Our team consists of a national interdisciplinary group of over 100 junior and senior investigators with complementary skills and expertise across Canada.

We have come together to bring fast medical innovations and advances in the prevention, diagnosis and management of COVID-19 in Canada. Many have worked together for up to 23 years.

We have partnered with the leads of the provincial COVID-19 biobanks across Canada. This will help to harmonize processes so that data can be collated and analyzed together.

CO-LEAD INVESTIGATORS

Dr. Angela M. Cheung

Dr. Angela Cheung

Dr. Angela M. Cheung is a Professor of Medicine and the KY and Betty Ho Chair of Integrative Medicine at the University of Toronto. She is an Internal Medicine specialist and senior scientist at the University Health Network and holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Musculoskeletal and Postmenopausal Health. She obtained her MD from Johns Hopkins University and completed her training in General Internal Medicine at the University of Toronto and Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston, and her Ph.D. from Harvard University. 

Dr. Margaret Herridge

Dr. Margaret Herridge

Dr. Margaret S. Herridge is a Professor of Medicine, Critical Care and Pulmonary Medicine at the University Health Network; Senior Scientist in the Toronto General Research Institute; Director of Research for the Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine, University of Toronto. She obtained her MD from Queen’s University at Kingston, completed her clinical training in Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Toronto and obtained her MPH at the Harvard School of Public Health.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS


Dr. Sofia Ahmed

Dr. Ahmed is a Professor at the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary, Vice-Chair (Research) for the Department of Medicine and a nephrologist and clinician-scientist with a focus on sex and gender differences in human kidney and cardiovascular outcomes. She completed her MD and internal medicine residency at the University of Toronto, nephrology fellowship at Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospitals and Master’s in Medical Sciences at Harvard University. A strong proponent of the importance of mentorship and fostering excellence in the next generation of kidney and cardiovascular researchers, Dr. Ahmed received the 2020 American Society of Nephrology Distinguished Mentor Award.

Dr. Jane Batt

Dr. Jane Batt is a Respirologist and Scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto and Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto. Her research is focused on delineating the molecular mechanisms underlying skeletal muscle wasting and weakness in chronic disease and trauma and is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Ontario Thoracic Society and Physician Services Incorporation. She has served on multiple hospitals and the University of Toronto advisory and research committees and is currently Chair, Division of Respirology Research Advisory Committee, U of T. She is the Secretary of the Canadian Critical Care Translational Biology Group (CCCTBG).

Dr. Amal Bessissow

In 2013, Dr. Bessissow completed General Internal Medicine training at McGill University and obtained Royal college of Physicians of Canada Fellowship in General Internal Medicine. From July 2013 to December 2014, she completed a research fellowship in Perioperative Medicine at Hamilton Health Sciences and Population Health Research Institute. Further, Dr. Bessissow expanded her knowledge in research by completing a Master degree in Health Research Methodology at McMaster University. As of July 2015, she holds the position of assistant professor of internal medicine at McGill University Health Centre. Dr. Bessissow is currently the medical director of the preoperative clinic at the Montreal General Hospital (MGH) and the director of the general internal medicine/postoperative consult service at the MGH. Lastly, Dr. Bessissow is the recipient of the Junior Investigator Career Award “Chercheur Boursier-Clinicien – Junior 1, Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec” (2019-2023).

Dr. Alexandra Binnie

Alexandra Binnie is an internal medicine and intensive care medicine physician at William Osler Health System in Brampton, Ontario and at the Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Algarve in Faro, Portugal. She has a background in translational research with a focus on the mechanisms of sepsis and multiorgan failure. Along with Dr Jennifer Tsang, she is a co-founder of the Canadian Community ICU Research Network. She is delighted to be joining CANCOV on behalf of William Osler Health System

Dr. Claudia Dos Santos

My major research interest is in acute lung injury, which can be caused by either biomolecular or biophysical insults to the lungs, such as an infection or the mechanical injury resulting from mechanical ventilation itself. My lab is dedicated to understanding the interaction between patients and the breathing machine and finding new ways to identify individuals who are at higher risk for developing lung injury, in addition to diagnosing, treating and monitoring improvement from injury. To accomplish our goals, we have developed various model systems from basic epithelial cell stretch models to animal models of lung injury. We exploit whole-genome approaches, such as microarray technology, to identify novel molecular targets and use various computational strategies to analyze our data. We are also interested in understanding how and why critically ill patients develop multi-organ failure. To answer some of the more complex questions, my lab also collaborates actively with clinical researchers involved in a state of the art clinical trials related to novel mechanical ventilation strategies.

Dr. Marzyeh Ghassemi

Dr. Marzyeh Ghassemi

Marzyeh Ghassemi is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto in Computer Science and Medicine, affiliated with the Vector Institute. Previously, she was a Visiting Researcher with Alphabet’s Verily and a post-doc with Dr. Peter Szolovits at IT (CV). Marzyeh’s PhD research at MIT focused on creating and applying machine learning algorithms towards improved prediction and stratification of relevant human risks with clinical collaborations at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital, encompassing unsupervised learning, supervised learning, and structured prediction. Marzyeh’s work has been applied to estimating the physiological state of patients during critical illnesses, modeling the need for a clinical intervention, and diagnosing phonotraumatic voice disorders from wearable sensor data.

Dr. Sarah Manske

Dr. Sarah Manske is an assistant professor in the Division of Image Science, Department of Radiology at the University of Calgary, with an honorary appointment in the Division of Rheumatology. Her research focuses on using imaging to better understand the mechanisms that underpin diseases of the musculoskeletal system, including osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, sarcopenia and osteoporosis. She utilizes clinical imaging facilities for human studies in the McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint Health, including high resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT), computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound, as well as micro-computed tomography for animal studies.

Dr. Suzanne Morin

Dr. Suzanne Morin is a Scientist at the Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation for the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center. She graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at Université Laval de Québec, completed her Internal Medicine specialty training and obtained a Masters in epidemiology and biostatistics from McGill University. Dr. Morin’s research is focused on evaluation of outcomes of osteoporosis and its treatment, and implementation of health system improvement initiatives for patients who have sustained fractures. She is a leader in clinical practice guidelines development for the management and prevention of osteoporosis and fractures.

