Amani Saini
President & Founder, Adverse Drug Reaction Canada
Amani Saini is the Founder and President of Adverse Drug Reaction Canada (https://adrcanada.org), a national organization which educates and raises awareness about adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and the need to implement of policies to prevent them. These policies include the need to use genomics in guiding the prescription of drugs, the need for genetic screening and the creation of a national database to monitor and record ADRs.
In 2010, Amani’s then 19-year-old sister almost passed away from an ADR to a common over-the-counter ibuprofen drug given to her by a family physician. She didn’t think much about the ADR until 2015, when while randomly surfing the internet she came across an article that talked about gene variants and how certain variants can lead to diseases. She then decided to learn more about genomics and DNA sequencing by contacting and connecting with researchers and scientists both abroad and in BC. Amani gathered evidence which demonstrated that ADRs can be prevented and then developed a policy to apply to the Canadian health care system to prevent ADRs. For her policy work, she received the 2016 Canadian Science Policy Award of Excellence (under 35 category), which recognizes an individual who developed an innovative and compelling evidence-based policy that will make a positive difference for Canadians.
Amani currently works with a health authority and in the past has worked in BC’s Office of the Minister of Health and for Nova Scotia’s Department of Intergovernmental Affairs. She holds a Master of Public Administration from Dalhousie University and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of British Columbia. She can be found on Twitter at @amani_saini
Amani Saini is the Founder and President of Adverse Drug Reaction Canada (https://adrcanada.org), a national organization which educates and raises awareness about adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and the need to implement of policies to prevent them. These policies include the need to use genomics in guiding the prescription of drugs, the need for genetic screening and the creation of a national database to monitor and record ADRs.
In 2010, Amani’s then 19-year-old sister almost passed away from an ADR to a common over-the-counter ibuprofen drug given to her by a family physician. She didn’t think much about the ADR until 2015, when while randomly surfing the internet she came across an article that talked about gene variants and how certain variants can lead to diseases. She then decided to learn more about genomics and DNA sequencing by contacting and connecting with researchers and scientists both abroad and in BC. Amani gathered evidence which demonstrated that ADRs can be prevented and then developed a policy to apply to the Canadian health care system to prevent ADRs. For her policy work, she received the 2016 Canadian Science Policy Award of Excellence (under 35 category), which recognizes an individual who developed an innovative and compelling evidence-based policy that will make a positive difference for Canadians.
Amani currently works with a health authority and in the past has worked in BC’s Office of the Minister of Health and for Nova Scotia’s Department of Intergovernmental Affairs. She holds a Master of Public Administration from Dalhousie University and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of British Columbia. She can be found on Twitter at @amani_saini
