Michael A. Baker CM, O.Ont., MD
Rose Family Chair in Medicine at University Health Network
Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto

Dr Michael Baker is the Rose Family Chair in Medicine at University Health Network and Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto.  He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the Royal College of Physicians of Canada.

His career interests have included cancer research, medical administration, leadership in patient safety, and a consulting practice in hematology and complex medical care.

Dr Baker’s research has focussed on the diagnosis and treatment of leukemia and aspects of cancer control, leading to more than 100 publications in this field.  He has Chaired  several national and provincial cancer research committees, and served as President of the National Cancer Institute of Canada for three years.  He has been elected as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

He was the Physician-in-Chief of University Health Network for a period of 18 years, and was the inaugural holder of the Charles H. Hollenberg Chair in Medicine.  He currently serves as Executive Lead for Patient Safety for the Ontario Ministry of Health and is on the Board of Directors of the Toronto General and Western Foundation.

On a personal note, Dr Baker’s outside interests include music, tennis and cycling. His wife Barbara is a nurse, homemaker and volunteer.  His son Jeff is a lawyer living in Toronto, with his wife Debra, also a lawyer, and their daughters Mara and Leah.  His daughter Jillian is a doctor living in Toronto with her husband Victor, also a doctor, and their son Gabriel and daughter Camilla.

Dr Baker is the recipient of several prestigious awards including The Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada and The Queen Elizabeth Golden Jubilee Medal.  He has been appointed to the Order of Ontario and to membership in the Order of Canada.

Robert S. Bell, MD
President and CEO, University Health Network

Dr. Robert Bell was appointed as President and CEO of University Health Network (UHN) in June 2005. An internationally recognized Orthopaedic surgeon, health care executive, clinician-scientist, and educator, Dr. Bell brings more than 20 years of experience in academic health care to leadership of Canada’s largest research hospital. From 2000 to 2005, he served as Chief Operating Officer of UHN’s Princess Margaret Hospital where he was responsible for leading Canada’s largest comprehensive cancer centre. From 2003 to 2005, he served as Regional Vice President and Chair of the Clinical Council of Cancer Care Ontario.

Dr. Bell earned a Doctor of Medicine from McGill University in 1975 and a Masters of Science from the University of Toronto in 1981. He completed a Fellowship in Orthopaedic Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University in 1985. During his career as a clinician-scientist at the University of Toronto, he received more than five million dollars in peer reviewed funding and published more than 170 peer-reviewed papers. He participated in the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2005. Dr. Bell is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the American College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

Vera Bril
Director of Neurology, University Health Network,
Krembil Family Chair in Neurology

Vera Bril is a Professor of Medicine (Neurology) at the University of Toronto, Director of Neurology at University Health Network and Mount Sinai Hospital and the Krembil Family Chair in Neurology. She has particular expertise in the diagnosis and management of patients with complex neuromuscular disorders. Her research interests have centered on the diagnosis and evidence-based treatment of myasthenia gravis, inflammatory polyneuropathies, and diabetic sensorimotor polyneuropathy. Her work has helped set the standards for electrophysiological investigations in the definition and evaluation of the progression of chronic polyneuropathies.  Her research has helped establish the role of intravenous immunoglobulin in the treatment of myasthenia gravis and the Guillain-Barré Syndrome, and the long-term treatment of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy. Dr. Bril also serves as the Deputy Physician-in-Chief for Economic Affairs at the University Health Network and Mount Sinai Hospital.

Simon Carette
Rheumatologist
Toronto Western Hospital
University Health Network

Dr. Carette is Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and Deputy Physician-in-Chief, Education at the University Health Network and Mount Sinai Hospital. He is also Head of the Division of Rheumatology at UHN/MSH He graduated from Laval University in 1975 and trained in Internal Medicine at Laval and McGill Universitites before pursuing a fellowship in rheumatology at the University of Toronto and clinical research at the National Institutes of Health in the United States. He completed a Masters of Epidemiology at the University of Cambridge, UK in 1997.

Dr. Carette was awarded a number of prizes both for his teaching and research achievements. He has published landmark papers on the management of low back pain and soft tissue rheumatisms in prestigious journals including the New England Journal of Medicine. He is the director of the Vascultis Clinic at Mount Sinai Hospital. This clinic, the largest of its type in Canada, serves as a referral center for patients from all over Canada for patients suffering from various vasculitides, including Wegener’s granulomatosis, Churg-Strauss syndrome, microscopic polyangiitis, polyarteritis nodosa and Takayasu arteritis. Dr. Carette’s is a member of the Vasculitis Clinical Research Consortium (VCRC) with investigators from the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins Hospital and Boston University.

