Laura Hopkins is a Professor in the Division of Oncology at the University of Saskatchewan and is currently Provincial Lead for Gynecologic Oncology.  She has been in full time clinical practice since 2002.  She obtained a BSc and MSc at Queen’s University then completed medical school at the University of Toronto.  Subsequently, she completed a residency in Ob/Gyn at McMaster University and then went on to Fellowship training at the University of Toronto.  She started her career in Ottawa in 2002 and completed an MSc in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Ottawa in 2004.  She relocated to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in August, 2019.

Laura has a major interest in medical education, quality improvement and health care translation.  While in Ottawa, she was known for her leadership in medical education as Clerkship Director and Postgraduate Program Director across a 10-year period.  She has authored or coauthored 17 papers in medical education in the last five years.   Laura served as Division Head, Gynecologic Oncology for four years and Vice-Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology for 3 years.   She was awarded a Sesquicentennial Medal of Honor by the Senate for her clinical contribution to Women’s Cancer in 2017.   She received the Clinician Recognition Award from The Ottawa Hospital in 2016 for outstanding service to patients.   Laura is perhaps best known for her contributions to Quality Improvement.   Between 2015 and 2017, she led a successful perioperative diabetes screening and glucose control procedure which reduced the incidence of surgical site infections (SSI) in Gynecologic Oncology from 18% to 5%.   Laura was invited to present and be part of a panel on SSI reduction in 2015 at the American College of Surgeons annual meeting in Chicago and to present this work at the ERAS (Enhanced Recovery After Surgery) World Congress in Stockholm in 2018.  Laura also completed an EXTRA (Executive Training Program) Fellowship (18 months duration) with the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement (CFHI) in 2017.

Since arriving in Saskatoon, Laura has worked to establish the clinical program within the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency, as Provincial Lead, Gynecologic Oncology. The first clinical trial ever in Gynecologic Oncology is about to be activated.  A new framework for Quality Improvement has been implemented and includes Morbidity and Mortality rounds in Gynecologic Oncology.  In the summer of 2020, Laura supervised a medical student as part of a Dean’s summer project (1^st prize winner) and since January 2020, has supervised four residents in clinical quality improvement projects. In September 2020, Laura won a grant competition of $100,000 to implement ERAS for Gynecologic Oncology. This was funded by Royal University Hospital Foundation’s Women Leading Philanthropy Grant.She is also the Principal Investigator for a 700 K team grant to develop a tumor bank, tumor testing and drug prediction program in Saskatchewan, starting in 2021.  

Laura is a wife and mother of two boys, Graeme, (age 16) and Liam, (age 13) and enjoys running, hiking, cooking and spending time relaxing with friends and family.

2020

• Song, T. Le, A. Jooya, L. Hopkins, M. Fung Kee Fung, K. Lupe, M. Gaudet and R. Samant. Treatment of early-stage high-risk endometrial cancer and pattern of disease relapse: a retrospective analysis (AOGS-20-0192) – Advances in Radiation Oncology. 5(5):910-919, September 2020
• Song, T. Le, L. Hopkins, M. Fung Kee Fung, K. Lupe, M. Gaudet, C. E, R. Samant. “Evaluation of Disease Recurrence in Robotic Surgery Compared with Laparotomy in Intermediate-Risk Endometrial Cancer. Int J Gyn Cancer, Feb 2020. 
• McKenzie, , D.A. Forstein, J.F. Abbott, S.D. Buery-Joyner, L.B. Craig, J.L. Dalrymple, S. Graziano, B.S. Hampton, S.J. Page-Ramsey, A. Pradhan, A. Wolf, L. Hopkins. “Fostering Inclusive Approaches to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Healthcare on the Obstetrics and Gynecology Clerkship”. Medical Science Educator, 30 (523-527)2020. DOI 10.1007/s40670-019-00886-z 

2019

• Hopkins, H. Morgan, S.D. Buery-Joyner, J.B. Craig, E.N. Everett, D.A. Forstein Do, S.C. Graziano, B.S. Hampton, M.L. McKenzie, S.M. Page-Ramsey, A. Pradhan, S. Bliss. “To the Point: A Prescription for Well-Being in Medical Education”. American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, 221 (6):542-548, December 2019. 
• Chen, A.J. Choudhry, D. Schramm, D.W. Cameron, V. Leung, S.S. Singh, L. Hopkins, K. Arendas, R. Mallick. “Pelvic Disease and Surgical Site Infection in Hysterectomy”. Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology, 26(6):1149-1156, September 2019. 

2018

• L.B. Craig, S.D. Buery-Joyner, S. Bliss, E. Everett, D.A. Forstein, S.C. Graziano, B.S. Hampton, M.L. McKenzie, H. Morgan, S.M. Page-Ramsey, A. Pradhan, L. Hopkins, Undergraduate Medical Education Committee, Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics. “To the point: gender differences in the obstetrics and gynecology clerkship”, Am J Obstet Gynecol, May 2018, PII S0002-9378(18)30430-7. Doi: 10.1016/j.ajog.2018.05.020
• S.C. Graziano, M.L. McKenzie, J.F. Abbott, S.D. Buery-Joyner, L.B. Craig, J.L. Dalrymple, D.A. Forstein, B.S. Hampton, S.M. Page-Ramsey, A. Pradhan, A. Wolf, L. Hopkins. “Barriers and Strategies to Engaging Our Community-Based Preceptors”, Teaching and Learning in Medicine, Mar 2018, Doi: 10.1080/10401334.2018.1444994.
• Hopkins, B.S. Hampton, J.F. Abbott, S.D. Buery-Joyner, L.B. Craig, J.L. Dalrymple, D.A. Forstein, S.C. Graziano, M.L. McKenzie, A. Pradham, A. Wolf, S.M. Page-Ramsey. “To the Point: Medical Education, Technology, and the Millennial Learner”, Am J Obstet Gynecol, February 2018, 218(2):188-192.

2017

• Hopkins, J. Brown-Broderick, J. Hearn, J. Malcolm, J. Chan, W. Hicks-Boucher, F. De Sousa, M.C. Walker, S. Gagné. “Implementation of a Referral to Discharge Glycemic Control Initiative for Reduction of Surgical Site Infections in Gynecologic Oncology Patients”, Gynecologic Oncology, August 2017;146(2):228-233.