Dr. Allan is the Genetic Condition Coordinator at the Office of the Chief Coroner for 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 death of a loved one, including answering questions, explaining processes or results and 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 Adjunct Scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital, specializing in mixed methods, 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 Co-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 Director Dr. Natalie Wong, the only one of its kind in the GTA.
She is a member of the American Heart Association’s Educational Science and Programs Subcommittee and a member of the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) Education, Implementation and Training Task Force (EIT).
Recent Publications:
- Mika’il Visanji*, Katherine S Allan* (co-first author), Manya Charette, Brian Grunau, Carla Roy, Judah Goldstein, Thérésa Choisi, Steve Lin, Jessyca Brissaw, Lindsey Cameron-Dermann, Madison Donoghue, Morgan Haines, Jacob Hutton, Armin Nowroozpoor, Paul Olszynski, Ryan Quinn, Christian Vaillancourt, Alix Carter, Khadija Abawajy, Pierre-Rodrigue Lanteigne, Paul Dorian. Pediatric Sports Related Sudden Cardiac Arrest in Canada: Incidence and Characteristics. Pediatrics and Child Health 2026.
- Katherine S. Allan, Katherine L. Mason, Ariel Gershon, June Carroll, Katie N. Dainty, Joel A. Kirsh, Kristopher Cunningham, Paul Dorian, Arnon Adler, Julie Rutberg, Steve Lin, Sheldon Cheskes, Jodi Garner, Liz Siydock, Karolyn Yee, Krystina B. Lewis. Family Members’ Experiences Communicating with Coroners in Suspected Hereditary Sudden Cardiac Death Cases: A Mixed Methods Study. Circ: Population health and Outcomes 2026
- Katherine S. Allan, Holly McCulloch, Kim Ruether, Jeanine Zotzman; Ian E. Blanchard, Michael Janczyszyn, Natalie Wong, Emma O’Neil, John Sapp, Santokh Dhillon. Acceptability and effectiveness of training elementary and secondary students in bystander CPR and AED use in three Canadian Provinces. Resuscitation Open Volume 28, March 2026, 101275.
- Visanji M, Dewidar O, Aves T, Allan KS, Guan M, Grunau B, Fordyce CB, Christenson J, Helmer J, Hutton J, Dorian P, Lin S. Age and sex differences in the sensitivity of ICD-10 diagnostic codes for identifying patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the British Columbia cardiac arrest registry: a retrospective cohort study. Resuscitation. 2026 Jan;218:110922. doi:
- Katherine L. Mason, Katherine S. Allan (co-first author), June Carroll, Arnon Adler, Julie Rutberg, Sheldon Cheskes, Steve Lin, Erik K. Mont, Joel A. Kirsh, Lindsay J. Denis, Kris Cunningham, Jodi Garner, Liz Siydock, Katie N. Dainty, Matthew Bowes, Karolyn Yee, Paul Dorian, Krystina B. Lewis, “I Am a Quarterback”: A Mixed-Methods Study of Death Investigators’ Communication with Family Members of Young Sudden Cardiac Death Victims, CJC Open, Volume 8, Issue 1, 2026.
- Dillon DG, Allan KS, Montoy JCC, Visanji M, Rodriguez RM, Lin S, Wang RC. Validation of the naloxone cardiac arrest decision instrument for identifying opioid-associated cardiac arrests. Resuscitation. 2025 Dec;217:110851.
- Aves T, Allan KS, Sujanthan S, Henderson-Lee Wah D, Rahimi M, Shalca S, Kishibe T, Lin S, Swartz RH, Dainty KN, Haywood KL. Evaluating measurement quality and feasibility of neurocognitive screening instruments for adult survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: A systematic review. Resuscitation. 2025 Nov;216:110793
- Greif R, Cheng A, Abelairas-Gómez C, Allan, KS et al. Education, Implementation, and Teams: 2025 International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation Consensus on Science With Treatment Recommendations. Circulation 2025;152:S205-S49.
- Aaron Donoghue, Katherine Allan, Sebastian Schnaubelt, Andrea Cortegiani, Robert Greif, Adam Cheng, Andrew Lockey. Manikin physical realism for resuscitation education: A systematic review. Resuscitation Plus. Volume 23, 2025.
- Garrick Mok; Samuel Vaillancourt; Minnie Fu; Sara Gray; Lucas B Chartier; Natalie Wong; Katherine S Allan; Farah Warsi; Celine Callender; Melissa McGowan; Andrew Petrosoniak. Implementation of a CPR Quality Data Collection Program in the Emergency Department – A Quality Improvement Initiatives. Can J Emerg Med (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43678-025-00882-w.
- Mika’il Visanji*, Katherine S Allan* (co-first author), Manya Charette, Brian Grunau, Carla Roy, Judah Goldstein, Thérésa Choisi, Steve Lin, Jessyca Brissaw, Lindsey Cameron-Dermann, Madison Donoghue, Morgan Haines, Jacob Hutton, Armin Nowroozpoor, Paul Olszynski, Ryan Quinn, Christian Vaillancourt, Alix Carter, Khadija Abawajy, Pierre-Rodrigue Lanteigne, Paul Dorian. Sports Related Sudden Cardiac Arrest in Canada: Incidence and Survival. CJC 41(3) March 2025. Pages 522-530.
- 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.