Dr. Rod Davey
Associate Director of Surgical Services
UHN and Medical Director of Operating Rooms
Toronto Western Hospital

Dr. Rod Davey graduated with his MD in 1980 from the University of Toronto. He interned at St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, completed a residency in Orthopedic Surgery at the University of Western Ontario, London, and a Clinical-Research Fellowship at the renowned Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
For more than 12 years Dr. Davey was head of the orthopedic division that has established an international reputation for advanced approaches to complex joint reconstruction and minimally invasive surgery techniques.
The joint replacement service (arthroplasty) at Toronto Western Hospital is one of the leading programs of its kind in Canada, specializing in complex cases and acting as a referral centre for orthopedic patients from across the country. Arthroplasty most often involves the hip or knee and is used to treat pain caused by conditions such as osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis.
Dr. Davey’s research focuses on replacement of damaged hip and knee joint surfaces with artificial implants. The implants function like a normal hip or knee, allowing patients to not only return to activities of daily living but also go back to many of their regular physical activities such as golf, tennis and downhill skiing.
Dr. Davey is Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery at U of T.

Tirone E. David
Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto
Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Toronto General Hospital

Doctor Tirone E. David is a Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto, Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Toronto General Hospital, and the holder of the Melanie Munk Chair at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre. Doctor David has published close to 300 scientific papers, 45 chapters in medical textbooks as well as 5 surgical textbooks.  He has developed numerous operative procedures to treat patients with heart valve disease, complications of myocardial infarction, and thoracic aneurysms.  He has been a member of the editorial board of several medical journals. Doctor David is a member of numerous surgical and medical societies and honorary member of the European Cardio-Thoracic Association, the Brazilian Cardiovascular Society, the Italian Society for Cardiac Surgery, the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association, the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular, and the Society of Cardiac Surgeons. He was President of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery in 2004-2005, the most prestigious professional organization of cardiac and thoracic surgeons. He received the Order of Ontario in 1993 and the Order of Canada in 1996. He was elected University Professor in 2004, the highest honor the University of Toronto bestows to its professors.

Michael Fehlings
Medical Director, Krembil Neuroscience Program,
Krembil Neuroscience Centre, University Health Network

Dr. Michael Fehlings is a leader in complex disorders of the spine and spinal cord. His stature in the field of neurotrauma has been recognized by the NFL who have asked him to develop  protocols to treat serious spinal injuries. Dr. Fehlings’ ground-breaking research has been further acknowledged by the Karolinska Institute in Sweden who have awarded him the prestigious Olivecrona Award, widely recognized as the “Nobel of Neuroscience”.
Dr. Fehlings is the Krembil Chair in Neural Repair and Regeneration, Head of the Spinal Cord Injury Program and Medical Director at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre. He is also a Senior Scientist in the Division of Genetics and Development at Toronto Western Research Institute, a Senior Scientist in the McEwen Center for Regenerative Medicine and Director of the newly created University of Toronto Neuroscience Program. As a clinician scientist, he identifies problems in the clinical setting and seeks answers in the lab – a “bench to bedside” model that flourishes in the multidisciplinary environment of the Centre.
Neurotrauma, including traumatic brain and spinal cord injury, is a leading cause of death and disability in young adults and children. Dr. Fehlings and his team are exploring how to achieve nerve cell repair and regeneration in the injured spine. They have recently achieved a breakthrough on the use of stem cells derived from the adult nervous system to achieve repair and regeneration of the injured spinal cord. This work has provided the hope to ultimately restore function to individuals suffering paralysis and chronic pain from spinal cord injury and related conditions including multiple sclerosis, head injury and stroke.

John Granton
Associate Professor of Medicine
University of Toronto

Dr. Granton is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. He is the Division Head of Respirology at the University Health Network and Mount Sinai Hospital. He is also the Director of the Pulmonary Hypertension Program at the University Health Network. This program serves patients from across Ontario and the Eastern Provinces. For the past 12 years, the Pulmonary Hypertension Program has also acted as a resource for physicians and care providers and has been involved in research and training physicians to care for patients with pulmonary hypertension.

Dr. Granton is also the Program Director of the Critical Care Medicine residency training program at the University of Toronto, Chair of the Ontario Thoracic Society and Chair of the Canadian Critical Care Society. His clinical and research interests include acute lung injury, heart lung interactions, pulmonary hypertension, and right heart failure.

Gordon Keller

Dr. Gordon Keller earned his PhD in Immunology at the University of Alberta in 1979 and completed a Post Doctoral Fellowship at the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto in 1983.  Following post doctoral studies, he became a Member of the Basel Institute for Immunology in Switzerland where he worked for five years, then moved to Vienna Austria where he accepted a post of Visiting Scientist at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology.  In 1990, Keller moved to the United States, working initially at the National Jewish Centre for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine in Denver Colorado and from 1999-2006 as a Professor in the Department of Gene and Cell Medicine at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York. In 2005, he was appointed as the Director of the Black Family Stem Cell Institute within the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. As of January 2007, Keller returned to Canada to accept the position of Director of the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University Health Network in Toronto.  Dr. Keller is best known for his research in lineage specific differentiation of mouse and human embryonic stem cells.  

