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Chelsia Gillis PhD

Academic title(s): 
  • Assistant Professor, School of Human Nutrition
  • Director of Perioperative Medical Research, Peri Operative Program, MUHC
  • Associate Member in Surgery and Anesthesia
  • Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Perioperative Nutrition

Chelsia Gillis PhD
Contact Information
Email address: 
chelsia.gillis [at] mcgill.ca
Degree(s): 

MSc PhD RD CNSC

Graduate supervision: 

Currently supervising students

Group: 
Currently Recruiting
M.Sc. Students
M.Sc. Non-Thesis projects
Ph.D. Students
Research areas: 
Surgical Outcomes and Quality
Data Science
Precision Health
Current research: 

Dr. Chelsia Gillis’ research focuses on Prehabilitation: A preoperative intervention that includes exercise, nutrition, and psychological strategies to prepare patients for the stress of surgery.

  1. Multimodal prehabilitation and analgesia: A pragmatic randomized controlled trial on the effect of preoperative exercise with nutrition optimization on postsurgical pain intensity in vulnerable populations
  2. Is correction of malnutrition sufficient to improve low physical function before elective colorectal cancer surgery? A randomized controlled trial of nutrition vs. nutrition and exercise prehabilitation.
  3. Virtual prehabilitation for surgical cancer patients: A feasibility study
  4. Standards for reporting research methods, interventions and Outcomes in Surgical Prehabilitation (SOS-Prehab)
  5. Development and validation of the Preoperative Dietary Screener
  6. Precision prehabilitation as a novel approach to maintain muscle function across the ovarian cancer trajectory
  7. Feasibility of multimodal prehabilitation to enhance glucose control before surgery in people with HbA1C >5.7%
Clinical Interests: 

Use multimodal personalized strategies (prehabilitation) to modify surgical risk factors and build resilience in anticipation of surgical stress

Areas of interest: 

Prehabilitation, Enhanced Recovery After Surgery, surgical metabolism and patient engagement.

Courses: 

EXSU 610

Biography: 

Dr. Chelsia Gillis is an Assistant Professor in the School of Human Nutrition in the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at McGill University. Dr. Gillis is a Registered Dietitian, Certified Nutrition Support Clinician®, and Vanier Scholar with a MSc in Human Nutrition from McGill University and a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Calgary.

Dr. Gillis’ research program aims to improve surgical patient outcomes by generating evidence-based knowledge and translating findings into clinical practice to enhance healthcare services in Canada. Her research interests include prehabilitation, Enhanced Recovery After Surgery, surgical metabolism, and patient engagement. Prehabilitation is a paradigmatic shift in the usual care of surgical patients that capitalizes on surgical wait times to correct modifiable risk factors, including malnutrition, to enhance recovery. Dr. Gillis’ innovative approach challenges current “siloed” nutritional assessment techniques through the creation of surgery-specific tools that integrate both etiologic and phenotypic assessments of malnutrition with physical function to provide personalized, targeted care that ensures the right patient receives the right care at the right time. Dr. Gillis has received research grants as Principal Investigator from the Canadian Foundation for Dietetic Research, American Society for Parenteral Enteral Nutrition, and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism.

Selected publications: 

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