Sail on Sailor

Prof. David Cawthorpe

PhD
Pronouns: -;D

Positions

Adjunct Professor

Cumming School of Medicine, Department of Community Health Sciences

Adjunct Professor

Cumming School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry | Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Child Health & Wellness Researcher

Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute

Contact information

Email

cawthord@ucalgary.ca

Web presence

CAP Global Curriculum Development Project Announcement

Quantum Consciousness - Signposts to Mechanism Reintroducing Galvani (1782)

All Published Books

The WPA Section on Multi-Morbidity (Formerly Comorbidity)

Recognizing the Psychopathic Person: A Strategy for Identifying, Containment, Management, Escape & Self-Protection

A Critique of the Time Base of Bayesian Structural Time Series and Other Oblique Analyses Examining Trends: A Monographic Pandemic Lesson

Background

Educational Background

B.Sc. Biological Sciences, University of Western Ontario, 1981

Doctor of Philosophy Medicine, Behavioral Science, University of Calgary, 1999

M.Sc. Medicine, Neuroscience, University of Calgary, 1989

Curriculum Vita

Biography

As Adjunct Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Community Health Sciences at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary with over 40 years’ experience working in health services my path advanced research, medical education, and clinical innovation throughout a career. This work has consistently integrated psychiatry, epidemiology, and biomedical sciences with advanced statistical and computational approaches to provide actionable insights into mental health and multimorbidity across the lifespan.

Doctoral training in Medical Science (PhD, University of Calgary, 1999), supported by earlier graduate work in Neuroscience, established a foundation for my ongoing focus on the interplay between developmental, psychiatric, and biomedical trajectories. The course of my career saw pioneered the application of data analytics and novel statistical methodologies to population-level health datasets, generating high-resolution insights into multimorbidity, psychiatric outcomes, and their relationship with biomedical and biophysical disorders. Big data analyses spanning 100 million clinical records have most recently employed novel advanced computational approaches—including event history modeling, multivariate sequence analysis, and predictive analytics—that account for clinically meaningful interpretation of the complexity of complex multimorbid conditions.

Contributions to clinical outcome measurement have emphasized integrated real-world system performance, education, and patient-centered results were based on my design and implementation of comprehensive health region-based frameworks for outcome tracking within Alberta Health Services, leading to the development of paradigm-shifting clinical assessment models that account for lifespan multimorbidity. These frameworks represent models for understanding clinical pathways across time that permit evaluating health service efficiency at the population level.

Parallel contributions in health system data system development and measuring outcomes has led to significant advances in medical education research and curriculum development. With numerous colleagues, I had opportunity to co-author widely cited studies on leadership and research competencies in medical education (AMEE) and lead international projects introducing state-of-the-art assessment strategies that leverage human collaboration, machine intelligence, psychometrics, and large-scale datasets.

This work has emphasized measurement validity, reproducibility, clinical fairness influencing competency-based frameworks in Canada and abroad. Central to this career path have been the development of national and international leadership and medical education curricula (e.g., Trans-National Leadership Program, CanREACH, and an International Graduate Medical Education online program and platform). In retirement I am contributing to global curriculum development initiatives through the World Psychiatric Association and IACAPAP.

This career path produced a broad interdisciplinary publication record, encompassing over 300 publications including, but not limited to peer-reviewed journal articles, multiple books and chapters, published abstracts, communications and with over 60 invited presentations at international scientific congresses. Recent work includes AI assisted advanced coding of computational approaches to multimorbidity, innovative outcome measurement in medicine, pandemic-related vaccination models, and economic modeling of health service strategies. My work experience brought forward opportunities to author books on psychiatry, trauma, consciousness, and leadership, reflecting a commitment to bridging empirical research with clinical application, education, and by way of satisfaction, philosophical inquiry.

Service to academic integrity has been central to my professional identity. Being a member of the Calgary Human Research Ethics Board since 2008 and conducting over 90 reviews in the last year, together with extensive experience reviewing for leading journals including the British Journal of Psychiatry, Canadian Medical Association Journal, and Springer-Nature represents an ability to contribute to the field of medicine and advancement scientific knowledge, as did my father and grandfather in their turns.

