Dr. Cara Tannenbaum is a medical leader, health research expert and government advisor who is internationally recognized for her leadership in drug safety and the integration of sex and gender in health research, education, practice and policy. She co-founded and was the inaugural scientific director of the Canadian Deprescribing Network, a national organization aimed at eliminating inappropriate medication use among seniors. From 2015 to 2022, Dr. Tannenbaum served as the scientific director of the Institute of Gender and Health at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. She launched Canada’s National Women’s Health Strategy in 2022. She has since advised the European Commission, the US National Institutes of Health, the UK Wellcome Trust, the Australian government, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on similar integration and innovation strategies for incorporating sex and gender in research and patient care. Since 2019, Dr. Tannenbaum has assumed the role of departmental science advisor for Health Canada. In 2023, she headed the Canadian delegation to the G20 science roundtable in India.
A professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the Université de Montréal and a former Endowed Chair of Pharmacy at the same university, Dr. Tannenbaum obtained her medical degree in internal medicine and geriatrics at McGill University, and has a master’s degree in epidemiology and biostatistics. She has published over 160 articles and book chapters, including in Nature,JAMA, the Lancet, BMJ, and PNAS. She has delivered over 500 media interviews, invited talks and recorded podcasts. She is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the May Cohen Gender Equity Award from the Association of Faculties of Medicine Canada, the Canadian Trailblazer Award for Exceptional Contributions to Science Policy, the William B. Abrams Award from the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and she was recently inducted into the Order of Canada.