Dr. Anita Palepu

Anita Palepu, MD, MPH, FRCPC, MACP is a Professor and Eric W. Hamber Chair, Head of the Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia and the Head, Department of Medicine, Providence Health Care. She is a Scientist with the Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences and her research area falls under the broad umbrella of urban health research. Dr. Palepu is a General Internal Medicine specialist who is passionate about health advocacy, education and cares deeply about the trainees and patients she is privileged to work with on the Clinical Teaching Unit at St. Paul’s Hospital. She is also an associate editor for the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Shail Rawal

Shail Rawal is a physician and Assistant Professor in General Internal Medicine at University Health Network and the University of Toronto. Her research examines the intersection of health equity and quality improvement. Her recent work centres on the quality of care received by patients whose primary language is not English and the use of sociodemographic data and patient-reported outcomes to improve care. Shail completed clinical training at the University of Toronto and has a Master in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health.Dr. Suzanne Morin is a Scientist at the Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation for the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center. She graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at Université Laval de Québec, completed her Internal Medicine specialty training and obtained a Masters in epidemiology and biostatistics from McGill University. Dr. Morin’s research is focused on evaluation of outcomes of osteoporosis and its treatment, and implementation of health system improvement initiatives for patients who have sustained fractures. She is a leader in clinical practice guidelines development for the management and prevention of osteoporosis and fractures.

Dr. Fahad Razak

Fahad Razak is an internist and epidemiologist at St. Michael’s Hospital, with specialization in observational methods, ‘big data’ projects, and global health. He obtained his MSc. degree in Health Research Methodology from McMaster University before obtaining his M.D. degree from the University of Toronto. Fahad’s work is primarily onthe General Medicine Inpatient Initiative (GEMINI) a data driven quality improvement and research network for all general medicine hospital patients in Ontario. He is Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) with Amol Verma (University of Toronto) on GEMINI, and works closely with physicians and health care leaders across the province.Anita Palepu, MD, MPH, FRCPC, MACP is a Professor and Eric W. Hamber Chair, Head of the Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia and the Head, Department of Medicine, Providence Health Care. She is a Scientist with the Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences and her research area falls under the broad umbrella of urban health research. Dr. Palepu is a General Internal Medicine specialist who is passionate about health advocacy, education and cares deeply about the trainees and patients she is privileged to work with on the Clinical Teaching Unit at St. Paul’s Hospital. She is also an associate editor for the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Dr. H. Thomas Stelfox

Dr. Tom Stelfox is Professor and Department Head of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Calgary and Alberta Health Services- Calgary Zone. He received his M.D. from the University of Alberta, Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Toronto, Ph.D. in Health Care Policy at Harvard University and Critical Care Fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital.  His research program focuses on the application of health services research methods to evaluate and improve the quality of health care delivery to critically ill patients.  His research activities include developing quality indicators; developing strategies to improve continuity of patient care across the care continuum; and improving the translation of scientific evidence into clinical practice.

Dr. Lisa Strug

Dr. Strug is a Senior Scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children, Associate Director of The Centre for Applied Genomics, which is a CFI-MSI funded genome centre contributing to Canada’s national genome sequencing infrastructure for research, and Professor of Statistical Sciences and Biostatistics at the University of Toronto.  She is the Lead of the Canadian CF Gene Modifier Study and Co-Lead of the International CF Gene Modifier Consortium.  She is a statistical geneticist who has received several honors including a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Genome Data Sciences. 

Dr. Vicky Tagalakis

Dr. Vicky Tagalakis is an Associate Professor of Medicine at McGill University and an attending in the Department of Medicine of the Jewish General Hospital. She is Director of the Division of General Internal Medicine at McGill University. She completed an MSc in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McGill University in 2003 and is a Research Scientist in the Centre of Epidemiology and Community of Studies, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital. She holds several peer-reviewed grants. She is Co-Lead of the Quality Improvement Platform of CanVECTOR), a CIHR funded national research network on venous thromboembolism (VTE).

Dr. Jennifer Ly Tsang

Dr. Jennifer Ly Tsang completed her MD degree at the University of Ottawa, internal medicine, and critical care fellowship at the University of Toronto in 2008. In December 2013, she completed a PhD in molecular biology and Royal College Clinician Investigator Program at the University of Toronto. She is an Intensivist and the Research Lead of Niagara Health, the Research Lead of Niagara Regional Campus, Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine of McMaster University and, an Associate Professor of Medicine at McMaster University. Her academic work focuses on research capacity building in community hospitals and community-based distributive medical education.

Dr. Amol Verma

Amol Verma is a physician, scientist, and Assistant Professor in General Internal Medicine at St. Michael’s Hospital and the University of Toronto. He is working to study and improve hospital care using electronic clinical data. Amol co-leads GEMINI, the largest multi-hospital data system for adult medicine in Canada, and he is a Provincial Clinical Lead for General Medicine with Ontario Health. Amol completed clinical training at the University of Toronto, a Masters in Economic and Social History at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, a Canadian Frailty Network fellowship and a post-doctoral fellowship in big data and advanced analytics.

Dr. Rae Yeung

Rae Yeung is Professor of Paediatrics, Immunology and Medical Science at the University of Toronto, and Senior Scientist in Cell Biology Research, Scientific Director – Sickkids Biobank and the Hak-Ming and Deborah Chiu Chair in Translational Paediatric Research at The Hospital For Sick Children, University of Toronto. Rae attended the University of Toronto and obtained her medical degree there, training in Paediatrics at Sickkids and completing her PhD in Immunology at the Ontario Cancer Institute. The goal of Rae’s research is to understand the mechanisms governing autoimmunity, specifically the mechanisms involved in initiating and sustaining the immune response in childhood arthritis and rheumatic diseases.

CO-INVESTIGATORS


Dr. Susan Abbey

Susan Abbey is the Psychiatrist-in-Chief at the University Health Network Centre for Mental Health. Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. Academically, Dr. Abbey’s research and clinical interests have been related to the psychiatric care of patients in the medical and surgical setting including the role of depression and anxiety in medical outcomes. Her research has focused on the psychiatric and psychosocial aspects of solid organ transplantation, end-organ failure and life-threatening illness, psychiatric sequelae of intensive care unit treatment and physician mental health. She has taught and researched mindfulness-based stress reduction interventions.

Dr. Lusine Abrahamyan

Dr. Lusine Abrahamyan is a Scientist at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute, Clinical Epidemiologist at the Toronto health Economics and Technology Assessment (THETA) Collaborative, and an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto. She is a researcher with expertise and interest in clinical trials, health technology assessment and evidence synthesis. Her research currently focuses on evaluation of interventions and outcomes in adult congenital heart disease interventions.

Dr. Neill Adhikari

Neill Adhikari is an intensivist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and appointed to the Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine and Institute for Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. His research interests include critical care delivery in under-resourced settings and clinical trials. He is co-PI of a trial of vitamin C for sepsis and a second trial of blood pressure targets for vasodilatory shock.

