Dr. Claire Barber

2020 Emerging Investigator Award

Dr. Claire Barber is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Community Health Sciences and Medicine at the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. She is affiliated with Arthritis Research Canada, the McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint Health and the O’Brien Institute for Public Health. She completed her BSc (Honours) in Microbiology and Immunology in 2002 and medical school in 2006 both at Dalhousie University in Halifax. She completed internal medicine training in 2009 at Dalhousie University before moving to Toronto to complete Rheumatology training at the University of Toronto in 2011. She then completed a PhD in Epidemiology in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary. She began her academic appointment in 2015.

Dr. Barber’s work to date has focused on measuring the quality of care provided to patients living with inflammatory arthritis, so that if there are gaps in processes of care or suboptimal outcomes, these can be readily identified and remedied. To date she has published 44 peer reviewed publications including 3 sets of quality measures for arthritis care. Through testing and reporting on these measures in different care settings across Canada, there have been a number of gaps in care identified in access to care and timely treatment for patients with inflammatory arthritis. This work is important for advocacy and quality improvement. Her current work through a CIHR-funded project aims to develop a comprehensive framework for measurement of quality of care and patient outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis.

Nationally she is the co-chair of the CRA’s Human Resource Committee and led the launch of the CRA’s first workforce survey in 2015. Internationally she has contributed to the American College of Rheumatology (ACR’s) measure development efforts and has recently led the American College of Rheumatology’s update on Functional Status Assessment Measures.