This collective work has been globally recognized with awards for research innovation, organizational leadership, collaboration, and humanism in healthcare, highlighting the impact of focus that embraced paradigmatic shifts in combining big data research, outcome measurement, educational innovation, and global collaboration.

This career has been dedicated to applying data science and novel methods to clinical psychiatry, health services research, and medical education. As a retired academic actively engaged in peer review, research, and writing, I remain committed to fostering scientific rigor, global collaboration, and innovation at the interface of psychiatry, public health, and education.

Research

Areas of Research

Health Services Research

  1. McCaffrey E, Cawthorpe D. (2023). Modelling the Clinical and Economic Impacts of Foundation-Funded versus Staff-Driven Quality Improvement Mental Health Strategies. Qeios. doi:10.32388/0DKU2V.

     

  2. Ripley S, Andres S, Cawthorpe D, Cooper M, Dreyer A, et al. (2023). The Effect of Group-Based Family Orientation to Community Mental Health Services. Qeios. doi:10.32388/H8G53K.

     

  3. Baxter A, Wei Y, Kutcher S, Cawthorpe D. (2022) School-based mental health literacy training shifts the quantity and quality of referrals to tertiary child and adolescent mental health services: A Western Canada regional study. PLoS One. Nov 15;17(11):e0277695. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0277695. PMID: 36378651; PMCID: PMC9665371

     

  4. Eichstedt JA, Singh D, Chen S, Collins KA, Cawthorpe D. (2021). Who Should Be Seen When? Establishing Wait Time Benchmarks for Children’s Mental Health. Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health. e-First https://doi.org/10.7870/cjcmh-2021-008

     

  5. McCaffrey E, Chang S, Farrelly G, Rahman A, Ritchie B, Goldade R, Cawthorpe D. The Economic Impact of Providing Evidence-Based Pediatric Mental Health Literacy Training to Primary Care Physicians. Psychiatry Investig. 2021 Jul;18(7):695-700. doi: 10.30773/pi.2021.0014. Epub 2021 Jul 22. PMID: 34340278; PMCID: PMC8328829.

     

  6. Etc.etc.etc.etc.
Mental Illness and Multi-Morbidity

  1. Cawthorpe DRL, Cohen D. (2023) Population-based affective-disorder-related biomedical/biophysical multi-hyper-morbidity across the lifespan: A 16-year population study. World J Psychiatry; 13(7): 423-434 URL: https://www.wjgnet.com/2220-3206/full/v13/i7/423.htm DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.5498/wjp.v13.i7.423

     

  2. Heinze G, Sartorius N, Guizar Sanchez DP, Bernard-Fuentes N, Cawthorpe D, Cimino L, Cohen D, Lecic-Tosevski D, Filipcic I, Lloyd C, Mohan I, Ndetei D, Poyurovsky M, Rabbani G, Starostina E, Yifeng W, EstefaníaLimon L. Integration of mental health comorbidity in medical specialty programs in 20 countries. Int J Psychiatry Med. 2021 Jul;56(4):278-293. doi: 10.1177/00912174211007675. Epub 2021 Apr 7. PMID: 33827304.

     

  3. Cawthorpe, D. Kerba, M. Narendran, A. Ghuttora, H. Chartier, G. & Sartorius, N. (2018). Temporal order of cancers and mental disorders in an adult population. BJPsych Open, 4(3)., 95-105. doi:10.1192/bjo.2018.5

     

  4. Chartier G. Cawthorpe D. (2016). From 'Big 4' to 'Big 5': a review and epidemiological study on the relationship between psychiatric disorders and World Health Organization preventable diseases. Current Opinions in Psychiatry. September 2016; 29 (5).: 316-321.

     

  5. Chartier G. Cawthorpe D. (2016). Distinction between Episodic Mood Disorder and Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity based on their Association with the Main Classes of International Classification of Disease in a Child and Adolescent Population. Ann Depress Anxiety. 3(1).: 1073.
Policy - Pandemic Vaccine Distribution
  1. Cawthorpe D. (2023). A population-based model for rationing COVID-19 vaccine. Qeios. doi:10.32388/HISNX4.
Population Health

  1. Cawthorpe D. (2023). Child and adolescent self-harm in a pandemic world: Evidence from a decade of data. Qeios. doi:10.32388/F9UYSP.