Dr. Melanie Barwick

Melanie Barwick, PhD, CPsych is a Senior Scientist in the Child Health Evaluative Sciences Program of the SickKids’ Research Institute and the Centre for Global Child Health. She leads professional and resource development in dissemination and implementation science and practice (knowledge translation) within the KT Program of the SickKids’ Learning Institute. At the University of Toronto, she is Professor in the Department of Psychiatry (Faculty of Medicine), and in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health (Behavioural Health Sciences, and Institute for Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation). She is a Visiting Scholar at the University of Huddersfield in the UK. She is a Governing Board Director for Children’s Mental Health Ontario, an Associate Editor for the journal, Evidence & Policy, and on the Editorial Board for the journal, Implementation Research and Practice.

Dr. Mark Bayley

Mark Bayley is a clinician scientist at the KITE research institute at UHN- Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and a Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto in the Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Mark is very interested in enhancing rehabilitation outcomes after illness and injury. He has led multicenter studies of exercise, technology and medications combined with exercise to enhance outcomes. He is also interested in how to ensure clinicians follow best practices by leading development of clinical practice guidelines, implementation toolkits websites and smartphone apps.  Mark has held a number of health system leadership roles including Chair of the Stroke Evaluation Committee at Corhealth Ontario, and the Vice Chair of the GTA Rehab Network. His work has help redesign rehabilitation systems in Canada.

Dr. Erin Bearss

Dr. Bearss earned her medical degree at McMaster University and completed her Family Medicine residency and Emergency Medicine Fellowship the University of Toronto.  Dr. Bearss is a staff physician at the Granovsky-Gluskin Family Medicine Centre and in the Schwartz-Reisman Emergency Department at Mount Sinai Hospital. She practices comprehensive family medicine and emergency medicine and is currently the Associate Chief of Family Medicine.  Her academic interests are in the areas of Resident Wellness, Intergenerational Teaching & Learning and Medically Unexplained Symptoms. As the medical director of the Sinai COVID Assessment Centre, Dr. Bearss has been integral in establishing the testing centre policies and processes, contributing to regional assessment centre guidelines, coordinating outreach to Long Term Care Facilities, and facilitating research in the centre.

Dr. Francis Bernard

Trained in internal medicine, he is a critical care (full professor, university of Montréal) and neurocritical care (Fellow, Cambridge university, UK) specialist who works at Hôpital Sacré-Coeur de Montréal. Co-director of the acute care and trauma research axis, he  received funding from FRQS and CIHR for over 7.3 millions dollars since 2010 in collaboration with numerous researchers from various fields. His expertise reside in multimodality monitoring of the brain (intracranial and non-invasive probes, EEG, polysomnography, doppler, scan, MRIs, integrative systems…) to tailor therapies to specific patient’s physiology and pathophysiology in the critical care setting. He is a recognized national an international leader in the field (Fellow of the Neurocritical Care Society, BOOST-3 trial Clinical Standard team).  Currently supervise the neurological aspect (sedation, analgesia, pain, agitation, encephalopathy, neuropathy, awakening) aspect of the COVID cohort.

Dr. Laurent Brochard

Dr. Laurent Brochard is the Interdepartmental Division Head of Critical Care Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. He is Full Professor of Medicine and holds the Keenan Chair in Critical Care and Acute Respiratory Failure. He is a Clinician Scientist in the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, Department of Critical Care at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. He obtained his MD degree from University Paris V in 1986 followed by residency training in Hopitaux de Paris. He did his research fellowship at the National Institute for Scientific and Medical Research (INSERM). He was appointed Vice Dean of the Medical School of Creteil, Paris 12 University from 1995 to 2003 and was the head of the Medical Council, Henri Mondor Hospital Medical ICU in Creteil, France from 2003 – 2010. He became Head of the Intensive Care Unit of Geneva University Hospital, in Switzerland for three years (2010-2013) before coming to Toronto.

Stacey Burns

Stacey Burns is a registered nurse with over 20yrs of critical care experience at UHN. She has also worked with the RECOVER program for 2yrs and in 2019 became the RECOVER Navigator.  During the COVID-19 pandemic Stacey cared for COVID positive patients in the ICU.  Her knowledge and experience with critically ill patients and their long-term outcomes will benefit the CANCOV Study.

Dr. Jill I. Cameron

Dr. Jill Cameron is Professor and Vice Chair Research in the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences Institute in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto and an Affiliated Scientist at KITE. Her primary research interest is to understand the experiences and needs of family members who assume the role of caregiver for individuals with disability. Dr. Cameron aims to develop timely and relevant programs to assist them with their care-giving activities and pursuit of other valued activities and interests. The ultimate goal of her research is to support families as they transition across care environments with the aim of optimizing life in the community.

Dr. Ana Catalina

Ana Catalina is a Pediatric Nephrologist with a Masters in Medical Sciences from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She is currently a clinical fellow at the Transplant & Regenerative Medicine Centre in the Hospital for Sick Children and a Ph.D. student in the Clinical Epidemiology program at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Education University of Toronto. Her interests are pharmaco-epidemiology, pharmaco-genetics, individualization of therapies, precision medicine, patient-related outcomes, healthcare administrative data research, interventional studies and translational medicine to improve pediatric kidney disease and pediatric solid organ transplant recipients in disadvantaged population.

Dr. Timothy Chan

Timothy Chan is the Canada Research Chair in Novel Optimization and Analytics in Health, a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, the Director of the Centre for Healthcare Engineering, and the Director of the Centre for Analytics and AI Engineering at the University of Toronto. He received his BSc in Applied Mathematics from the University of British Columbia (2002), and his Ph.D. in Operations Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2007). Professor Chan’s primary research interests are in optimization under uncertainty and the application of optimization methods to problems in healthcare, medicine, global engineering, sustainability, and sports.

Dr. Adrienne Chan

Dr. Adrienne Chan is an assistant professor in the division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Toronto’s Department of Medicine. She is also a clinician-investigator at the division of infectious diseases at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and is a medical advisor at Dignitas International. Dr. Chan finished her MD in Immunology and History at the University of Toronto, and went on to complete her Internal Medicine and Adult Infectious Diseases Residency there as well. She then obtained her MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health. Her research interests lie in the delivery of health services in resource limited settings, as well as clinical research regarding reduction of mortality due to opportunistic infections in HIV patients with severe immunosuppression.

Dr. Karen Choong

Dr. Karen Choong is a Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Critical Care, and the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, at McMaster University. A graduate of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, she is dually trained in Neonatology and Pediatric Critical Care Medicine from the Hospital of Sick Children. She is a Canadian Critical Care Trials Group member, an associate editor of the Journal of Pediatric Intensive Care, and Co-Chair of the Society of Critical Care Medicine ICU Liberation Committee. Her research program entitled Exercise and Early Rehabilitation in Critically Ill Children, a Systematic Evaluation (ExERCISE), is focused on PICU-based rehabilitation and patient-centered outcomes in critically ill children.