Johnny Lau
MD, MSc, FRCSC
Assistant Professor, University of Toronto

Dr. Johnny Lau is an Orthopaedic Surgeon with subspecialty training in reconstructive foot and ankle surgery.  He completed his medical and surgical training at the University of Toronto.  He then completed subspecialty training in foot and ankle surgery in Baltimore, MD.

His research interest is in the treatment of foot and ankle arthritis.  He is studying joint replacements for foot and ankle arthritis and is involved in developing a new ankle replacement.  He is involved in a national study evaluating ankle replacements, and is spear heading a study to evaluate toe replacements. 

His receives research funding from the Canadian Orthopaedic Association, American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society, University of Toronto, and Physician Services Incorporated.  Dr. Lau is the immediate past President of the Canadian Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society, and actively participates in committees for the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society.  He is currently the Chair of the Ankle Arthritis Working Group for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery, and will be leading an international group of surgeons to develop guidelines for treating ankle arthritis.

Gary Lewis
Director, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of Toronto
Senior Scientist, Toronto General Research Institute
Canada Research Chair in Diabetes

Dr. Gary Lewis completed his general medical training in 1982 in South Africa, followed by specialty training in Internal Medicine and then Endocrinology at the University of Chicago.  He joined the staff of the Toronto General Hospital in 1990, was appointed Head of the Division of Endocrinology at UHN and Mount Sinai Hospitals in 2001 and in 2008 he was appointed Director, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of Toronto.

Over 2 million Canadians are affected by diabetes.  This staggering epidemic threatens to overwhelm our health care system and to adversely affect the Canadian economy.  One of the factors responsible for the very high prevalence of cardiovascular disease (heart attacks, strokes, circulation problems) in people who have diabetes is an abnormality of their blood fats and cholesterol.  Dr. Lewis’ research attempts to understand the mechanism of the blood fat abnormalities in diabetes.  He and his colleagues have made a number of important discoveries and have contributed to the general understanding of this phenomenon. 

Dr. Lewis has received numerous awards for his research, including the Young Investigator Award of the Canadian Diabetes Association, Scholarship and Career Investigator awards from the Canadian Diabetes Association, the William Goldie Research Award of the University of Toronto Department of Medicine, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Lipoprotein Society.  He is currently a full Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Physiology at the University of Toronto. He also holds a Canada Research Chair in Diabetes.

Dr. Andres Lozano
RR Tasker Professor and Chair in Functional Neurosurgery
University of Toronto and Toronto Western Hospital

Dr. Lozano received his MD degree at the University of Ottawa and his PhD degree in Neurobiology at McGill. He received post-doctoral training in movement disorders at Queens Square, London, UK and in cell and molecular biology in Toronto. He is currently the RR Tasker Professor and Chair in Functional Neurosurgery at the University of Toronto and the Toronto Western Hospital. He holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience with an active laboratory dedicated to the study of neuronal degeneration and regeneration and Functional Neurosurgery.

Dr. Lozano has over 300 publications in neurosciences including publications in several prestigious journals. He serves on the executive board of several international organizations and is on the international editorial board of 10 journals. A recognized international authority on the surgery and pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease, he has led over 300 invited lectures throughout the world.

His pioneering research activity in Deep Brain Stimulation is unraveling answers to diseases like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, depression and epilepsy. Dr. Lozano has used microelectrode recordings of neuronal activity in the brain of patients with Parkinson's disease to pioneer operations that produce striking improvement in parkinsonian signs and symptoms. He has been involved in training over one hundred  physicians from throughout the world, with the hope that this will mean better access for Parkinson's patients to neurosurgical treatments to alleviate some of the debilitating side effects of Neurological and Psychiatric.

Kenneth Melvin
Cardiologist, Toronto General Hospital
University Health Network

Dr. Kenneth Melvin graduated with his MD from the University of Toronto in 1977 and in the next decade completed two residencies in Toronto and three Fellowships – one, in cardiology, at the well-known Stanford University Medical Centre in California. In 1997 Dr. Melvin was cross appointed to U of T and began his career at University Health Network. Now an Associate Professor, he continues to make important contributions to cardiology research and province-wide regulation to get best practices into Ontario communities. Dr. Kenneth Melvin is actively involved in developing a cardiac rehabilitation program in Ontario. In 1998, as part of the provincial Health Services Restructuring Commission Directions, Dr. Melvin directed the transfer of a community-based cardiology and cardiac rehabilitation program to Toronto Western Hospital.
He is the principal grant applicant for funding from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care for a pilot project on Secondary Prevention and Cardiac Rehabilitation, as a model for Ontario. In 2005, the Ministry extended the initial pilot project and will use data from it for healthcare planning and funding. Dr. Melvin is also Principle Investigator in Toronto for a US National Institute of Health international study on the effects of exercise cardiac rehabilitation in heart failure patients.

Darrell Ogilvie-Harris

He attended the University of Liverpool in England from 1969 -1995. During that time he received a B.Sc. Honours degree in Biochemistry. He was awarded a Distinction in Medicine and in Surgery receiving his medical degree with Honours (M.B.,Ch.B. Hons.). He was recognized for his sports excellence with a Royal Blue for fencing.

