About

Lee Dupuis

Co-director

Lee is an Associate Scientist, Research Institute, Health Clinician Scientist, Department of Pharmacy, and a Clinical Pharmacist, Haematology/Oncology/Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Toronto and Associate Professor at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto.

Lee has acted as chair for several supportive care clinical practice guideline panels and as a panel member for many others.  She is the chair of the Supportive Care Guideline sub-Committee, Children’s Oncology Group, chair of the Supportive Care Committee of the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario and founder and co-director of the iPOG Network.

Wim Tissing

Co-director

Wim Tissing is pediatric oncologist and professor of supportive care in childhood oncology, and works in both the Princess Maxima Center for pediatric oncology in Utrecht and the University Medical Center Groningen, both in the Netherlands. In the UMCG he chairs the dept of pediatric oncology / hematology and immunology. In the Princess Máxima Center he chairs the supportive care group, which involves both patient care and research.

After his PhD in 2006 he started his translational research line on Supportive care in pediatric oncology in Groningen, and he continues this work in Utrecht. His research focuses on gastro-intestinal mucositis (UMCG) and on infections and nutrition / motion in the Princess Máxima Center. Lastly, he translates results from research into clinical practice using Clinical Practice Guidelines He (has) supervises (-ed) 24 PhD students on different projects and has published over 180 papers in international, peer reviewed journals.

He is co-chair of the IPOG network together with Lee Dupuis

Bob Phillips

Lead, Methods Working Group
CCLG Representative

Bob is a Senior Clinical Academic at CRD, and an Honorary Consultant in Paediatric / Teenage-Young Adult Oncology at Leeds Children’s Hospital. His main areas of work are in the development of individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis, supportive care management, and the development of skills in appraisal and translation of clinical research in practice. He is the lead of the PICNICC collaboration, “Predicting Infectious ComplicatioNs In Children with Cancer” which was formed by engaging international clinical and methodological experts, parent representatives and healthcare researchers to investigate primarily the patterns of risk in febrile neutropenia. The PICNICC collaboration consists of 22 different study groups from 15 countries and is actively engaged in involving new members from around the world to further develop its aims. This work develops the CRD research themes of methodological improvement in IPD meta-analysis and in improving outcomes in cancer medicine, and capacity building and translation of research in the NHS.

Bob has worked extensively to promote and teach evidence-based practice with the Centre for Evidence-based Medicine in Oxford, UK, and also the Centre for Evidence-based Child Health (Institute of Child Health, London, UK). He edits the evidence-based practice sections of the Archives of Diseases in Childhood, and is an associate editor of the journal. He has lectured in the UK, Europe, North America, Australia and the Nordic Countries on the subject of evidence-based practice, and has written widely on this.

Bob was the Clinical Lead for the NICE Guideline (CG151) on the management of neutropenic sepsis. In addition to the work in febrile neutropenia, he has undertaken many systematic reviews assessing the quality of evidence underlying interventions to ameliorate the side-effects of cancer treatments in childhood and is actively involved with developing and implementing high-quality clinical practice guidelines with the IPOG group. This includes Cochrane systematic reviews of the treatment of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, the treatment of constipation, nutritional support, and risk stratification in nephropathy. He works with the Cochrane Child Health field, the PRISMA-IPD group, and the Martin House Research Centre which encourages the development of high-quality health research with children and young people with life-limiting conditions.

Carol Digout

Lead, Education Working Group
APPHON Representative

Carol is the Executive Director for the Atlantic Provincies Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Network (APPHON). Part of their mandate is to create/adopt/adapt guidelines and their implementation  for the 4 Atlantic Canadian Provinces. Carol has been involved with guidelines since starting her career in 2005. She was a member of the Cancer Care Nova Scotia Guideline Committee, C17 Guideline Committee and has been a member of the  iPOG Network for the past 3 years. Carol took a year off to work as the Atlantic Canada Guideline Coordinator for the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer and help trial the Can-Adapte. Carol’s main interest now lies in methodology, implementation and guideline adherence.

Paula Robinson

Lead, Research Working Group
POGO Representative

Paula is a Guideline Methodologist and Program Manager with the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario, Canada. Paula has served as a guideline methodologist on many clinical practice guideline panels as well as other committees focused on evidence-based supportive care including the Supportive Care Guideline sub-Committee, Children’s Oncology Group.

Adam Esbenshade

SIOP Representative

Dr. Esbenshade is a pediatric Neuro-oncologist and Professor of Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN (USA) and holds the John N. Lukens Jr. Research Chair in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology. He is the Chair of the Children’s Oncology Group Young Investigators Committee and the Vice Chair of the COG Cancer Control and Supportive Care Committee. He also serves as Secretary of the SIOP North American Branch.

Andrea Orsey

MASCC Representative

Andrea is a pediatric oncologist at Connecticut Children’s in Hartford, Connecticut, USA where she is the Director of the Cancer Supportive Care Services, Co-director of the Cardio-Oncology Program, Program Director of the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellowship Program, and Associate Chair of Education.  Building on her background as a physical therapist, she conducts research to evaluate the impact of physical activity on quality of life, fatigue and function among pediatric oncology patients.

Andrea is the Chair of the Pediatric Study Group of MASCC which promotes and improves supportive care for pediatric cancer patients and survivors worldwide.  The Pediatric Study Group of MASCC strives to be an international leader for research, education and clinical endeavors in all aspects of supportive care for children with cancer.  

Cyril Lervat

SFCE Representative

Dr Cyril Lervat is a pediatric oncologist at Lille. He is the head of the French Pediatric Oncologic Supportive Care Committee and an active member of the French oncologic pain committee.