Dr. Deborah Cook

Dr. Cook is a Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics at McMaster University. She is a practicing intensivist at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton.  As Academic Chair of Critical Care, she also holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Intensive Care. Dr. Cook was a founder and Chair of the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group, and has published over 700 peer-review articles on life support technology, preventing complications of critical illness, end-of-life care, and research ethics. As an Officer of the Order of Canada, she has received numerous national and international honours for her scientific leadership and mentorship.

Dr. Michael Detsky

Dr. Detsky completed his medical doctorate and residencies in internal medicine and adult critical care medicine, at the University of Toronto. He received his Master’s of Science in Health Policy and Research at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on improving our understanding and communication of long-term outcomes in critically ill patients and using prognosis, values and preferences to engage in shared decision-making. He is a co-director of the Critical Care Oncologic Investigative Network (COIN) and is an assistant professor, both at the University of Toronto. His clinical appointment is at the Sinai Health System in Toronto, Canada.​

Dr. Dana Devine

Dana Devine, PhD, FCAHS is the Chief Scientist at Canadian Blood Services.  She is also professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of British Columbia and a founder of UBC’s Centre for Blood Research.

Dr. Christopher Doig

Dr. Christopher Doig (better known as Chip) graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in 1988 (MD with distinction), with specialization in Internal Medicine and Critical Care Medicine. He has additional training in clinical epidemiology and health care ethics. Dr. Doig is a tenured Professor in the Departments of Critical Care Medicine, Medicine and Community Health Sciences in the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, and an adult intensivist in the Calgary zone of Alberta Health Services. Dr. Doig’s research focuses on critical care outcomes, particularly in severe sepsis and organ dysfunction. Dr. Doig is a past-recipient of the McLeod Distinguished Achievement Award for Faculty from the University of Calgary, the E. Garner King Award from the Canadian Critical Care Society, AMA Medal for Distinguished Service Award, and the CMA Dr. William Marsden Award in Medical Ethics.

Dr. James Downar

James Downar is a Critical Care and Palliative Care physician in Ottawa. He graduated from McGill Medical School and completed residency training in Internal Medicine, Critical Care and Palliative Care at the University of Toronto. He has a Master’s degree in Bioethics from the Joint Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto. He is currently the Head of the Division of Palliative Care at the University of Ottawa, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine. He is the co-chair of the Pan-Canadian Palliative Care Research Collaborative, the chair of the Ethical Affairs committee of the Canadian Critical Care Society, and the co-chair of the Ontario Palliative Care Network’s Provincial Education Steering Committee. He has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications, has been principal investigator on a dozen peer-reviewed grants, and is a former Associated Medical Services Phoenix Fellow. His research interests include communication and decision-making for seriously ill patients and their families; Palliative Care for the Critically Ill; and Palliative Care for Noncancer Illnesses

Dr. Steven J. Drews

Steven J. Drews, Ph.D., F.C.C.M., D(ABMM), Clinical Microbiologist, Associate Director, Canadian Blood Services. Steve completed his Ph.D. in 2003 at the University of British Columbia, in Experimental Medicine (Infectious Diseases). He then completed his Clinical Microbiology Fellowship at the University of Toronto. Steve currently heads the Medical Microbiology Laboratories at Canadian Blood Services, where he provides guidance on transmissible diseases testing, microbiology and infectious diseases issues. Prior to this he was a Clinical Virologist at the Provincial Laboratory for Public Health (ProvLab) Alberta, and the head of the province-wide influenza and acute respiratory viral diagnostics program. He has also held a prior position as Head of Molecular Diagnostics for the Public Health Ontario Laboratories. Steve has significant experience representing diagnostic microbiology and public health laboratories at provincial, national and international committees. He has held faculty positions at both the University of Toronto and the University of Calgary. Steve is currently an Associate Professor in Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the University of Alberta Edmonton, Canada.

Dr. Tiago Falk

Prof. Tiago H. Falk is an Associate Professor at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS-EMT), University of Quebec. His research interests are on the use of signal processing to provide context-awareness to machine learning algorithms, with particular focus on real-world applications involving noisy data. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, alumni of the Global Young Academy, member of the Sigma Xi Research Society, Academic Chair of the CMBES, Co-Chair of the IEEE SMC Brain-Machine Interface TC, member of the IEEE SPS Audio and Acoustic Signal Processing TC, and Area Editor of the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine.

Dr. Niall Ferguson

Dr. Niall Ferguson is Head of Critical Care Medicine at the University Health Network and Sinai Health, and full Professor in the Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Toronto, with appointments in the Departments of Medicine and Physiology, and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation.  He is a Senior Scientist in the Toronto General Research Institute, and the Critical Care Lead for Ontario Health Toronto Region.  Dr. Ferguson’s research, which is supported by local, provincial, and national granting agencies, focuses on: (1) mechanical ventilation (epidemiology; weaning and liberation; extubation and tracheostomy); (2) acute respiratory distress syndrome (definitions; ventilatory management; trial design); and (3) extra-corporeal life support.  Dr. Ferguson is the Chair for Critical Care Canada Forum, Canada’s premier critical care conference. He is a frequent invited speaker at national and international meetings, having given over 350 such talks.

Dr. Niall Filewod

Niall Filewod is an Intensive Care Unit doctor who works at Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga, Ontario. He was educated at Queen’s University and the University of British Columbia before his medical training at McGill University and the University of Toronto. He subsequently completed a graduate certificate in biomedical informatics offered by Stanford University. In addition to clinical work caring for intensive care unit survivors and the critically ill, his research activities include studying better treatments for severe acute alcohol withdrawal syndrome, as well as the use of electronic health information to facilitate knowledge discovery in the intensive care unit.

Dr. John Flannery

Dr. John Flannery is a specialist in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation for over 25 years.  His practice has included the entire gamut of all the physical rehab domains including amputee, burn, electrodiagnostic medicine, chronic and musculoskeletal pain, as well as all neurologic rehabilitation fields (ABI, Stroke and SCI).  He was Residency Program Director at U of T for over 10 years and lead for the Specialty Committee at the Royal College for four of those 10 years. Since 2003, he has been Medical Director of the MSK & Multisystem Rehab Program at Toronto Rehab.  In 2013, he was selected by peers and administrators in the GTA as one of 30 top “Toronto Docs” and profiled in Toronto Life magazine for his compassionate care and leadership in Rehab.

Dr. Robert Fowler

Rob Fowler is critical care physician and Barrie Fairley Professor of Critical Care at the University Health Network & Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine, chief of the trauma-critical care program at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. and the Chair of the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group. Rob’s clinical and academic focus includes access and outcomes of care for critically ill patients and infection-related critical illness. He has assisted or worked with national and international health care organizations during SARS, pandemic and avian influenza, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Ebola and COVID-19.

