Welcome to the website of
Dr. Anick Bérard's research team!

	July 2009 Dr. Anick Bérard receives a operating grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Operating grant- Maternal and Child Health in partnership with Inst of Human Dev & Child&Yth April 2008 Dr. Anick Bérard receives a Career Award from the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec (FRSQ) Research Scholars Junior 2 - Clinical and epidemiological science research area November 2007 Dr. Anick Bérard receives the Bourse du Cercle du doyen de la Faculté de Pharmacie de l'Université de Montréal. A substantial financial support to promote excellence and continuity in pharmaceutical research. » all news here

Since the thalidomide disaster of the 1960s, the population as a whole developed an increased awareness of the potential side effects of medication use during pregnancy. Given that women are having children at an increasingly older age than before, that chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia are more prevalent with increasing age, and that 50% of pregnancies are unplanned, women bearing children later in their lifetime are more likely to be exposed to medications during pregnancy. However, because of the high degree of concern and carefulness surrounding the use of medications during the gestational period, many women are facing the difficult task of choosing between continuing or discontinuing their medication regimen, which is always associated with risks and benefits for themselves and for their unborn child.

 

Our research team focuses on studying the risks and benefits of drug utilization during pregnancy and lactation in the hope of providing valuable evidence-based data to health care professionals and pregnant women dealing with this complex decision.

Our team is a meeting of collaborators from various scientific areas such as pharmacy, medicine, biology, biostatistics, epidemiology, and pharmacoeconomics all working in the laboratory of Dr. Anick Bérard at Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) Sainte-Justine Research Center, affiliated with the Université de Montréal. The various research projects conducted by our team about drugs, pregnancy, and lactation become a concrete action in the wider purpose of CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center which is to promote the development of knowledge in the field of maternal, pediatric and adolescent health, thereby ensuring a better future for our children.



Affiliated to the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Université de Montréal, our team is also member of the Medication and population health research group, which is interested in drugs utilization, their determinants, their risks and benefits and the evaluation of interventions to optimize their use.