He came to Canada and did a Masters Degree in Medical Science researching with Dr.R.B.Salter on continuous passive motion. He received his specialist certification in Orthopedic Surgery in 1981 after completing a residency in the University of Toronto. He has been a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Orthopaedic Surgery since 1981 (F.R..C.S).

He has been a Staff orthopedic surgeon since 1982 at Toronto Western Hospital, where he held the job of Chief of Orthopedic Surgery for 10 years. He has held other academic and administrative posts, such as director of the residency program and head of the trauma committee. He spearheaded a fundraising campaign to raise $1,000,000 for a research Professorship in Orthopedic surgery, known as the Smith and Nephew Chair of Orthopedic Research. Subsequently this has become a University Chair with a value of over $2,000,000.

He  has been active in research, having published over one hundred scientific papers plus many book chapters. He has lectured widely in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East. His special interest has been sports injuries. He has focused an preventative programs as well as rehabilitation. He was the co-founder along with Dr. Michael Clarfield of the Sports Medicine Specialists - a well recognized center of excellence for sports related diagnosis and treatment.

He has particular expertise in arthroscopy and arthroscopic reconstruction. For example, repair of the anterior cruciate ligaments of the knee. He was a pioneer of the use of arthroscopy for smaller joints such as the ankle, elbow and shoulder. His research and clinical publications are mainly in these areas.

His current research projects are focused on cartilage regeneration. This may involve preventative training, surgical removal of damaged areas, joint reconstruction and more recently cartilage transplantation. Cartilage transplantation is a area of rapidly growing knowledge, with the ability of the surgeon to move healthy cartilage to damaged areas in the same patient. This allows living cartilage from the patient to replace the old damaged areas.

 

Christopher J. Paige, PhD
Vice President, Research, UHN
Ronald Buick Chair in Cancer Research
Professor, Departments of Immunology and Medical Biophysics
University of Toronto

Dr. Paige is an internationally recognized leader in the area of lymphocyte development and antibody formation and his original research has been published in the leading scientific journals.  He earned a Ph.D. in Immunology at the Sloan-Kettering Division of Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in 1979. He was a Member of the Basel Institute for Immunology in Switzerland (1980-1987) before joining the Ontario Cancer Institute as a Senior Scientist.

In 1990, Dr. Paige became the founding Director of the Arthritis and Autoimmunity Research Centre as well as Director of Research at The Wellesley Hospital. In 1998, he returned to the Ontario Cancer Institute to assume the role of Vice-President, Research and, subsequently, he assumed his current position of Vice-President, Research, University Health Network.
A Professor in the Departments of Medical Biophysics and Immunology at the University of Toronto, Dr. Paige is an active educator in the undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate programs of the University and frequently at speaks at science and medical conferences worldwide.

He has served on the Research Advisory Boards of both the National Cancer Institute and the Arthritis Society of Canada and is Chairman and Founder of GEMMA Biotechnology. He is Chairman of the Board of the Toronto Biotechnology Commercialization Centre (TBCC) and BioDiscovery Toronto, a collaborative commercialization program of Toronto area hospitals.

John D. Parker, MD

Dr. Parker received his medical degree from Queen’s University in Kingston Ontario in 1984.  Following three years of training in internal medicine at Queens, he went to the Brigham and Woman’s Hospital in Boston where he completed five years of clinical and research training in cardiovascular medicine.  He returned to Toronto in 1992 to take up his first faculty position as Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto.  At the present time, he holds the rank of Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology at the University of Toronto.  He was appointed Head, Division of Cardiology, Mount Sinai and University Health Network Hospitals, University of Toronto in 2003.  Most recently, he was appointed Program Medical Director of the Peter Munk Cardiac Program at the University Health Network.  Most recently, on January 1, 2009, Dr. Parker was appointed Physician-in-Chief of the University Health Network.  Dr. Parker is a clinician scientist at the Mount Sinai and University Health Network Hospital.  He has a major interest in clinical research with a focus on clinical pharmacology and autonomic physiology in heart failure.  These clinical research activities are supported by an active clinical program involving patient care.  Dr. Parker is active as an invasive cardiologist and participates in a large clinical program involving the assessment and management of patients with advanced chronic congestive heart failure.

Dr. Harry Rakowski
Development Director
Peter Munk Cardiac Imaging Centre
University Health Network

In 1972 Dr. Harry Rakowski graduated with an Honours MD from the University of Toronto. He did his postgraduate training in Toronto followed by a Research Fellowship at Stanford University.
A dedicated professor and practitioner, Dr. Rakowski has taught hundreds of cardiology residents. He has led an illustrious career of over 30 years at Toronto General Hospital. There he has served as Director of Clinical Cardiology and Deputy Director for the renowned Peter Munk Cardiac Program. He has served as Chief Examiner in Cardiology, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Internationally he is a past President of the American Society of Echocardiography and is past Chair of the Council of Cardiovascular Organizations, a prominent US cardiovascular leadership organization. He currently is the Development Director of the Peter Munk Cardiac Imaging Centre and Douglas Wigle Research Chair in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.
Dr. Rakowski is widely published, an international speaker and prolific scientist. He has helped write many guideline papers that have been instrumental in educating cardiologists internationally. His research interests include hypertrophic cardiomyopathy a heart muscle condition that is the leading cause of sudden death in young adults. He currently heads a world class clinical and research program, which attracts patients from around the world for investigation and innovative management of this condition.

