccine research from microbiology to effectiveness, and safety and social issues. CCfV is also home to the Canadian Immunization Research Network (CIRN).
Study Team
Co-Investigator
Dr. Karina Top, MD, MS, FRCPC
Associate Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Community Health & Epidemiology,
Dalhousie University
Investigator, Canadian Center for Vaccinology, IWK Health Centre, Halifax, NS
Dr. Top is a clinician-scientist at the Canadian Center for Vaccinology at Dalhousie University and IWK Health. Her research focuses on vaccine safety surveillance, management of patients with previous adverse events following immunization, and vaccine safety and effectiveness in immunocompromised patients and in pregnancy. Dr. Top is the Principal Investigator of the Canadian Immunization Research Network’s Special Immunization Clinic Network, an investigator in the CANVAS, and an investigator in the Canadian Immunization Monitoring Program, Active (IMPACT), an active surveillance network for vaccine preventable diseases and vaccine adverse events in 12 tertiary care pediatric hospitals across Canada.

Co-Investigator
Dr. Jennifer E. Isenor
Associate Professor
College of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health and Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University
Investigator, Canadian Center for Vaccinology
Scientific Staff, IWK Health Centre
Associate Scientist, Maritime SPOR Support Unit
Dr. Jennifer Isenor is an Associate Professor at the College of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health and the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University. She is an investigator with the Canadian Center for Vaccinology and a founding member of the Pharmacists as Immunizers (PAI) Research Team. Her research focuses on a variety of immunization-related topics, including various studies assessing the role and impact of pharmacists as immunizers; pain mitigation strategies during adult immunization; the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours of immunization providers and the public, including vaccine hesitancy; and network surveillance of adverse events following immunization.

Co-Investigator
Professor of Medicine
Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases, Dalhousie University
Deputy Head, Department of Medicine, Dalhousie University
Deputy Director, Canadian Center for Vaccinology
Halifax, NS
A native of Kentville, NS, Dr. McNeil completed her medical education and internal medicine residency at Dalhousie University followed by a three-year fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Dr. McNeil returned to Dalhousie in 2000 and is currently Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Deputy Chief of the Department of Medicine. In addition to her clinical leadership roles, Dr. McNeil is a Clinician Scientist and Deputy Director of the Canadian Center for Vaccinology where her research focuses on the evaluation of the epidemiology of vaccine-preventable diseases in adults with a focus on the elderly, assessment of the effectiveness of vaccines in the prevention of serious outcomes in adults and clinical trials of new adult vaccines. She is the Principal Investigator of the Serious Outcomes Surveillance Network of the Canadian Immunization Research Network (CIRN).
Dr. McNeil lives in Halifax with her husband, Tim and daughter, Emma, a third year Nursing student at Dalhousie.