     

  2. McCaffrey E, Cawthorpe D. (2023). Modelling the Clinical and Economic Impacts of Foundation-Funded versus Staff-Driven Quality Improvement Mental Health Strategies. Qeios. doi:10.32388/0DKU2V.

     

  3. McCaffrey E, Cawthorpe D. (2023). Modelling the Clinical and Economic Impacts of Foundation-Funded versus Staff-Driven Quality Improvement Mental Health Strategies. Qeios. doi:10.32388/0DKU2V.

     

  4. Cawthorpe D. (2022) Association of Substance and Psychiatric Disorders with Health Care Utilization and Cost. Int Arch Addict Res Med 2022, 7:035 DOI: 10.23937/2474-3631/1510035 Volume 7 | Issue 1: https//clinmedjournals.org/articles/iaarm/international-archives-of-addiction-research-and-medicine-iaarm-7-035.pdf

     

  5. Cheung S, Cawthorpe D. (2022) The Relationship of Adverse Childhood Experience and Clinical Outcomes for Admissions to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. Int Arch Addict Res Med 7: 1 DOI: 10.23937/2474-3631/1510034.
Activities

Development of a health service utilization database containing over 90 million records from 1993 to 2010 for approximately 750,000 individuals from the former Calgary Health Zone. This data set contains diagnostic Information permitting the calculation of annual and cumulative rates of specified disorders. Additionally, the data set contains information related to diagnostic profiles of disorders associated with the specified disorders. Algorithms developed to date characterize the profiles of disorders associated with mental disorders, neoplasms, digestive disorders, etc. Additionally, based on analysis of mental disorder within the population, a novel population health index has been developed permitting evaluation of geographically focused population-based prevention and promotion initiatives.

D.I.Y. - Using Geothermal Energy to Reduce House Heating Energy Consumption

No spoilers here except that the story is true for the 'real' Rej. The appendices offer a blend of technical explanations and historical insights, enriching the narrative with credible scientific foundations and highlighting the potential for real-world applications of the story’s ideas. In scrupulous detail, the appendices show how Rej converts his heating/cooling system to reduce his annual living expenses by about 30%, while lowering his carbon footprint by the same amount. You may benefit from this as well, dear reader, whether you want to read a good yarn or learn how to help the planet by installing the system in your own home or earning money installing it in other people's homes.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D4MG47RW

Participation in university strategic initiatives

Brain and Mental Health (2015-2021)

Child Health and Wellness (2020-2025)

Energy Innovations for Today and Tomorrow (2013-2021)

Projects

World Psychiatric Association Multi-Morbidity Section

Heinze G, Sartorius N, Guizar Sanchez DP, Bernard-Fuentes N, Cawthorpe D, Cimino L, Cohen D, Lecic-Tosevski D, Filipcic I, Lloyd C, Mohan I, Ndetei D, Poyurovsky M, Rabbani G, Starostina E, Yifeng W, EstefaníaLimon L. Integration of mental health comorbidity in medical specialty programs in 20 countries. Int J Psychiatry Med. 2021 Jul;56(4):278-293. doi: 10.1177/00912174211007675. Epub 2021 Apr 7. PMID: 33827304

The WPA Section on Comorbidity of mental and physical disorders came into existence in 2016.  The proposal for its creation argued that it is important that the World Psychiatric Association takes action concerning the physical illnesses of people with mental illness because comorbidity leads to premature death of people with mental illness and significantly decreased quality of life of the sufferers. The program of the Section will include the organization of scientific symposia and other meetings during the World Congresses of Psychiatry, during other scientific meetings and independently, the development of educational materials and webinars concerning comorbidity and its management and the production of WPA position statements based on evidence about comorbidity and outlining WPA position on the matter.

https://www.wpanet.org/_files/ugd/842ec8_ac0c9833d62044c18a7deb8cd8a9fd47.pdf

Population Study, Leadership, and Clinical Measurement Publications related to the the Big Data Study Elements of Performance III: Clinical Pathways across the Lifespan and the Impact of Multi-Morbidity: 