Dr. Vivek Rao
Surgical Director of Heart Transplantation
and Mechanical Circulatory Assistance
Toronto General Hospital

Dr. Vivek Rao is currently the Surgical Director of Heart Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Assistance at the Toronto General Hospital and the Alfredo and Teresa DeGasperis Chair in the Surgical Management of Heart Failure at the University of Toronto. Dr. Rao completed his medical and surgical training at the University of Toronto prior to completing a fellowship in cardiac transplantation and mechanical circulatory support at New York’s Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital.

Dr. Rao’s research lab is currently investigating novel techniques of myocardial protection for cardiac transplantation and new therapeutic strategies to prevent transplant coronary artery disease. The heart transplant/LVAD research group at the Toronto General Hospital is part of the largest heart failure program in the country and is actively involved in several international trials in heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support. Dr. Rao is a recognized expert in the surgical treatment of end-stage heart disease including high risk coronary bypass surgery, valvular surgery and left ventricular reconstruction. He chairs a committee for the US national institutes of health evaluating clinical trials in cardiac surgery.

Dr. Rao receives research funding from the Canadian Diabetes Association, the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, the Physicians Services Fund, the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario. In 2006, Dr. Rao was recognized as one of Canada’s “Top 40 under 40” by Caldwell Partners International. In 2009, Dr. Rao was named the Male Professional of the Year by the Indo-Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

Richard Reznick
Vice President of Education, University Health Network

Dr. Richard Reznick joined the faculty at the University of Toronto in 1987 and has since been active in both colorectal surgery and research in medical education.  His research interests have focused on assessment and technical skill acquisition.  He was instrumental in developing a performance based examination which is now used for medical licensure in Canada.  He runs a research program on assessment of technical competence for surgeons and supervises a fellowship program in surgical education.  He was the inaugural Director of the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine Centre for Research in Education at University Health Network (The Wilson Centre) from 1997 to 2002.  In 1999 he was appointed Vice President of Education at University Health Network.  In 2002 he was appointed as the R. S. McLaughlin Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto.  Dr. Reznick has received numerous awards for his work in education

Heather Ross, MD, MHSc, FRCP(C)
Director of Cardiac Transplant
Toronto General Hospital

Heather Ross, MD, MHSc, FRCP (C), is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, and Director of the Cardiac Transplant Program at Toronto General Hospital. She is the Director of Education for the University of Toronto Transplant Institute. She received her medical degree from the University of British Columbia, Canada, and completed her cardiology training at Dalhousie University, in Canada. Dr. Ross completed her postdoctoral fellowship in cardiac transplantation at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California, and earned her Masters Degree in Bioethics from the University of Toronto.

Dr. Ross served as the President of the Canadian Society of Transplantation in 2005, and an executive member of the International Society for Heart & Lung Transplantation from 2002 through 2005 and currently is the Secretary Treasurer.   Since 2002, she has been a Supervisor for the CIHR Training Program in Regenerative Medicine, has been the Course Director since 2007 and Program Advisory Committee Chair and Co-Investigator from 2008. She is associate editor for the American Journal of Transplantation and Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation. She served 5 years on the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Council and on the Board of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Academy. She is the Florence and Reuben Fenwick Family Professor in Advanced Heart Failure and Deputy Director of the Multi-Organ Transplant Program. 

Barry B. Rubin, BSc, MD CM, PhD, FACS, FRCSC

Married to Penny Rubin in 1990. Together, they have three children; Chelsea (17), Blake (14) and Shelby (11).

Dr. Rubin completed a bachelor of science degree in physics and physiology, and his medical education, at McGill University. After a surgical internship at Mount Sinai Hospital and one year in the Gallie course in General Surgery in Toronto, he began his research training, under the supervision of Dr. P. Walker. Over the next three years, Dr. Rubin identified what happens to muscles when blood flow to the leg suddenly stops and is then restarted, as can happen when a patient gets a blood clot in the leg; he received a Doctorate in Experimental Medicine for this work from the Institute of Medical Sciences at the University of Toronto. Dr. Rubin then went on to finish his General and Vascular Surgery training in Toronto, is certified by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in both of these specialties, and received the Bernard Langer Award as the outstanding graduate of the Surgical Scientist Program at the University of Toronto in 1993. He joined the surgical faculty at UHN in 1994.

