Associate Professor of Medicine 
Division of Infectious Diseases, Dalhousie University
Medical Director, Sanofi Pasteur Vaccine Challenge Unit
Canadian Center for Vaccinology
Halifax, NS

Shelly McNeil is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine and an Infectious Diseases Consultant at the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Dr. McNeil completed her medical education at Dalhousie University followed by a three-year residency in Internal Medicine at Dalhousie and a three-year fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. 

Dr. McNeil returned to Dalhousie as an Assistant Professor of Medicine in 2000 and is currently cross-appointed as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics. She is a Clinical Investigator at the Clinical Trials Research Center and the Canadian Centre for Vaccinology, Halifax where her research focuses on health policy, the evaluation of vaccine-preventable diseases in the elderly and in pregnant women and clinical trials of new vaccines targeted at adolescent and adult populations.  Dr. McNeil is the Medical Director of the Sanofi Pasteur Vaccine Challenge Unit at the Canadian Center for Vaccinology, the first human vaccine challenge facility in Canada. Dr. McNeil has been awarded the Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine Clinical Research Scholar Award for the period 2005-2010. She is Co-Chair of the Professional Education Working Group of the Canadian Immunization Committee and a member of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), the Canadian Immunization Committee HPV Expert Working Group, and the Pandemic Vaccines Working Group of the National Pandemic Influenza Committee.

Research Objective
The objective of this theme is to develop and test population-based methods for the evaluation of the effectiveness of a pandemic influenza vaccine following release for general use.

Specific aims
Year 1

1. Establish active hospital-based influenza surveillance in seven pilot sites of a new Adult SOS Network, including the development and implementation of processes for routine collection of information about influenza immunization from all admitted patients in order to allow calculation of population-based estimates of influenza vaccine effectiveness in the prevention of influenza hospitalization and death.
    
2. Develop and evaluate standardized surveillance screening criteria, data collection tools, and standard operating procedures for vaccine effectiveness studies that can be implemented effectively.
    
3. Establish procedures for Web-based data management using the existing DACIMA platform for the IMPACT pediatric disease surveillance program, and ensure rapid submission and collation of reports with the ability to rapidly report event-based data to appropriate provincial/federal departments.
    
4. Work with Occupational Health departments in participating PCIRN sites to establish a cohort of 15,000–30,000 health care workers (and other first responders and non-HCW working adults) who volunteer to be contacted to participate in influenza vaccine clinical trials and/or studies of influenza vaccine effectiveness and safety during the pre-pandemic/pandemic period (see Rapid Trials and Vaccine Safety themes).
    
5. Evaluate the feasibility of a Web-based data-collection tool for the collection of information regarding vaccine coverage, influenza like illnesses (ILI), and work absenteeism from the volunteer health care worker cohort and evaluate the use of this data collection system for the rapid estimation of vaccine effectiveness against ILI and ILI-associated absenteeism among health care workers.
    
6. Conduct a pilot study of self-collected nasal swabs by health care workers in the volunteer cohort with ILI to determine the feasibility of this approach to evaluate influenza vaccine effectiveness against influenza-attributable ILI and influenza-associated work absenteeism in health care workers
    
7. Conduct a pilot study of serious adverse event surveillance of adults hospitalized in PCIRN sites using Guillian Barré Syndrome (GBS) as a representative outcome.

Years 2 and 3

1. Continue active surveillance for influenza-associated hospitalizations and deaths and GBS using refined data collection tools and influenza surveillance screening definitions to reflect minimum data requirements necessary for evaluation of vaccine effectiveness given the anticipated human resource limitations during a pandemic.
    
2. Continue enrollment of a cohort of HCW in year 2 and 3 to collect information regarding vaccine coverage, incidence of ILI and work absenteeism using a web-based data collection tool.
    
3. Continue enrollment of a cohort of health care workers in year 2 and 3 who will participate in a study of self collection of nasal swabs during ILI to evaluate the effectiveness of influenza vaccine against influenza attributable ILI and influenza associated work absenteeism in health care workers.