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The GSK Chair in Vaccine Education and Practice-Oriented Tools was established by GSK and the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy in 2023 through a joint investment of $ 3 million. As the inaugural chairholder, Professor Anna Taddio will focus on closing gaps in vaccine education for students and healthcare professionals, particularly pharmacists. She will also work to develop and enhance evidence-based models of vaccine care that health professionals can use across a range of settings.
A pharmacist and a scientist, Taddio is internationally recognized for her groundbreaking work developing tools and guidelines focused on mitigating pain and fear during vaccinations and other needle procedures. In 2015, vaccine-administering recommendations developed by her team were written into Canadian immunization guidelines and adopted by the World Health Organization.
As vaccines for COVID-19 first began to roll out in 2021, and with funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada, Taddio's CARD system (short for Comfort, Ask, Relax, and Distract) was shared with healthcare networks and the public to help people feel more comfortable when receiving their vaccinations. The CARD system was implemented in mass vaccination clinics and in specialized clinics across Ontario, including those run by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, and Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health. Later that year, and in collaboration with Immunize Canada, a team working with Taddio released a web-based version of CARD intended for younger kids aged 5 - 11 to help reduce stress and improve their vaccination experience.
Taddio has continued to study the success of the intervention, and in 2023, the Canadian Pharmacists Journal published a six-article supplement dedicated to exploring CARD for community pharmacy-based vaccinations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