Dr. Rubin runs a tertiary/quaternary care practice in vascular surgery, and manages patients with a wide range of vascular diseases, including thoracic and abdominal aortic aneurysms, carotid (neck artery) stenosis and impaired circulation to the lower extremities. He has been the Head of the Division of Vascular Surgery at UHN since 2004.

Since coming on staff at UHN, Dr. Rubin’s basic science research laboratory has been continuously funded by peer-reviewed agencies, and he currently holds three molecular biology operating grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. His basic science work, which focuses on the way the heart responds to injury and the regulation of the immune response to infection, has been widely published in high impact journals like Circulation, Circulation Research and the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Dr. Rubin is a past recipient of the Wylie Scholar Award in Academic Vascular Surgery from the Institute for Accelerated Vascular Research, San Francisco. This 3-year career development award is given to one vascular surgeon in North America each year-to date, Dr. Rubin is the only vascular surgeon outside of the United States to receive this award.

Dr. Rubin has been Chair and CEO of the MSH UHN Academic Medical Organization since 2003, and has been elected to this position three times by his peers. This organization manages the allocation of approximately $43 million per year in teaching, research, innovation, recruitment and clinical repair funds from the Ministry of Health to 750 physicians at UHN and Mount Sinai Hospital. Dr. Rubin is also the elected representative of 4,000 academic physicians in Ontario on the provincial Academic Medicine Steering Committee. The mandate of this Committee, which includes representatives from the Ministry of Health, Ontario Medical Association, Universities and Academic Hospitals in Ontario, is to develop policy that informs the allocation and distribution of $258 million per year in funding to academic physicians for work that furthers the goals of academic medicine.

Dr. Rubin was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor of Surgery in 2001, and to the rank  Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto in 2007.

Allan R. Slomovic
Associate Professor of Ophthalmology,
University of Toronto
Toronto Western Hospital

Dr. Slomovic is the Research Director of the Cornea/External Disease Service at the Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network. He is also the Chairperson for Continuing Professional Development for the Canadian Ophthalmologic Society and the immediate past chairperson of the Canadian Cornea Society. Dr. Slomovic is an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Toronto.

Prior to starting Medical school, Dr. Slomovic completed a Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology at the University of Montreal. He then went on to do his Medical School training at Memorial University in St John's Newfoundland, followed by an internship in Internal Medicine at The Montreal General Hospital. Dr. Slomovic then went on to complete a 3 year residency training program at the New York University School of Medicine in Manhattan, New York. This was followed by 2 separate Fellowship programs at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami, Florida. The first fellowship was in Cornea/External Ocular Diseases and the second was in Laser Microsurgery.

Dr. Slomovic has been involved with teaching residents and fellows, research and clinical practice over the past 22 years at the University Health Network. He was the program Director for Ophthalmology for the University of Toronto for 10 years (1991-2001) and has lead the program through 2 successful Royal College reviews. He has also trained 24 fellows in Cornea/External Ocular Diseases of the Eye from all over the world, including Canada, United States, Israel, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Great Britain. In 2001, Dr. Slomovic was awarded the Mentor of the Year Award by the Royal College of Physicians of Canada. Dr. Slomovic is the inaugural winner of this award in the province of Ontario. Dr. Slomovic has published numerous articles in the area of Cornea/External Diseases of the Eye and Refractive Surgery and has also lectured on these topics locally, nationally and internationally.

Charles H. Tator
Senior Scientist, Division of Cell and Molecular Biology,
Toronto Western Research Institute, University Health Network

Dr. Charles Tator is a pioneer in the research and prevention of head and spinal cord injuries. For over 40 years this internationally recognized neurosurgeon, scientist and ambassador has done much to bring brain and spinal cord injury before the public eye in Canada.
Dr. Tator completed his residency at Toronto General Hospital in 1969 during which he focused on nervous system diseases for his Masters and PhD degrees from the U of T. Through the 1990s Dr. Tator lead the development of the neuroscience program at Toronto Western Hospital (TWH) and founded ThinkFirst, Canada's National Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Prevention Foundation. He directs the Canadian Paraplegic Association Spinal Cord Injury Research Laboratory at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre and was the chair of the Canadian Brain and Nerve Health Coalition. He was the inaugural Dan Family Chair in Neurosurgery and the inaugural Robert Campeau Family Foundation / Dr. C.H. Tator Chair in Research, and is the former Chair of Neurosurgery at U of T.
The Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Program at TWH owes much to Dr. Tator's research achievements – the development of SCI lab models, evaluation methods, characterization of fundamental mechanisms of SCI, and exploring the potential for regeneration utilizing stem cell strategies.
Dr. Tator has supervised a generation of graduate students and fellows. He has received many awards from leading neurological associations across North America, including grants from the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. He is a Member of the Order of Canada, and an inductee into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.

