Alice Virani

Alice Virani, MA (Oxon), MS, MPH, PhD

Clinical Assistant Professor, Dept. of Medical Genetics, UBC

Executive Director, Clinical Ethics and Spiritual Care Service, Provincial Health Services Authority of BC

Department of Medical Genetics

Medical Genetics Research Unit

Children’s & Women’s Hospital

Room C333

4500 Oak Street

Vancouver, BC V6H 3N1

Phone: 604-875-3182

Research interests: Bioethics, Genetic and genomic technologies, Public health ethics, Pediatric bioethics, Research ethics, Personalized medicine

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1374-3172

Select research publications

Select Leadership and Committee Activity

2023 – current          Member, Drug Benefit Council, BC Ministry of Health

2021 – current          Member, Canadian Institutes of Health Research: Standing Committee on Ethics

2020 – current          Member, Public Health Ethics Consultative Group for the Public Health Agency of Canada

2019 – current          Member, Inter Agency Advisory Panel on Research Ethics

2020 – current          Co-Chair, Provincial Health Ethics Advisory Team

2020 – current          Member, Strategic Research Advisory Council for COVID-19

Research & Grant Funding (current)

1. Exploring Ethical Considerations in Relation to Direct Contact Between Pediatric Transplant Recipients and Donor Families, Transplant Research Association of BC, $25K CDN (Principal Investigator)
2. Creating a trustworthy health access platform, Trustsphere Digital Technology Supercluster, $5.9 million CDN (Co-Investigator)
3. Canadian Collaboration for Child Health: Efficiency and Excellence in the Ethics Review of Research (CHEER), CIHR Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health and CIHR Institute of Genetics, $2.5 million CDN (Collaborator)

Publications (select)

1. Wadden, J. J., Hermiston, J., Blydt-Hansen, T. D., Dhaliwal, R., Gielen, S., & Virani, A. (2022). Exploring the Ethical Considerations of Direct Contact in Pediatric Organ Transplantation: A Qualitative Study. AJOB Empirical Bioethics, 1-12.
2. Alonso-Prieto, E., Longstaff, H., Black, A., & Virani, A. K. (2022). COVID-19 Outbreak: Understanding Moral-Distress Experiences Faced by Healthcare Workers in British Columbia, Canada. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(15), 9701.
3. Bubela, T., Fenn, K., Greenwood, S., Nicol, A. M., Pomeroy, B., Pruden, H., Rempel, E., & Virani, A. (2022). Public Engagement and Combating the Infodemic. In Patrick, D. M., & Saatchi, A. (Eds.). (2022). Public Health Intervention For The Covid-19 Pandemic: From Virus To Vaccine (Vol. 9). World Scientific.

4. Virani, A., & Clark, B. A. (in press). Genetics and identity: Ethical considerations in practice, policy, and research. In J. L. Storch, P. Rodney, & R. Starzomski (Eds.), Toward a moral horizon: Nursing ethics for leadership and practice.

1. Ho, A., Leach, E., Virani, A., Arbour, L., Bartels, K., & Wong, E. K. (2022). Cascade testing for inherited arrhythmia conditions: Experiences and attitudes of family communication approaches for a Canadian cohort. Journal of Genetic Counseling.
2. Wainstein T., Marshall S., Ross C., Virani A., Austin J., Elliott A. Experiences With Genetic Counseling, Testing, and Diagnosis Among Adolescents With a Genetic Condition: A Scoping Review. JAMA Pediatr. Published online November 22, 2021. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.4290

1. Gunning, M., Rotenberg, A., Anderson, J., Balneaves, L.G., Brace, T., Crooks, B., Hall, W., Kelly, L.E., Rassekh, S., Rieder, M. and Virani, A., al. (2022). Neither the “Devil’s Lettuce” nor a “Miracle Cure:” The Use of Medical Cannabis in the Care of Children and Youth. Neuroethics, 15(1), 1-8.
2. Rubens FD, Virani A, Coylewright M, Sathananthan J, Wood D. Balancing patient-centered care and evidence-based medicine in patients needing coronary revascularization. (2021) J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. S0022-5223(21)00696-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jtcvs.2021.03.116. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33965224.
3. Carson, R. C., Forzley, B., Thomas, S., Preto, N., Hargrove, G., Virani, A., Antonsen, J., Brown, M., Copland, M., Michaud, M., Singh, A., & Levin, A. (2021). Balancing the Needs of Acute and Maintenance Dialysis Patients during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Proposed Ethical Framework for Dialysis Allocation. Clinical journal of the American Society of Nephrology : CJASN, CJN.07460520. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.2215/CJN.07460520
4. Goldman, R., & Virani, A. K. (2020). The 3-Minute Ethical Dilemma: Using Personal Protective Equipment Puts Healthcare Providers in the Crossfire of Duty to Care and Staying Healthy. Pediatric Emergency Care. https://doi: 10.1097/PEC.0000000000002230
5. Warshawski T, Charles G, Moore E, Virani A, Preto N, Pollicino A, Warf C. (2020) Building an Effective System of Care for Adolescents Following Opiate Overdose: Stabilization Care, Residential Secure Care, Family and Community Engagement, and Ethical Concerns. In Clinical Care for Homeless, Runaway and Refugee Youth (pp. 157-185). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40675-2_9
6. Clark, B. A., Marshall, S., Virani, A., & Saewyc, E. (2020) Conditions for shared decision-making in the care of transgender youth. Health Promotion International. Health Promotion International, daaa043, https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/daaa043
7. Dixon K, Young S, Shen Y, Thibodeau ML, Fok A, Pleasance E, Zhao E, Jones M, Aubert G, Armstrong L, Virani A. Establishing a framework for the clinical translation of germline findings in precision oncology. JNCI Cancer Spectrum. 2020 May 29. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/jncics/pkaa045
8. Virani, A.K., Puls, H.T., Mitos, R., Longstaff, H., Goldman, R. & Lantos, J., (2020) Benefits and Risks of Visitor Restrictions for Hospitalized Children During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Pediatrics e2020000786; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2020-000786
9. Moulson, N., Dorian, P., Krahn, A., Virani, A., Isserow, S., & McKinney, J. (2019). Shared decision-making and the cardiovascular care of athletes: is it time to get back in the game?. Canadian Journal of Cardiology. (in press) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cjca.2019.10.013
10. Clark, B. A., Virani, A., Ehrensaft, D., & Olson-Kennedy, J. (2019). Resisting the Post-Truth Era: Maintaining a Commitment to Science and Social Justice in Bioethics. The American Journal of Bioethics, 19(7), W1–W3 https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2019.1618951
11. Clark, B. A., Preto, N., Everett, B., Young, J. M., & Virani, A. (2019). An ethical perspective on the use of secure care for youth with severe substance use.  Canadian Medical Association Journal, 191(7), E195-E196. doi:10.1503/cmaj.71504