Dr. Alison Fox-Robichaud

Dr. Alison Fox-Robichaud is Professor of Medicine at McMaster University and an ICU physician and Director of Medical Education at Hamilton Health Sciences. She is the Scientific Director of the government-funded Sepsis Canada a research collaborative of 190 scientists, knowledge users and patients and family partners. She is the inaugural president of the Canadian Sepsis Foundation, and a member of the board of the Global Sepsis Alliance. In 2018, the Global Sepsis Alliance awarded her an individual award for her sepsis leadership.

Dr. Lora Giangregorio

Lora Giangregorio, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Waterloo, and a Schlegel Research Chair in Mobility and Aging. She leads the Bone Health and Exercise Science Lab (BonES lab), which studies how to prevent osteoporotic fractures via risk assessment and physical activity interventions. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Council for Osteoporosis Canada, with whom she collaborates on initiatives to improve patient and health care provider education related to physical activity and exercise. Dr. Giangregorio was on the leadership team that developed the Canadian 24-hour Movement Guidelines, and is leading the Exercise Working Group for the update to Osteoporosis Canada’s 2021 Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Osteoporosis.

Dr. Penney Gilbert

Penney M. Gilbert is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering. Gilbert received her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania (2006) and conducted Postdoctoral studies at Stanford University (2017 – 2012). Her team engineers and studies three-dimensional models of human skeletal muscle and explores muscle stem cell mechanobiology with the goal of identifying signaling pathways that can be tweaked to boost the function of skeletal muscle stem cells in the body. She is recipient of an Ontario Early Researcher Award and holds a Canada Research Chair in Endogenous Repair.

Dr. Roger Goldstein

Professor of Medicine and Physical Therapy, University of Toronto. Founding NSA Chair in Respiratory Rehabilitation Research. Head Respiratory Division, West Park Healthcare Centre. Longstanding interest in the management of chronic respiratory conditions

Dr. Ewan Goligher

Ewan Goligher MD, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Toronto and a Scientist at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute. He leads the Precision Ventilation Lab at Toronto General Hospital, focusing on characterizing the mechanisms and impact of injury to the lung and diaphragm during mechanical ventilation and developing innovative clinical trial designs to test lung and diaphragm-protective ventilation strategies.

Dr. Christopher Grant

Chris Grant is a physiatrist in Calgary. He is a clinical assistant professor in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. He is a member of the Department of Critical Care Medicine as well as the Department of Clinical Neurosciences. His interests include critical illness, trauma, and brain injury recovery. He leads the Calgary ICU Recovery Clinic.

Sarah Greenwood

Sarah Greenwood RN, MN worked with the Consult- Liaison Psychiatry and Transplant Programs at University Health Network since 1993. She is a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction instructor with an interest in patients with health challenges. She joined the CANCOV team and provides mental health support for patients and caregivers. 

Dr. David Hornstein

Chris Grant is a physiatrist in Calgary. He is a clinical assistant professor in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. He is a member of the Department of Critical Care Medicine as well as the Department of Clinical Neurosciences. His interests include critical illness, trauma, and brain injury recovery. He leads the Calgary ICU Recovery Clinic.

Dr. Ella Huszti

Dr. Huszti completed her PhD degree in Biostatistics from the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McGill University in 2010. Currently, she is a Senior Biostatistician at UHN’s Biostatistics Research Unit, as well as an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto. Her areas of expertise include survival analysis, methodological issues arising in observational studies and clinical trials.

Dr. Hans Katzberg

Dr. Katzberg is a neurologist at the Prosserman Center for Neuromuscular Diseases at the University Health Network and clinical investigator at the Krembil Brain Institute. He is an affiliate staff at the Hospital for Sick Children where he runs a neuromuscular transition clinic for young adults. Dr. Katzberg is an Associate Professor of Medicine (Neurology) and an Associate Member of the Institute of Medical Sciences. Dr. Katzberg’s research interests include the assessment and treatment of motor nerve hyperexcitability, neuropathies and neuromuscular junction disorders including myasthenia gravis.

Dr. Heather Keller

Heather Keller RD PhD FDC FCAHS is the Schlegel Research Chair in Nutrition & Aging at the University of Waterloo. She is an internationally recognized expert in geriatric nutrition, assessment, and treatment.  Research areas focus on nutrition risk and malnutrition identification and treatment across care sectors; improving nutrition care processes and implementing screening and other best practices; supporting food intake of diverse groups living in the community, including those living with dementia; and improving hospital and residential food and promoting food intake and the mealtime experience in these settings. Professor Keller is currently co-chair of the primary care working group for CMTF and involved in several national and international expert groups advancing the prevention, detection and treatment of malnutrition.

Dr. Paul Y. Kim

Dr. Paul Y. Kim (Ph.D.) is an Associate Professor of Medicine at McMaster University, with his laboratory located at the Thrombosis and Atherosclerosis Research Institute (TaARI, Hamilton). He is the Executive Director of the International Society for Fibrinolysis and Proteolysis (ISFP), as well as the current Chairman of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) Scientific and Standardization Committee (SSC) on Fibrinolysis. His research interests include characterizing the mechanisms and pathways that regulate fibrinolysis and coagulation at the protein and cellular levels and further extending his findings in animal models.

Dr. Ana Konvalinka

Dr. Ana Konvalinka was recruited in 2015, as a transplant nephrologist and a Clinician Scientist at Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. Her main clinical and research interests are in antibody-mediated rejection and kidney allograft fibrosis. She utilizes systems biology approaches and proteomics to enhance the understanding of the mechanisms, derive novel markers and to repurpose drugs for treatment of kidney disease. Dr. Konvalinka is the director of the Multi-Organ Transplant biobank for kidney, pancreas and liver transplant programs. She is also the co-director of the Drug Discovery research group.

Dr. Maia Kredentser

Dr. Kredentser is an assistant professor and clinical psychologist in clinical health psychology at the University of Manitoba. She is based at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg. Dr. Kredentser is published in the research area of behavioural medicine including post-ICU mental health, mental health in inflammatory bowel disease, and dignity at the end of life.

Dr. Lauren Lapointe-Shaw

Lauren Lapointe-Shaw MDCM PhD is an Assistant Professor and Clinician Scientist in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto, Staff General Internal Medicine Physician at the University Health Network and Scientist at Toronto General Hospital Research Institute. Most recently, she led research on syndromic surveillance for COVID-19 in Canada. Her research relates the quality of in-hospital and outpatient care, as well as the organization of physician services. In 2019, she was awarded the CIHR-IHSPR’s Rising Star Award for her work relating to the transition home from hospital.

