Karen Burns
Karen Burns practices critical care medicine at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. She is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, a Clinician Scientist at the Keenan Research Centre/Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute and an Associate Member of the School of Graduate Studies with the Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Burns has developed a research program focusing on characterizing the extent of weaning practice variation in weaning critically ill adults from invasive mechanical ventilation. This research program includes a bicentre observational study, national and international weaning surveys and a randomized trial of an automated weaning strategy to limit practice variation. In addition, she has developed a research program to characterize the unique aspects of consent processes in critical care and the experience of surrogate decision-makers asked to make substituted judgments regarding a critically ill loved one’s participation in research. Additional research interests include acute kidney injury in the intensive care unit, the role for noninvasive positive pressure ventilation as a weaning strategy and methodology issues in study design, implementation and reporting.