  1. Cawthorpe D. (2023). Leadership constructs and artificial intelligence: Introducing a novel organizational assessment survey. Qeios. November. doi:10.32388/WVGUQE.
  2. Hua Chai P, Cawthorpe D. (2023). Cardiovascular disease and mental disorder-associated temporal hyper- morbidity in a population: A novel representation of diagnosis frequency. Neuropsychiatr Invest. 61(2):42-48.
  3. Cawthorpe DRL, Cohen D. (2023). Population-based affective-disorder-related biomedical/biophysical multi-hyper-morbidity across the lifespan: A 16-year population study. World J Psychiatry; 13(7): 423-434 URL: https://www.wjgnet.com/2220-3206/full/v13/i7/423.htm DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.5498/wjp.v13.i7.423
  4. Cawthorpe D. (2023).Child and adolescent self-harm in a pandemic world: Evidence from a decade of data. Qeios. doi:10.32388/F9UYSP.
  5. Cawthorpe D. (2023).A population-based model for rationing COVID-19 vaccine. Qeios. doi:10.32388/HISNX4.
  6. McCaffrey E, Cawthorpe D. (2023).Modelling the Clinical and Economic Impacts of Foundation-Funded versus Staff-Driven Quality Improvement Mental Health Strategies. Qeios. doi:10.32388/0DKU2V.
  7. Ripley S, Andres S, Cawthorpe D, Cooper M, Dreyer A, et al. (2023).The Effect of Group-Based Family Orientation to Community Mental Health Services. Qeios. doi:10.32388/H8G53K.
  8. Cawthorpe D. (2022). Association of Substance and Psychiatric Disorders with Health Care Utilization and Cost. Int Arch Addict Res Med 2022, 7:035 DOI: 10.23937/2474-3631/1510035 Volume 7 | Issue 1: https//clinmedjournals.org/articles/iaarm/international-archives-of-addiction-research-and-medicine-iaarm-7-035.pdf
  9. Cheung S, Cawthorpe D. (2022). The Relationship of Adverse Childhood Experience and Clinical Outcomes for Admissions to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. Int Arch Addict Res Med 7: 1 DOI: 10.23937/2474-3631/1510034.
  10. Cawthorpe D. (2022). Early Dental Caries and Their Associated International Classifications of Disease Morbidity: A 16-Year Population Study. Dental Oral Biology and Craniofacial Research 10.31487/j.dobcr.2021.03.05 https://www.sciencegate.app/source/316634.
  11. Baxter A, Wei Y, Kutcher S, Cawthorpe D. (2022). School-based mental health literacy training shifts the quantity and quality of referrals to tertiary child and adolescent mental health services: A Western Canada regional study. PLoS One. Nov 15;17(11):e0277695. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0277695. PMID: 36378651; PMCID: PMC9665371.
  12. Khalfan N, Coventry C, Cawthorpe D. (2022). A New Acute-At-Home Child and Adolescent Clinical Service: Evaluation of Impact. Psychiatry Investig. Jan;19(1):29-36. doi: 10.30773/pi.2021.0158. Epub 2022 Jan 7. PMID: 34986555; PMCID: PMC8795601.
  13. Eichstedt JA, Singh D, Chen S, Collins KA, Cawthorpe D. (2021).Who Should Be Seen When? Establishing Wait Time Benchmarks for Children’s Mental Health. Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health. e-First https://doi.org/10.7870/cjcmh-2021-008
  14. Heinze G, Sartorius N, Guizar Sanchez DP, Bernard-Fuentes N, Cawthorpe D, Cimino L, Cohen D, Lecic-Tosevski D, Filipcic I, Lloyd C, Mohan I, Ndetei D, Poyurovsky M, Rabbani G, Starostina E, Yifeng W, EstefaníaLimon L. Integration of mental health comorbidity in medical specialty programs in 20 countries. Int J Psychiatry Med. 2021Jul;56(4):278-293. doi: 10.1177/00912174211007675. Epub 2021 Apr 7. PMID: 33827304.
  15. Chai PH, Chang S, Cawthorpe D. (2021). The Temporal Hyper-Morbidity of Asthma and Attention Deficit Disorder: Implications for Interpretation Based on Comparison of Prospective and Cross-Sectional Population Samples. Psychiatry Investig. 2021 Feb;18(2):166-171. doi: 10.30773/pi.2020.0349. Epub 2021 Feb 22. PMID: 33601870; PMCID: PMC7960750.
