Darren Lau, MD, PhD, FRCP(C)

Area of Study / Keywords

Diabetes Clinical epidemiology Administrative databases Health services research

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About

I am an academic general internal medicine physician with a special interest in diabetes. I completed my training at the University of Alberta (PhD 2012, MD 2014, subspecialty General Internal Medicine residency 2019) and have held privileges at University of Alberta Hospital and Kaye Edmonton Clinic since June 2019. I joined the University as academic faculty in October 2019. I am a health services researcher with experience analyzing large administrative databases. Recently, I have forayed into economic evaluation, implementation evaluation, and randomized trials. Among all the things I have had the privilege of working on, two notable roles include:

• Medical Director at Physician Learning Program, in the Office of Lifelong Learning (https://www.ualberta.ca/en/medicine/programs/lifelong-learning/index.html).
• National Consultant Editor at Canadian Journal of Diabetes, Canada's national diabetes journal (https://www.canadianjournalofdiabetes.com/).

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Research

Research-wise, I am interested in:

• Outcomes of care
• Value for cost
• Effectiveness of medical therapies and related technologies

                  ... primarily as they relate to type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Diabetes is an important clinical and public health concern due to its high prevalence and increasing burden on patients, populations, and the health care system. Recent medical advances promise improved cardio-kidney-metabolic outcomes for individuals with diabetes - but only if we can improve their use in real life, in equitable and efficient ways. 

Examples of current projects

• Evaluating the effectiveness of virtual diabetes care options for Indigenous individuals in rural / remote communities, in partnership with the Okaki Diabetes Virtual Care Clinic (https://diabetescare.okaki.com/).
• Optimizing the use of continuous glucose monitoring for non-insulin-using individuals with type 2 diabetes.
• Understanding and addressing the care gap related to cardio-kidney-metabolic medications - SGLT2i, GLP-1RA, and nsMRA.

My work has a translational bent, in that findings are typically readily applicable to the local landscape of care, and make their ways into Continuing Health Education content I produce in my collaborative work with Physician Learning Program.

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Teaching

I enjoy teaching internal medicine to medical learners, both via on-the-job preceptorships, as well as in small group and didactic settings.  I am a believer in the role of the "generalist-specialist".  My goal is be to foment a passion for both outpatient and inpatient general internal medicine among my trainees and learners.

Looking for an MSc Graduate Student to start Winter 2026. Provisionally, this student will work on an administrative database study of continuous glucose monitoring use in Alberta following listing of the Abbott Freestyle Libre 2 and Dexcom G6 / G7 devices as provincial Blue Cross benefits in late 2024. Previous experience or coursework with statistical programming in SAS, Stata, or R, or programming in any computer language whatsoever, is an asset. Final project to be determined. The successful student will be expected to apply for competitive graduate studentships. The Department of Medicine offers a stipend of $30,000 CAD yearly. Interested individuals should send an email to darren.lau@ualberta.ca, along with a Curriculum Vitae and an English-language writing sample.

Lau D, Manca DP, Singh P, Perry T, Olu-Jordan I, Ryan Zhang J, Rahim G, Hagen EM, Yeung RO

Diabetes research and clinical practice. 2024 October; 10.1016/j.diabres.2024.111899

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Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. 2024 January; 10.1111/dom.15558

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Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. 2024 January; 10.1111/dom.15459

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Kaden Fujita, Feng Ye, David Collister, Scott Klarenbach, David Campbell, Derek S. Chew, Amity E. Quinn, Paul Ronksley, Darren Lau

Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. 2023 November; 10.1111/dom.15361

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Shiva Nandiwada, Donna P. Manca, Roseanne O. Yeung, Darren Lau

Canadian Medical Association Journal. 2023 January; 10.1503/cmaj.220673

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Darren Lau, Neesh Pannu, Roseanne O. Yeung, Nairne Scott-Douglas, Scott Klarenbach

CMAJ Open. 2023 January; 10.9778/cmajo.20210281

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Lau D., Ringrose J., McAlister F.A., Fradette M., Wood P.W., Boulanger P., Klarenbach S., Holroyd-Leduc J.M., Alagiakrishnan K., Rabi D., Padwal R.

JOURNAL OF HYPERTENSION. 2022 July; 40 (9):1702-1712 10.1097/HJH.0000000000003202

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Canadian Journal of Diabetes. 2022 January; 10.1016/j.jcjd.2021.09.006

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