Dr. Sharma has held the role of Chief Medical Advisor to the Deputy Minister at Health Canada since August 2015.   She took on the role in addition to her responsibilities as Senior Medical Advisor within the Health Products and Food Branch (HPFB), a position she’s held since March 2013.  Prior to that, Dr. Sharma held a number of positions in Health Canada in both the pre-market and post-market health product regulatory areas including Acting Associate Assistant Deputy Minister of HPFB and prior to that, Director General of the Therapeutic Products Directorate, which had the regulatory responsibility for pharmaceuticals (prescription and non-prescription) and medical devices.  She has also worked as a Senior Policy Advisor as part of the National Pharmaceuticals Strategy in Health Canada.  From 2011-2013, she took a leave of absence from government to work in an academic “start up” research group focusing on health innovation adoption in the Canadian Health system at the University of Western Ontario. Trained as a pediatrician in both Canada and Australia, Dr. Sharma was a research fellow in hematology focused on clinical research relating to thalassemia and sickle cell disease and has worked on a number of large multi-centre clinical studies, including research in collaboration with Oxford University on a project in Sri Lanka.  She then went on to complete a Masters of Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health with a concentration in International Health and an interest in Health Policy.