About the Authors

David N. Juurlink

dnj@ices.on.ca

Affiliations Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Department of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Colin R. Dormuth

Affiliation University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Anjie Huang

Affiliation Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Chelsea Hellings

Affiliation Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

J. Michael Paterson

Affiliations Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Department of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Centre for Evaluation of Medicines, St. Joseph’s Healthcare, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Colette Raymond

Affiliations Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Anita Kozyrskyj

Affiliations Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Women and Children’s Research Institute and the Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Alberta, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Yola Moride

Affiliation Faculty of Pharmacy, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

Erin M. Macdonald

Affiliation Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Muhammad M. Mamdani

Affiliations Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Keenan Research Centre of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Department of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Competing Interests

Muhammad Mamdani has the following conflicts: he has served on Advisory Boards for Hoffman La Roche, Glaxo Smith Kline, Eli Lilly and Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, AstraZeneca and Pfizer. The authors used the Drug Product and Therapeutic Class Database from Brogan Inc., Ottawa in this study. There are no further patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: DNJ CD JMP MMM CH. Performed the experiments: AH. Analyzed the data: DNJ AH CH JMP MMM CR AK YM CD EMM. Wrote the manuscript: DNJ AH CH JMP MMM CR AK YM CD EMM.