Dr. Patrick Lawler

Patrick Lawler is a clinician-scientist at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at University Health Network, where he attends in the cardiac intensive care unit, and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. His research aims to develop personalized-medicine approaches for the prevention and treatment of critical illness. This work has a scientific focus on inflammation and metabolism at the intersection between cardiovascular disease and sepsis, leveraging molecular epidemiology/systems medicine approaches. He also has a focus on Bayesian adaptive/platform trials in critical care medicine, and serves on the International Trial Steering Committee of the REMAP-CAP global adaptive platform trial, on the Protocol Development/Leadership Committee for the NIH ACTIV-4 platform trial, and as co-Principal Investigator of the ATTACC adaptive trial of anticoagulation in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 which completed enrollment of 1,204 patients at 62 hospitals in 4 countries. His research is funded by CIHR and NIH, among others.

Dr. Jordan Lerner-Ellis

Dr. Jordan Lerner-Ellis is a Clinical Molecular Geneticist in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital, Associate Professor at the University of Toronto and Clinician Scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute. His Ph.D. was from McGill University in Human Genetics and completed the Clinical Molecular Genetics training program at Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s & MGH Hospitals and is certified as a diplomate of the American Board of Medical Genetics. He is the co-principle investigator of GENCOV – a CIHR funded project that looks at the implementation of serological and molecular tools to inform COVID-19 patient management.

Dr. Christoph Licht

I am Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto and Staff Nephrologist and Senior Scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children and the SickKids Research Institute (Cell Biology Program), respectively. I am a world expert for complement-mediated kidney diseases. My work has advanced the understanding of the pathogenesis and management of aHUS and C3G. My laboratory has made major contributions to the understanding of the consequences of complement activation on platelets, neutrophils and endothelial cells, and we have established a series of functional assays allowing for the testing of complement activation in the blood of patients with (suspected) complement-mediated diseases. Currently, we are exploring a role for complement in an expanding spectrum of conditions including injury to the central nervous system and muscle.

Dr. Tom MacMillan

Dr. Tom MacMillan is a staff physician at Toronto Western Hospital (TWH), University Health Network and a Clinician in Quality and Innovation at the University of Toronto.  Dr. MacMillan completed his General Internal Medicine (GIM) Fellowship at the University of Toronto.  He obtained a Masters of Science in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at the University of Toronto.  Dr. MacMillan’s academic interests include resource stewardship, deprescribing, and developing new models of GIM ambulatory care.  Dr. MacMillan holds the G. Raymond Chang Professorship in Ambulatory GIM Education.

Dr. John C. Marshall

John Marshall is a Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto, a critical care physician at St. Michael’s Hospital, and a Senior Investigator in the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science.  He holds the Unity Health Chair in Trauma Research.  His academic interests lie in the area of sepsis and life-threatening infection, trauma, and the host innate immune response to these.  His laboratory studies the cellular mechanisms that prolong neutrophil survival in critical illness.  He has an active clinical research interest in sepsis and ICU-acquired infection, and in the design of clinical trials and outcome measures.  He leads CIHR-funded research programs in novel clinical trial designs and the treatment of post-resuscitation fluid overload in critically ill patients, and has been an active investigator in more than two dozen clinical trials.  He is the Canadian principle investigator for REMAP-CAP, a global platform trial of treatments for COVID-19.

Dr. Sunita Mathur

Sunita Mathur is physiotherapist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Toronto. She directs the Muscle Function and Performance Lab, and conducts research on skeletal muscle dysfunction and sarcopenia in people with chronic disease. The main clinical populations include chronic lung disease (COPD, interstitial lung disease and cystic fibrosis), people undergoing lung transplantation, and people post-critical illness. She is also the co-founder and co-Chair of CAN-RESTORE, a national network dedicated to improving health of solid organ transplant recipients through exercise and physical activity.

Dr. Sangeeta Mehta

Dr. Mehta is a Critical Care Physician at Mount Sinai Hospital. She completed medical school at McGill University in Montreal, Internal Medicine training at the University of Toronto, and Respirology and Critical Care training at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She is a Professor in the Department of Medicine, and a Clinician Scientist  in the Division of Respirology and Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care, at the University of Toronto; and Clinician Scientist in the Lunenfeld Tanenbaum Research Institute. She has over 240 peer-review publications. She is the Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Chair for the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group (CCCTG). Dr. Mehta’s primary research focus is on the administration of sedation and analgesia, delirium, and restraint use in mechanically ventilated, critically ill patients; as well as sleep, psychological and cognitive morbidity following discharge from the ICU. She is also interested in the perspectives of family members of ICU patients. Most recently she has become very passionate about gender equity in critical care medicine.

Dr. Cheryl Misak

Cheryl Misak is University Professor, Professor of Philosophy, and Interim Director of the Munk School of Global Affair and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. She works on American pragmatism, the history of analytic philosophy, and ethics and political philosophy. Drawing on her experience of critical illness, she has published papers in both medical and philosophy journals on various topics in critical care medicine. She has had visiting fellowships at the Goethe University in Frankfurt; the Free University in Berlin; Trinity College, Cambridge; and St. John’s College, Cambridge. She is an Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford and a has been a Guggenheim Fellow and a recipient of a Humboldt Research Prize.

Dr. Lesley Moisey

Dr. Lesley Moisey is an Assistant Professor and registered dietitian in the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition at the University of Saskatchewan. She completed her PhD at the University of Waterloo in 2017 where she examined nutrition rehabilitation in ICU survivors in the early phases of ward-based recovery. She completed her postgraduate dietetic internship at St. Michael’s Hospital and thereafter worked as an acute care dietitian for several years in Toronto. Her primary research interests focus on enhancing the nutritional health and recovery of ICU survivors; nutrition in breast cancer survivorship; and interprofessional education and collaboration amongst health care professionals.

Dr. Laveena Munshi

Laveena Munshi is an Assistant Professor and Critical Care Physician at Sinai Health System in the Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Toronto. She has research interests in critical care of the immunocompromised and oncologic patient populations with an early focus on acute respiratory failure.  She has completed her Masters in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Toronto. She was supported by a Canadian Institute for Health Research fellowship award during her graduate work and the Eliot Phillipson Clinician Scientist Training program. She is the co-founder of the Critical Care Oncologic Investigative Network – a local initiative established to improve quality of care between Oncology and Critical Care. She has been a member of the American Thoracic Society Mechanical Ventilation clinical practice guideline committee. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she has been a member of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Committee.

Dr. Karen Okrainec

Dr. Karen Okrainec is a Clinician-Scientist who practices as a General Internal Medicine Specialist at University Health Network. She holds an Early Researcher Award and CIHR grant exploring the role of patient and caregiver-centered interventions on post-discharge outcomes such as patient experience and follow-up visits or readmissions. She will be exploring post-discharge understanding of discharge instructions among patients with COVID and its association with subsequent health-care utilization. 

