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Lonny Erickson has made strong contributions to the field of public health as a researcher and consultant.
Since 2009, Lonny Erickson has been engaged in an economic evaluation project on emerging pneumococcal conjugate vaccines in collaboration with the Institut national de santé publique du Québec. In addition, Lonny Erickson was recently awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at Université Laval. Prior to assuming his current roles, Lonny Erickson held the position of Senior Associate in Health Technology Assessment at BioMedCom Consultants, Inc. in Montréal. Lonny Erickson performed literature reviews, medical writing, economic evaluation, and the preparation of value dossiers for pharmaceuticals. Having served as an expert consultant for the EVIDEM project advancing transparency in pharmaceutical decision making, Lonny Erickson also coordinated the World Health Organization’s Expert Committee on the strategy of meningococcal polysaccharide vaccination for outbreaks in Africa in 2007. Over the last 10 years, Lonny Erickson has published on a wide variety of topics, including complications and sequelae of meningococcal disease, health technology assessment, economic evaluation of immunization, and the photodynamic treatment of various kinds of cancer. Lonny Erickson has also traveled throughout Canada and abroad to present on his areas of expertise. A resident of Montréal, Lonny Erickson pursues a number of hobbies in his spare time. The co-founder of the Group for Protection of the Rouge River (GPARR) and former Vice President of The Portageurs Canoe Club and a member of the Montréal Kayak Club, Lonny Erickson has contributed to environmental conservation through his participation with the Groupe de Protection et acces à la Riviere Rouge.
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Lonny Erickson's Publications
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Meningococcal Disease, Dr. Lonny Erickson
November, 2010
By: Lonny Erickson
Every year, thousands of students around the United States will be diagnosed with meningococcal disease, a rate that is highest among first-year college students living in dormitories. In a study that I co-authored in 2002, we examined the possible value of vaccinating first-year college students who choose to live in dormitories. During the study, we projected the costs of vaccination against the cost of hospitalizations and deaths among those who are not vaccinated. In the end, the study found that mandatory vaccination ultimately would cost between C$11 and C$49 million. These costs are incurred primarily due to the cost of vaccination, especially when considered with the relatively low number of vaccine-preventable cases of meningococcal disease. Vaccination is, however, worth the benefit of reducing the individual risk posed by meningococcal disease, especially considering the alarming rate of meningococcal disease among college freshmen. Vaccination provides a greater sense of safety while adjusting to a new environment and often substantially reduces the cost of healthcare necessitated by preventable diseases. A couple years later, I co-authored a similar study that examined the cost-effectiveness of a public vaccination program for serogroup C meningococcal disease that would be implemented one year after reaching epidemic status. The proposed vaccination strategies involved either three doses of the vaccine or one administration on a child’s first birthday. The seven epidemiological scenarios proposed were designed to reflect a wide array of endemicity levels over the courses of different periods of time. This study concluded that the three-dose serogroup C meningococcal vaccine program was the most effective strategy to handle an epidemic, but that the one-dose strategy was the most cost-effective for all likely scenarios. In the end, the study concluded that mass immunization or routine vaccinations with boosters are the best control options for serogroup C meningococcal disease epidemics, and can defer the costs of healthcare due to problems that result from lack of immunization.
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