Bryce Taylor
Surgeon-in-Chief & Director of Surgical Services,
University Health Network

Dr. Bryce Taylor obtained his medical degree from the University of Toronto (U of T) and completed postgraduate surgical training at U of T followed by research training in London, England.
He returned to Toronto Western Hospital where he practiced general surgery and endoscopy and was Coordinator of Undergraduate Education. Shortly thereafter, he moved to the Toronto General Hospital where he and his colleagues initiated a hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery program including transplantation with clinical, educational, and research objectives.
Dr. Taylor has had a long interest in undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing medical education. Throughout the 1980s he was Director of Post-graduate Education in the Department of Surgery at U of T,  and went on to become University Chair of the Division of General Surgery through the 1990s. Since 1999, Dr. Taylor has held the positions of Associate Chair of the Department of Surgery U of T, Surgeon-in-Chief and Director of Surgical Services at UHN, and the James Wallace McCutcheon Chair in Surgery at UHN.
His clinical interests have continued in hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery and surgical oncology and he remains active in the training of students, residents and fellows at all levels in General Surgery. The majority of his time is spent in administering the largest and most academically productive Department of Surgery in Canada.   In 2008 and 2009 in addition to his usual commitments, he has devoted significant time and effort to the safe surgery checklist and its adoption throughout Canada.   

Michael Tymianski, MD, PhD, FRCSC
Neurosurgeon and Senior Scientist
Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network

Dr. Michael Tymianski is the Medical Director of the Neurovascular Therapeutics Program of the University Health Network. Dr. Tymianski specializes in the neurosurgical treatment of patients with complex brain vascular disorders, including stroke. He graduated from Medical School at the University of Toronto in 1987 and began his Neurosurgery training, which he completed in 1995. During his training, he also obtained his PhD in neurosciences (1994). Afterwards, Dr. Tymianski undertook additional specialty training in cerebrovascular and skull base neurosurgery at Toronto Western Hospital (TWH) in 1995 and at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona in 1996.

Dr. Tymianski joined TWH in 1997 and is a Professor of Surgery at U of T where he teaches medical students and clinical fellows. A Senior Scientist with Toronto Western Research Institute, he directs the Neuroprotection Laboratory where he explores the mechanism that causes brain cells to be damaged by stroke and other injuries such as epilepsy and trauma. Recently, he and his team developed a new drug that, in laboratory tests, immediately stops the brain damage of stroke. In 2003, Dr. Tymianski founded a biotechnology company in order to enable him to bring his new drug to clinical trials for the treatment of stroke patients.. This drug is now being tested at several neuroscience hospitals accross canada, and has the potential to help patients afflicted with strokes and other brain injuries.

Taufik Valiante
Neurosurgeon and Co-Director
Epilepsy Program, TWH

Dr. Taufik Valiante completed his residency in the Neurosurgery Training Program at the University of Toronto in 2002.  Having a longstanding interest in epilepsy he spent his fellowship year at the University of Washington, Seattle with Dr. George Ojemann, where he learned about the surgical treatment of epilepsy.  While in Seattle he was also exposed to unique electrophysiological techniques used to understand the cellular basis of memory and language representation in the human brain.  With his appointment at the TWH he has been working to advance both the clinical and basic science aspects of the epilepsy program at the UHN. 

His research interests are represented by his collaborations with many departments including the Department of Neuropsychology, the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Neuroradiology, Pathology, and Anaesthesiology.  These scientific collaborations coupled with the expansion of the clinical epilepsy program at the UHN, will advance our understanding of the human brain, in order that better solutions can be offered to more individuals who suffer from the ravages of epilepsy.

Tom Waddell
Scientist, Division of Cellular and Molecular Biology
Toronto General Research Institute
Thoracic Surgeon, University Health Network

With a Medical Degree from Ottawa and surgical training in Toronto, Dr. Tom Waddell first came to the University of Toronto in 1987. Within five years he achieved his Masters under the supervision of Dr. Alec Patterson, a founder of lung transplantation, and went on to complete his Doctorate with Dr. Greg Downey, Director of U of T's Division of Respirology. A post-doctoral fellowship followed in England, studying the transfer of tissues from one species to another (xenotransplantation).
Dr. Waddell practices thoracic surgery at UHN and Mount Sinai Hospital and cardiothoracic surgery at the Hospital for Sick Children. A prolific researcher and reviewer, he has earned numerous awards and grants and lectured worldwide. Dr. Waddell has led UHN in the strategic planning for our research platform in regenerative medicine, a unique and visionary approach to healing. Through regenerative medicine, scientists repair and grow new cell structures, tissues and organs. This exciting field will transform healthcare delivery in the next decade.
Dr. Waddell’s current research project will advance understanding of how epithelial cells, which comprise the interior lining of the lungs, may be engineered to defend themselves against infectious or immune attacks. Growing new epithelial cells in the lab opens the door to breakthrough, healing treatments for injured lungs.

