Faculty and Research

431561
Philip la Fleur
Position:
Assistant Professor of Practice
Office Phone:
E-mail:
philip.lafleur@nu.edu.kz

Research Interest

The role of Health Technology Assessment in developing economies, Clinician-Researcher role in the Kazakhstan healthcare system

Biography
Selected Publications

What is the best selling medicine of all time?

The answer to this question will reveal a product that has had cumulative revenues exceeding the annual GDP of many countries.  I use this astounding fact to kick off many course introductions because it catalyzes discussions on how a single medicine could achieve such a feat and what underlies such unprecedented success.  Clinical trial data is one of of the reasons. I have a passion to help students understand, interpret and apply the results of clinical trials, to the end of improving health for the citizens of Kazakhstan.

I am Assistant Professor of Practice at the School of Medicine.  I joined NU in 2011 as Deputy Director for the Center of Life Sciences, then worked as a consultant to a World Bank Kazakhstan Health Sector Reform project and to pharmaceutical and medical device companies in Kazakhstan before joining the School of Medicine in 2017.  I am a graduate of the University of Toronto, Faculty of Pharmacy (1995) and of the University of London, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (2003, Epidemiology).  I am a licensed pharmacist in the province of Ontario.

In the MD program, I teach pharmacology and principles of evidence based medicine.  I also designed and teach a course in Drug Development and Clinical Trials in the Master of Molecular Medicine degree program and I supervise student researchers in the Masters in Public Health program.

I am leading an initiative to bring multinational pharmaceutical trials to the clinics affiliated with NU through the Center for Clinical  Trials Kazakhstan has significant potential to be involved in this area.

In addition to teaching and clinical trials, I have interests in Health Technology Assessment including determining the reasons why some pharmaceutical products are used liberally in CIS countries, but rarely prescribed in other jurisdictions.