Dr. Matteo Parotto

Dr. Matteo Parotto is a Staff Anesthesiologist and Intensivist at Toronto General Hospital, as well as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesia and Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Toronto. He is the director of innovation and QA in CVICU at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre. Matteo’s major academic focuses are on airway management, ventilator induced lung injury and critical care outcomes. He is the director of the advanced airway management fellowship program at Toronto General Hospital.

Dr. Brent Richards

Brent Richards is a Professor at McGill University and a Senior Lecturer at King’s College London, UK. Prof Richards focuses on understanding the genetic determinants of common aging-related endocrine diseases, such as osteoporosis and vitamin D insufficiency. He and his colleagues have identified some of the genes that influence these diseases, publishing these findings in Nature, Nature Genetics and other journals. Prof Richards has also used Mendelian randomization to better understand the role of biomarkers, such as vitamin D, in disease. His work has been recognized through election as a Member of the Royal Society of Canada, College of New Scholars, and the American Society of Clinical Investigation, and a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Foundation Grant.  

Dr. Lawrence Robinson

Dr. Larry Robinson serves as Professor and Chief of the division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) at the University of Toronto.  Dr. Robinson is based at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre where he serves as Program Chief.  He also holds the John and Sally Eaton Chair in Rehabilitation Sciences.  Dr. Robinson has published extensively on rehabilitation and electrodiagnosis with >175 publications in the peer-reviewed literature.  His research interests include traumatic peripheral nerve injuries, the rehabilitation continuum of care, and impact of physician board certification on patient outcomes.Dr. Matteo Parotto is a Staff Anesthesiologist and Intensivist at Toronto General Hospital, as well as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesia and Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Toronto. He is the director of innovation and QA in CVICU at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre. Matteo’s major academic focuses are on airway management, ventilator induced lung injury and critical care outcomes. He is the director of the advanced airway management fellowship program at Toronto General Hospital.

Dr. Laura Rosella

Dr. Laura Rosella is an epidemiologist and Associate Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, where she holds a Canada Research Chair in Population Health Analytics. She is an Affiliate Scientist at the Institute of Better Health at Trillium Health Partners and holds scientific appointments at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence and ICES. Her research interests include population health, population-based risk tools to support public health planning. She leads the Population Health Analytics Lab, which is a hub for a range of population health assessment research using large linked databases. Notably, Dr. Rosella was recently awarded the Brian MacMahon Early Career Epidemiology Award by the Society for Epidemiologic Research and was named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40.

Dr. Dmitry Rozenberg

Dr. Dmitry Rozenberg is a Respirologist at the University Health Network and is affiliated with the Ajmera Multi-Organ Transplant Program. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, University of Toronto and has been awarded the Sandra Faire and Ivan Fecan Professorship in Rehabilitation Medicine. His research aims to understand the impact of physical fitness and skeletal muscle dysfunction on daily physical function, quality of life, frailty, health care use, and survival before and after lung transplantation. Dr. Rozenberg is applying novel imaging techniques and non-invasive measures to quantify muscle mass, strength and physical function to gain a greater understanding of the functional impairments experienced by transplant patients and their response to rehabilitation.  Dr. Rozenberg is looking to translate his clinical expertise and passion for exercise training to improve health outcomes in individuals with lung disease and across the multi-organ transplant program.

Dr. Jill Rudkowski

Dr. Jill Rudkowski is an Associate Professor of Medicine in General Internal Medicine and Critical Care at McMaster University.  She is the Chair of Clerkship and the Director of Student Advising for the DeGroote School of Medicine.  Dr. Rudkowski obtained her MD from the University of Calgary. She trained in Internal Medicine, Respirology, and Critical Care at McGill University after which she completed a Post-doctoral Fellowship with Dr. Barrett Rollins at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard University. Her research efforts focus on improving outcomes for survivors of critical illness and the impact on their caregivers.

Dr. Frank Rudzicz

Frank Rudzicz is a scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at Unity Health Toronto, Director of Artificial Intelligence at Surgical Safety Technologies Inc., an associate professor of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, co-founder of WinterLight Labs Inc., faculty member at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence, and CIFAR Chair in Artificial Intelligence. His work is in machine learning in healthcare, especially in natural language processing, speech recognition, and surgical safety. His research has appeared in popular media such as Scientific American, Wired, CBC, and the Globe and Mail, and in scientific press such as Nature.

Dr. Raphael Rush

Raphael Rush received his MD from Queen’s university in 2012 and completed residencies in internal medicine and rheumatology afterward at the University of Toronto. He is currently the clinical director of complex and continuing care at Toronto Grace Health Centre, as well as the medical lead for the outpatient clinic. His scholarly interests focus on the rehabilitation care of critically ill patients.

Dr. Shazia Samanani

Dr. Samanani received her M.D. from the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland and then went on to complete her residency training in General Internal Medicine in Massachusetts. She subsequently completed a Geriatric Fellowship prior to returning to Canada to complete a Hospital Medicine Fellowship. She is currently a Clinical Associate at the University Health Network at the University of Toronto. She is currently completing her Masters in Medical Education. She will be exploring the relationship between frailty and recovery in patients with COVID.

Dr. Damon Scales

Dr. Scales graduated from the University of Toronto (UofT) in 1997. Following residencies in Internal Medicine and Critical Care Medicine (UofT), he completed a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology (UofT). He is a Professor of Medicine (UofT), Scientist, and Chief of Critical Care at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the Sunnybrook Research Institute. Dr. Scales conducts epidemiological and health services research examining system-level factors that influence the outcomes of critically ill patients. He has conducted several cluster randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of large-scale quality improvement interventions. He is currently conducting 3 RCTs funded by the Canadian Institute for Health Research: The PITSTOP RCT investigating a prehospital sepsis intervention; the NEURO-ETT RCT evaluating different airway management strategies for neurologically-impaired ICU patients; and the PROTEST RCT evaluating early versus late anticoagulant thromboprophylaxis for patients with traumatic brain injury.

Dr. Robert Simpson

Robert is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) at the University of Toronto. His clinical role involves providing acute inpatient trauma rehabilitation at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Prior to moving to Canada from Scotland, Robert qualified as a General Practitioner, before then training to become a consultant in Rehabilitation Medicine. During this time Robert completed a three-year clinical-academic fellowship in Integrative Medicine via the University of Arizona (AzCIM), the University of Glasgow, and the NHS Centre for Integrative Care. Besides completing the AzCIM fellowship, Robert also successfully completed a Ph.D. in 2017, his thesis focused on developing and evaluating complex interventions. Robert’s current research foci include mindfulness and yoga for people with long term disabling conditions, empathy and compassion, healthcare practitioner wellness, and rehabilitation following hospitalization with COVID-19 infection.

