Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Faculty Member

Ann Natalie Burchell BSc, MSc, PhD

Research Interests

Dr. Burchell is a Canada Research Chair in Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention. She uses epidemiological data to improve prevention and health care services for STIs and minimize the complications of STI-associated diseases, including HIV, human papillomavirus (HPV), syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia.

She has extensive methodological experience in the design and implementation of: observational longitudinal studies with primary and secondary data; sexual behaviour and health-access questionnaires; natural history studies using laboratory markers of infection; and pragmatic randomized trials for HPV prevention and improved screening for syphilis, cervical and anal cancer.

• Infectious disease epidemiology
• STI/HIV Epidemiology
• Epidemiology of human papillomavirus and HPV-associated cancers

Education & Training History

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY, Epidemiology, 2009, McGill University

MASTER OF SCIENCE, Community Health – Epidemiology Program, 1997, University of Toronto

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE, Honours Biology, Magna cum laude, 1994, University of Ottawa

Professional Summary & Appointments

Scientist, MAP Centre for Urban Health, St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto

Research Director, Department of Family and Community Medicine, St. Michael’s Hospital

Associate Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Epidemiology Division, University of Toronto

Associate Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto

Adjunct Scientist, Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Toronto

Adjunct Professor, Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University

Honours & Awards

Canada Research Chair in Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention

Royal Society of Canada, Colleage of New Scholars, 2023-

Department of Family and Community Medicine Non-Clinician Research Scientist Award, University of Toronto, 2019-2024.

CAHR-CANFAR Excellence in Research Award (Epidemiology and Public Health Stream), Canadian Association for HIV Research and Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research, 2018

DFCM Award of Excellence, Research Excellence (Senior Investigator), Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, 2017.

Current Research Projects

Dr. Burchell’s research program investigates how to prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including viruses, like human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and human papillomavirus (HPV), and bacteria, such as syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia, and their adverse outcomes, including cancers caused by these infections. She leads population health and implementation science projects on these topics, with an emphasis on producing evidence that supports their prevention and management in primary care settings. Her focus is often on the interconnection between infection with HIV and with other STIs, termed co-infection.

Ongoing representative projects include Engage-HPV, a study of HPV infections among sexual minority men living in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver; the CHESS Study, a study of the burden of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 outcomes among people living with HIV, and pandemic impacts on healthcare engagement and recovery; and the ACCESS Study, an implementation science project to gather evidence for equitable implementation of anal cancer screening among people living with HIV.

Recent Representative Publications

Chambers C, Deeks SL, Sutradhar R, Cox J, de Pokomandy A, Grennan T, Hart TA, Lambert G, Moore DM, Grace D, Grewal R, Jollimore J, Lachowsky N, Nisenbaum R, Ogilvie G, Sauvageau C, Tan DHS, Coutlée F, Burchell AN. Vaccine effectiveness against 12-month incident and persistent anal human papillomavirus infection among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men. Journal of Infectious Diseases 2023 Jun 28;228(1):89-100. Senior Responsible Author.

Burchell AN, Tan DHS, Grewal R, MacPherson PA, Walmsley S, Rachlis A, Andany N, Mishra S, Gardner SL, Raboud J, Fisman D, Cooper C, Gough K, Maxwell J, Rourke SB, Rousseau R, Mazzulli T, Salit I, Allen VG. Routinised syphilis screening among men living with HIV: A stepped wedge cluster randomised controlled trial. Clinical Infectious Diseases 2022. 74(5): 846-853. Principal Author. 

Chambers C, Samji H, Cooper C, Costiniuk C, Janjua N, Kroch A, Arbess G, Benoit A, Buchan S, Chung H, Kendall C, Kwong J, Langlois MA, Lee S, Mbuagbaw L, McCullagh J, Moineddin R, Nambiar D, Walmsley S, Anis A, and Burchell AN for the COVAXHIV Study Team. COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness among a population-based cohort of people living with HIV. AIDS 2022. 36(15):F17-F26. Senior Responsible Author.

Nicolau I, Antoniou T, Brooks JD, Moineddin R, Cooper C, Cotterchio M, Gillis JL, Kendall C, Kroch A, Lindsay J, Price C, Salters K, Smieja M, Burchell AN. The burden of cancer among people living with HIV in Ontario, Canada, 1997-2020: a retrospective population-based cohort study using administrative health data. CMAJ Open 2022; 10(3) E666-E674. Senior Responsible Author.

Gillis J, Grennan T, Grewal R, Ogilvie G, Gaspar M, Grace D, Lofters A, Raboud JM, Saarela O, Rosenes R, Salit IE, Burchell AN and the OHTN Cohort Study Team. Racial disparities in anal cancer screening among men living with HIV: findings from a clinical cohort study. Journal of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome 2020. 84(3):295-303. Senior Responsible Author.