Christopher Wallace
Head, Division of Neurosurgery, University Health Network
Program Director, Division of Neurosurgery, University of Toronto

Dr. Christopher Wallace has worked at the University Health network for over 20 years and is one of Canada's best known clinician scientists specializing in cerebrovascular disease. As Head of a Division of 11 neurosurgeons at the Toronto Western Hospital, he directs one of the most academic neurosurgery units in North America.
Dr. Wallace is a Professor at the University of Toronto and holds the Foundation Baxter et Alma Ricard Chair in Cerebrovascular Neurosurgery. He co-founded the University of Toronto Brain Vascular Malformation Study Group (1989), which has become a national referral centre for patients suffering cerebrovascular conditions and is known internationally for its clinical research. Patient education in these disease areas is available through the group’s website www.brainavm.com.
A common cause of stroke in patients aged 30-55 is an intracranial aneurysm, a blood-filled blister on an artery wall that ruptures. The resulting bleeding kills brain cells and threatens the lives of patients. Advanced and innovative surgical techniques and endovascular methods of treatment are available at the Toronto Western Hospital for these complex lesions.
In addition to research, the physicians and surgeons in the cerebrovascular group provide advanced training for specialists from around the world in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations. As Program Director for the University Division of Neurosurgery, Dr Wallace is responsible for the postgraduate education of over 35 residents in neurosurgery, the largest such single program in the world.
Dr. Wallace was a Senior Scientist at the Toronto Western Research Institute (1988-2006) and served as its director from 1999-2004. He remains active in clinical research associated with his special interest in intracranial aneurysms and vascular malformations of the central nervous system.

Richard Wennberg
Neurologist & Electroencephalographer
Director of the Clinical Neurophysiology Laboratory
Co-director of the Epilepsy Program,
University Health Network, Krembil Neuroscience Centre
Toronto Western Hospital

Dr. Richard Wennberg is a neurologist and electroencephalographer, director of the Clinical Neurophysiology Laboratory and co-director of the Epilepsy Program at the University Health Network, Toronto Western Hospital. Dr. Wennberg obtained his M.D. degree from the University of British Columbia in 1990 and completed a neurology residency at McGill University in 1994, followed by a fellowship in electroencephalography (EEG) at the Montreal Neurological Institute. Since coming to Toronto and the University Health Network in 1996, Dr. Wennberg has been active in patient care, education and research, and he has published more than 100 scientific articles. His current areas of clinical and research interest lie in the fields of EEG, MEG, epilepsy, epilepsy surgery, concussion, mild traumatic brain injury, sleep, behavioural and cognitive neurology, free will, and consciousness studies. Dr. Wennberg is currently Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, Chair of the Neurology examination board of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and President of the Canadian League Against Epilepsy.

E. D. Wigle
Senior Physician
Division of Cardiology

Following seven years of postgraduate study in Canada, England and the United States, Dr. Wigle joined the staff of the University of Toronto and Toronto General Hospital (TGH) as a cardiologist in 1960 and became Director of the Cardiac Investigation Unit in 1962.   In 1972, he was appointed a Full Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto and became Director of the Division of Cardiology at TGH, until he stepped down in 1986.   It was during that time that Dr. Wigle developed one of the pre-eminent cardiology units in North America at TGH.  Under his guidance, TGH established one of the first all encompassing cardiac units in this country.

Throughout his career, Dr. Wigle has been involved in teaching, both undergraduate and postgraduate students and in a clinical consulting practice in Cardiology.  He is also internationally recognized as one of the pre-eminent researchers of the condition of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.  Since the first modern description of this condition occurred in 1957, Dr. Wigle has published no fewer than 120 peer reviewed scientific presentations, as well as, publishing over 100 manuscripts on the subject.

Ten years ago the Cardiology Residents established the Wigle Teaching Award, which is annually given to the staff member judged to be the best clinical teacher in Cardiology.   More recently, the E. Douglas Wigle Endowed Chair in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy was established.  Dr. Harry Rakowski very deservedly was named to the Chair.   In 2006, Dr. Wigle was named as an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Currently, Dr. Wigle continues his work as a Senior Physician, Division of Cardiology and imparts his expert knowledge to Research Fellows and Cardiology Residents who come from around the world to Toronto for their training.  

Anna Woo
Cardiologist, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Clinic,
Director, Echocardiography Laboratory,
Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network

Dr. Anna Woo earned her MD at McGill University, Montreal in 1992 and ten years later, her SM degree at renowned Harvard University, Boston. After completing two residencies, Dr. Woo added a Clinical Research Fellowship, all at the University of Toronto. In 1999 she was appointed Assistant Professor at U of T and began working at Toronto General Hospital and at Mount Sinai Hospital.  She is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine and the Director of Echocardiography (Cardiac Ultrasound) at the University Health Network. 

Dr. Woo’s research and specialty area of expertise is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, an inherited heart disease that results in an abnormal thickening of the heart’s muscle wall. This enlargement obstructs blood flow and can lead to death – in fact, it is the leading cause of sudden death in young adults. For decades cardiologists have been seeking a cure for this condition. Dr. Woo’s research and teaching at the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Clinic is growing the understanding of the underlying causes of this and similar heart diseases.