  16. Cawthorpe D. (2021). A comparative epidemiology model for understanding mental morbidity and planning health system response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Heart & Mind. 1:5(4): 103-111. DOI:10.4103/hm.hm_60_2.
  17. McCaffrey E, Chang S, Farrelly G, Rahman A, Ritchie B, Goldade R, Cawthorpe D. (2021).The Economic Impact of Providing Evidence-Based Pediatric Mental Health Literacy Training to Primary Care Physicians. Psychiatry Investig. Jul;18(7):695-700. doi: 10.30773/pi.2021.0014. Epub 2021 Jul 22. PMID: 34340278; PMCID: PMC8328829.
  18. Melathopolous K, Cawthorpe D. (2019).Central intake development and system change impact on per capita child and adolescent mental health discharges from 2002 to 2017: Implications for optimizing system design based on shaping demand. Perm J. 23: 18.215. doi: 10.7812/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6839744/
  19. Cawthorpe D. (2018).A 16-Year Cohort Analysis of Autism Spectrum Disorder-Associated Morbidity in a Pediatric Population. Front. Psychiatry, 29 November 2018. doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00635.
  20. Cawthorpe D. Marriott B. Piaget J. Moulai I. Cheung S. (2018).Relationship between Adverse Childhood Experience Survey Items and Psychiatric Disorders. Perm J. 2018 Oct 5;22. doi: 10.7812/TPP/18-001
  21. Cawthorpe D. (2018).Improving youth mental health supports in Canada. CMAJ October 09, 190 (40
  22. Cawthorpe, D. Kerba, M. Narendran, A. Ghuttora, H. Chartier, G. & Sartorius, N. (2018).Temporal order of cancers and mental disorders in an adult population. BJPsych Open, 4(3)., 95-105. doi:10.1192/bjo.2018.5
  23. Rahman A, Perri A, Deegan A, Kuntz J, Cawthorpe D. (2018).On becoming trauma-informed: Role of the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study in tertiary child and adolescent mental health services and the association with standard measures of impairment and severity. Perm J; 22:17-054. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7812/TPP/17-054
  24. Rahman A, Perri A, Deegan A, Kuntz J, Cawthorpe D. (2018). On becoming trauma-informed: Role of the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study in tertiary child and adolescent mental health services and the association with standard measures of impairment and severity. Perm J; 22:17-054. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7812/TPP/17-054
  25. Cawthorpe, D. (2017).Comprehensive Description of Comorbidity for Autism Spectrum Disorder in a General Population. Perm J 2017; 21:16-088. https://doi.org/10.7812/TPP/16-088 E-pub: 12/23/2016
  26. McCAffrey E. Chang S. Rahman A. Farrelly G. Cawthorpe D. (2017).Mental Health Literacy in Primary Care: Canadian Research and Education for the Advancement of Child Health (CanREACH
  27. McCAffrey E. Chang S. Rahman A. Farrelly G. Cawthorpe D. (2017). Mental Health Literacy in Primary Care: Canadian Research and Education for the Advancement of Child Health (CanREACH). Evidence-Based Medicine 2017. (http://ebm.bmj.com/content/ebmed/early/2017/07/22/ebmed-2017-110714.full.pdf).
  28. Novick J, Cawthorpe D, McLuckie A. (2016).A measurable treatment plan (2002-2016).: Using the children’s global assessment and the problem severity scales as outcomes of clinical treatment in child and adolescent mental health services. JHA; 6 (1).: 9-15.
  29. Anwar S. Cawthorpe D. (2016).What “big population data” tells us about neurological disorders comorbidity. JHA, 5(6).: 1-8. (
  30. Cawthorpe D. (2016).Children’s Mental Health 1954-2016-who cares? CMAJ. http://cmajblogs.com/childrens-mental-health-1954-2016.
  31. Chartier G. Cawthorpe D. (2016).From 'Big 4' to 'Big 5': a review and epidemiological study on the relationship between psychiatric disorders and World Health Organization preventable diseases. Current Opinions in Psychiatry. September 2016; 29 (5).: 316-321.