Gwendolyn Kimball

APHON Representative

Gwen Kimball is a Clinical Supervisor for the Cancer and Blood Disease Institute at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. She has over 30 years of pediatric nursing experience. She obtained her BSN from Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, her MSN specializing in Education from the University of Phoenix in Phoenix, Arizona, and her DNP from Chamberlain University in Chicago, Illinois. Gwen has presented a variety of pediatric and pediatric-oncology related topics. Gwen’s work and expertise are related to pediatric hematology-oncology patient population and educational topics geared toward mentoring. She is an associate professor at Mount Saint Mary’s University in the Accelerated BSN program. She teaches both palliative care and pediatric nursing, along with being the lead pediatric clinical instructor. Gwen is an active member in both the Association of Pediatric Hematology Oncology Nurses (APHON) and Southern California APHON (SCAPHON). She is a member of the EBP-R committee for APHON and the current secretary for SCAPHON. Gwen’s professional credentials and certifications include the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE), Certified Pediatric Oncology Nurse (CPON), and Nursing Professional Development – Board Certified (NPD-BC).

Jessica Bate

CCLG Representative

Jessica Bate is a Consultant Paediatric Oncologist working at Southampton Children’s Hospital, UK. She is the Co-Chair of the UK Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group (CCLG) Supportive Care Group. She has a strong interest in supportive care research particularly preventable infections in children with cancer for which she was awarded a PhD from the University of Cambridge.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, she has been the CCLG lead for COVID-19 guidance for professionals and families and an advisor to the UK Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. She is also co-leads the Vaccine Working Group for Paediatric Oncology collaboration between St Jude Chldren’s Research Hospital and SIOP (International Society of Paediatric Oncology). She is currently planning a national COVID-19 vaccine immune response study for children and young adults with cancer.
Jessica is also a member of the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit Oncology Kids in Europe Research Group (POKER) group and the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Cancer and Nutrition Collaborative Children and Teenage/Young Adult Workstream.

Joel Thompson

COG Representative

Joel is a pediatric oncologist at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, MO (USA) and currently sits on the Children’s Oncology Group Supportive Care Guideline sub-Committee. He is interested in the implementation of clinical practice guidelines and in their use as metrics for quality improvement work in pediatric oncology.

Lillian Sung

POGO Representative

Dr. Lillian Sung is a Professor and Senior Scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is certified in the specialties of pediatrics, infectious diseases, hematology and clinical investigation. She completed a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Toronto. She has a clinical research program focused on improving supportive care for children with cancer. Her methodological focus is on randomized and observational trials, meta-analysis, and patient-reported outcomes. She holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Pediatric Oncology Supportive Care, and she is the principal investigator on multiple operating grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Marianne van de Wetering

DCOG Representative

Consultant Princess Maxima Centre for pediatric oncology in Utrecht The Netherlands

She completed her pediatric training in Johannesburg South Africa. In 1995 she completed her masters project on the occurrence of infections among paediatric oncology patients in SA. Here her enthousiasm was founded to work within the supportive care field of paediatric oncology. She returned to the Netherlands in 1996 working as a consultant in the AMC/EKZ Amsterdam in the paediatric oncology unit and as from 1st June 2018 she is working as a neuro oncology consultant and supportive care and palliative care consultant at the princess MAXIMA centre of pediatric oncology in Utrecht Her thesis was completed in 2004 on infectious complications in children with cancer. National and international she is leading in supportive care in paediatric oncology with focus on infections, antiemetics and fertility. She has published papers in this field, guidelines and has many grants to do research in the field.

Michael Sullivan

SIOP Representative

Michael Sullivan is a Paediatric Oncologist and Neuro-Oncologist in the Children’s Cancer Centre, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, a Professor of Paediatrics, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, and an Honorary Professor of Paediatrics, University of Otago, New Zealand. A graduate of the University of Otago Medical School, he trained in Paediatrics and Paediatric Oncology in New Zealand and Australia and did his PhD in the Epigenetics of Wilms tumour. He has extensive experience in clinical trials and translational research, in particular hepatoblastoma. He is an executive member of SIOPEL and a member of the CHIC liver tumour consortium, SIOPEN, COG and ANZCHOG. Prior to moving to Melbourne in 2013, he was Chair of the New Zealand National Children’s Cancer Network and led the development of the New Zealand Late Effects Assessment Program and the New Zealand Children’s Cancer Registry. Dr. Sullivan has a long-term commitment to SIOP Global Health, especially in the Pacific and Oceania. Since 2006, he has been a member of the NZ Pacific Islands Working Group supporting the care of children with cancer in Fiji and the Pacific Islands, and more recently, he led the establishment of twinning programs with PNG, Timor-Leste and Laos. He is a member of the Melbourne Children’s Global Health and leads the Global Paediatric Oncology Program at the Royal Children’s Hospital. Dr. Sullivan is a member of the SIOP Advocacy Working Group, is the SIOP Liaison for the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer and former Continental President for SIOP Oceania. He is currently the co-chair of the SIOP Global Health Adapted Treatment Working Group, and in 2020 he was elected Co-Chair of SIOP Global Health.

Séverine Bouttefroy

SFCE Representative

Séverine is a pédiatrician from the hematological and oncological pediatric homecare unit in Lyon, France. She is also involved in the supportive care group of the hospital (particularly for nutrition and pain) and of the French Society of Paediatric cancers (Société Française des Cancers de l’Enfant, SFCE). She joined the iPOG network in 2021

Shirley Behm

APHON Representative

Shirley Behm completed her Family Nurse Practitioner program at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania, the USA, and Bachelor of Science at the University of Costa Rica in Central America, Member of the APHON Global Outreach program. Member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. She enjoys medical mission trips and serving underserved populations in the USA, Caribbean, Central, and South America. Currently employed at Geisinger Medical Center, Cancer Institute in rural Pennsylvania