Dr. Allan is the Family Genetic Care Associate at the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario. The purpose of this role is to be a resource for the management of sudden and unexpected deaths, potentially caused by a heritable disease and to support families in the navigation after the sudden and unexpected deaths of a loved one, including answering questions, explaining processes or results, connecting the family to the appropriate clinical and support resources. Some of her research in this area aims to (a) determine how many at-risk sudden cardiac death individuals and families are referred for and receive cascade screening; (b) determine the barriers and facilitators with respect to existing referral strategies, from the perspectives of the coroners, family physicians and at-risk SCD families; (c) improve cascade screening uptake by implementing a multicomponent strategy to address identified gaps in the integration of care for at-risk families.
In addition to this role, she is a PhD, mixed methods researcher at St. Michael’s Hospital, specializing in arrhythmia and resuscitation research. Her research focuses on 3 key areas: (1) understanding the epidemiology of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), including during sports, (2) studying how we respond to SCA events, and (3) exploring how we can prevent it. Dr. Allan is the project manager and co-investigator for C-SCAN, a national network that measured the true scope of sudden cardiac arrest across Canada. Using data collected by participating C-SCAN sites, she is co-leading a project that aims to measure the incidence of SCA occurring during sports or physical activity in 5 Canadian Provinces.
Dr. Allan has a strong interest in sudden cardiac arrest advocacy and is Chair and co-founder of CARE (https://c-scan.org/care/), a grassroots organization in Ontario that aims to increase awareness and survival from sudden cardiac arrest through various community based initiatives, including teaching all kids how to save a life.
At St. Michael’s Hospital, Dr. Allan has been instrumental in establishing and building the in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) Research and Education Program with Dr. Natalie Wong, the only one of its kind in the GTA. She has incorporated this real-world cardiac arrest data to improve the simulation training of the cardiac arrest team and first responders, to achieve best practices for cardiac arrest resuscitation.
Recent Publications:
- Allan, K. Bianca Mammarella, Mika’il Visanji, Erinda Moglica, Negin Sadeghlo, Emma O’Neil, Tiffany T Chan, Teruko Kishibe, Theresa Aves. Methods to teach schoolchildren how to perform and retain cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) skills: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Resus Plus. 2023 Aug 10;15:100439.
- Allan, KS. Mason KL, Garner J, Dainty KN, Huyer D, Cunningham K, Dorian P, Lewis KB. “It’s overwhelming with the grief” A qualitative study of families’ experiences when a young relative dies of sudden cardiac death. Circ: Cardvasc Qual Outcomes 2023.
- Allan KS, O’Neil E, Currie MM, Lin S, Sapp JL, Dorian P. Responding to Cardiac Arrest in the Community in the Digital Age. Can J Cardiol. 2022 Apr;38(4):491-501.