  32. Chartier G. Cawthorpe D. (2016).Distinction between Episodic Mood Disorder and Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity based on their Association with the Main Classes of International Classification of Disease in a Child and Adolescent Population. Ann Depress Anxiety. 3(1).: 1073.
  33. Novick J, Cawthorpe D, McLuckie, A. (2016).The validation of the Western Canada Waiting List Children’s Mental Health-Priority Criteria Score Instrument: 2002-2015 results. Journal of Hospital Administration, 5(4).: 1-8. (
  34. Cawthorpe D. Davidson M. (2015).Temporal Comorbidity of Mental Disorder and Ulcerative Colitis. Perm J. Winter; 19(1).: 52-57.
  35. Rose R. Chakraborty S. Mason-Lai P. Brocke W. Page S. Cawthorpe D. (2015).The storied mind: A meta-narrative review exploring the capacity of stories to foster humanism in health care. Journal of Hospital Administration, 5(1).: 52-61.
  36. Rose R. Chakraborty S. Mason-Lai P. Brocke W. Page S. Cawthorpe D. (2015). The storied mind: A meta-narrative review exploring the capacity of stories to foster humanism in health care. Journal of Hospital Administration, 5(1).: 52-61.
  37. Cawthorpe D. Chartier G. (2014).Population: Implications for Future Society. Review of Social Studies, Law and Psychology. Vol. 8: 48-54.
  38. Ghuttora H. Cawthorpe D. (2013).Treatment of physical disorder in children with mental disorder: A health care utilization study. Journal of Hospital Administration. DOI: 10.5430/jha.v3n2p24 http://www.sciedu.ca/journal/index.php/jha/article/view/3131).
  39. Lui J. Narendran A. Cawthorpe D. (2013).What can population-based physician billing data tell us about the prevalence, costs and disorders associated with different types of cancers based on the 16 year prevalence of cancer diagnosis? Journal of Hospital Administration. 2014, Vol. 3, No. 4: 9-19
  40. Cawthorpe D. (2013).A Novel Population-Based Health Index for Mental Disorder. Perm J Spring; 17 (2).:50-54. (
  41. Citaku F. Violato C. Beran T. Donnon T. Hecker K. Cawthorpe D. (2012).Leadership competencies for medical education and healthcare professions: population-based study. BMJ Open. 2012 Mar 27;2 (2).:e000812. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-000812.
  42. Wilkes T. Guyn L. Li B. Lu M. Cawthorpe D. (2012).Association of child and adolescent psychiatric and biomedical/somatic disorders: Do population-based utilization study results support the Adverse Childhood Experiences study? The Permanente Journal Spring; 16 (2).: 21-24.
  43. Wilkes T. Guyn L. Li B. Lu M. Cawthorpe D. (2012). Association of child and adolescent psychiatric and biomedical/somatic disorders: Do population-based utilization study results support the Adverse Childhood Experiences study? The Permanente Journal Spring; 16 (2).: 21-24.
  44. Cawthorpe D. Lauchlan M. (2011).Treatment Response Application for Client Tracking, WHO compendium of new and emerging health technologies: Health Data Monitoring. 20. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-HSS-EHT-DIM-11.02

 

Awards

  • Humanism in Healthcare, Arnold P. Gold Foundation. 2013
  • Inaugural 'Friends of Calgary' for Development of IACAPAP2016, City of Calgary. 2009

Publications

Google Scholar

Protecting the Vulnerable in Human Services: Is VRAI a Solution for Mental Health Improvement, Stigma, and Patient Exploitation? A VRAI Development Manual with Case Review.

Leadership And Artificial Intelligence Readiness https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJ3X98Z6

THE STAUS QUO FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH – A PICTORAL ESSAY

What Do Adverse Childhood Experiences, Multi-morbidity, and Big Data Have In Common?