Dr. Soren GanntInvestigator, BC Children’s Hospital
Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist, BC Children’s Hospital
Director, Clinical Research, BC Children’s Hospital
** A message on behalf of Dr. Wyeth Wasserman, Vice-President Research, BC Children’s Hospital **
Dear research community,
With mixed emotions, I would like to announce that Dr. Soren Gantt is leaving Vancouver in July 2020 for a new position with CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre at the Université de Montréal.
In his many roles at BC Children’s Hospital and the University of British Columbia – Director of Clinical Research, Vaccine Evaluation Center Investigator, Head of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Associate Professor of Pediatrics – Soren has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to furthering and enabling clinical research. He successfully balanced his administrative responsibilities with the demands of patient care and a busy research program aimed at preventing the complications of cytomegalovirus.
I’ve had the pleasure of working closely with Soren in his position as head of the Clinical Research Support Unit (CRSU) and have been impressed by his ongoing efforts to ensure clinical research at BC Children’s meets the highest standards in patient safety and quality assurance.Under his leadership, the CRSU has rolled out new specialized support services,such as the Answer Factory (https://hub.bcchr.ca/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=63614960) and the Clinical Research Support Team (https://hub.bcchr.ca/display/crsu/Research+Personnel+Resources), and reduced barriers to launching new clinical projects through initiatives such as the electronic Program Utilization Portal (ePUP: https://hub.bcchr.ca/display/NEWS/2019/06/05/CRSU+introduces+pilot+version+of+electronic+Program+Utilization+Portal+to+streamline+the+launch+of+new+clinical+studies) and the Clinical Trials Quality Assurance program (https://hub.bcchr.ca/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=63615427).
Soren has told me that the decision to leave BC Children’s and Vancouver was a difficult one and was made in order to be closer to family. Fortunately for us, research is a collaborative endeavor and we know that the deep relationships Soren has built in his time at BC Children’s will lead to new opportunities for national partnerships and new connections between our organizations.
We are tremendously grateful for Soren’s leadership and his efforts to expand and strengthen clinical research at BC Children’s. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors.
In the coming months, we will begin recruitment fora new director, Clinical Research, with the goal of ensuring a smooth transition and uninterrupted support for our research community.
Sincerely,
Wyeth