Dr. Marat Slessarev

Dr. Slessarev is adult intensivist and a clinician-scientist at the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Western University. He completed HonBSc and MSc in Physiology and MD degrees at the University of Toronto, followed by post-graduate training in internal medicine. He then moved to London, Canada where he completed his post-graduate training in adult critical care medicine and PhD in Medical Biophysics in 2020 with the thesis exploring neurocognitive impairment across the continuum of critical illness.

Dr. Christine Soong

Dr. Soong is an academic hospitalist and an Associate Professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine and at the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto.  She completed her medical degree at Western University, family medicine residency at the University of Toronto, and a Master’s degree in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation.  Dr. Soong is the Division Head of the Division of Hospital Medicine at Sinai Health and the Department of Family and Community Medicine. She is the Medical Director of Quality and Safety at Sinai Health and the Implementation Lead at Choosing Wisely Canada. Her research and QI interests include patient safety, high-value care, novel models of inpatient care, and transitions of care.

Dr. Vicky Tagalaki

Dr. Vicky Tagalakis is an Associate Professor of Medicine at McGill University and an attending in the Department of Medicine of the Jewish General Hospital. She is Director of the Division of General Internal Medicine at McGill University. She completed an MSc in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McGill University in 2003 and is a Research Scientist in the Centre of Epidemiology and Community of Studies, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital. She holds several peer-reviewed grants. She is Co-Lead of the Quality Improvement Platform of CanVECTOR), a CIHR funded national research network on venous thromboembolism (VTE). Dr. Tagalakis’ principal research interests focus primarily on VTE and VTE-related outcomes primarily in cancer patients. She has expertise in research methodology including pharmacoepidemiology pertaining to thrombosis-related analyses of large administrative databases. She has been awarded numerous peer-reviewed research grants from national and provincial funding agencies, and has published extensively in the field of venous thrombosis.

Dr. Jennifer Taher

Dr. Jennifer Taher is a Clinical Biochemist in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. She completed her PhD in Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Clinical Chemistry at the University of Toronto. She is the co-principle investigator of GENCOV – a CIHR funded project that looks at implementation of serological and molecular tools to inform Covid-19 patient management. Specifically, her area of interest is understanding the serological response to SARS-CoV-2 and how this relates to clinical outcomes, viral strain and host genome variation.

Dr. Adrienne Tan

Adrienne Tan is a clinician-educator and board-certified Consultation-Liaison (C-L) Psychiatrist. She completed fellowship training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and is currently Medical Lead, Division of Medical Psychiatry at the UHN Centre for Mental Health. Her clinical work focuses on psychiatric care of complex medically ill patients. She is currently the Director, General Psychiatry Residency Program, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. She has advanced education and clinical care through stewarding a successful national initiative to have C-L Psychiatry recognized as an Area of Focused Competence by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. 

Dr. Terence Tang

Terence Tang is a General Internal Medicine physician at Trillium Health Partners and a clinician scientist at the Institute for Better Health.  His interest is in designing, implementing, and evaluating health information technology (including the use of data) in the healthcare environment to improve quality of care, and patient and provider experience.

Dr. Lianne Tile

Dr. Tile is a general internal medicine specialist working at University Health Network and Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.  She is assistant professor of medicine at the University of Toronto.  She is the medical director of the University Health Network Osteoporosis Clinic. She is co-investigator with several clinical trials about osteoporosis and metabolic bone disease.

Dr. Teresa To

Dr. To holds a PhD in Epidemiology and Biostatistics and is a Senior Scientist at the Child Health Evaluative Sciences, the Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute.  She is a Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto, and an Adjunct Senior Scientist at ICES in Toronto.  She is the founder of OASIS, the Ontario Asthma Surveillance Information System and a Canadian representative to the WHO-Global Alliance Against Respiratory Diseases.  Dr. To holds a 7-year Tier-1 Canada Research Chair in asthma.  Her research program focuses on asthma epidemiology, measuring long-term asthma health outcomes and in developing indicators to measure and benchmark quality of asthma care in the primary care settings. 

Dr. Jake Tran

Jake Tran is the President & CEO at The Salvation Army Toronto Grace Health Centre since 2018. Jake brings over 23 years of experience as a clinical respiratory therapist in acute care and community settings. He has experience in complex continuing care, transitional care, respiratory care, wound care, acquired brain injury programs, and mental health and addictions programs. Jake Tran holds a Master’s Degree in Science in Community Health from the University of Toronto. He completed his Advanced Health Leadership Program and International Interprofessional Wound Care from the University of Toronto, and is a Ph.D. Candidate from Queens University with interests in Wound Prevention and Care and “successful aging” with the frail elderly population.

Dr. Stuart Turvey

Dr. Stuart Turvey

Dr. Stuart Turvey is a Professor of Pediatrics at The University of British Columbia where he holds both the Canada Research Chair in Pediatric Precision Health and the Aubrey J. Tingle Professorship in Pediatric Immunology. He is a clinician-scientist and Pediatric Immunologist based at BC Children’s Hospital. Prior to coming to Vancouver, Dr. Turvey completed both his Pediatric Residency and Allergy/Immunology Fellowship at Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston. He holds a medical degree (MB BS) from the University of Sydney, Australia and a doctorate (DPhil) in Immunology from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar. Dr. Turvey is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and a Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatrics.

Dr. Andy Wong

I am an imaging scientist and epidemiologist. Using this unique combination of skills, I study bones, muscles, joints, and fat in the aging population with focus on osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and the interaction of these diseases. I am specialized in diagnostic methods and longitudinal studies – in particular, bio/imaging marker development, reliability assessment, and disease risk prediction. My studies cover a broad range of statistical methods including multivariable linear modeling, competing risk/survival analyses, conditional process (moderation), causal inference, structural equation modeling, and machine learning. My team exercises a combination of data programming in SAS and R, and image processing and analysis in Python. 

Dr. Hannah Wunsch

Dr. Hannah Wunsch is an intensivist in the Department of Critical Care Medicine at Sunnybrook Hospital and Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine and the Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Toronto. She is also the Associate Director of Critical Care Research at the University of Toronto and holds a Canada Research Chair [Tier 2] in Critical Care Organization and Outcomes. Dr Wunsch’s research focuses on the organization, and delivery of critical care services, with a particular focus on international comparisons of critical care, use of large databases to understand resource utilization, and pharmacoepidemiology.

Dr. Ryan Zarychanksi

Dr. Zarychanski is a Hematologist, Critical Care physician, and Clinician-Scientist at the University of Manitoba and CancerCare Manitoba. He is also a Senior Scientist at the Research Institute of Oncology and Hematology and an affiliate member of the George and Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation. His research focuses on the hematologic aspects of critical illness where he leads several national and international randomized trials in the fields of sepsis and transfusion medicine. Dr. Zarychanski leads the COVID-19 clinical trials team in Manitoba and is the Chair of international trials evaluating anticoagulation strategies in COVID-19 and sepsis.