Every month, staff, researchers, physicians, learners and teams across Unity Health Toronto celebrate important honours, achievements and awards. Congratulations to those who have been recognized this month!

Dr. Rajeev Muni

Congratulations to Dr. Rajeev Muni, a vitreoretinal surgeon and researcher at St. Michael’s, who has been awarded the Rosario Brancato Retina Award.

This award is given to a physician working in the field of retinal health and commemorates Professor Brancato, who dedicated his life to the treatment of patients affected by retinal diseases, contributing as a pioneer to the introduction of fluorescein angiography, OCT examinations and laser therapy. It is given out by the OCT & Retina Forum. Learn more online here.

Dr. Joanna Sale

Dr. Joanna Sale, a scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, has been awarded the Mid-Career Investigator Prize in Research in Aging from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Aging.

The grant associated with this award will support a project called, What are the experiences and needs of informal caregivers of fracture patients in a rehabilitation setting? Dr. Sale and her team will study the roles and experiences of caregivers of patients who with fragility fractures. Their goal is to inform the development of programs to address the needs of caregivers. Learn more about this work on the CIHR website and congratulations to Dr. Sale and her team.

Dr. Amol Verma

Congratulations to Dr. Amol Verma, a general internal medicine physician at St. Michael’s Hospital and scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, who is a recipient of this year’s Royal College Award for Early Career Leadership in Health Policy/Health Systems.

Each year, the Award for Early Career Leadership recognizes three Royal College Fellows — within the first five years of independent practice — who have shown outstanding leadership, initiative, service and/or innovation in medical education, health policy and professional practice. Learn more about this honour and Dr. Verma’s contributions on the Royal College website here.

Dr. Fahad Razak and Dr. Amol Verma

GEMINI, a big data collaborative driving quality improvement and research, has won the Data Champions Pilot Project Call from the Digital Research Alliance of Canada. Led by Dr. Fahad Razak and Dr. Amol Verma, general internal medicine physicians and scientists at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, GEMINI has received support from the Digital Research Alliance of Canada to develop activities at the local, regional and/​or national level that advance awareness, understanding, development and adoption of RDM tools, best practices and resources in Canada. 

The Alliance’s Data Champions Pilot Project aims to build national research capacity and deliver on the Alliance’s mandate to create a broad and integrated Canadian digital research infrastructure (DRI) ecosystem. Learn more about the support provided to Data Champions on the Alliance’s website here.

First row: Dr. Flora Matheson, Dr. Katerina Maximova, Dr. Sharmistha Mishra and Dr. Nav Persaud. Second row: Dr. Andrew Pinto, Dr. Fahad Razak, Dr. Joanna Sale and Dr. Amol Verma.

Seven St. Michael’s research projects led by St. Michael’s have been awarded ‘Addressing the Wider Health Impacts of COVID-19’ Operating Grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

This funding opportunity is part of Government of Canada’s continued rapid response to address the health challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. This funding will enable rapid and timely research responding to the current and next phase of the wider impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada and around the globe.

The funded St. Michael’s projects are:

  • Demystifying the ‘black box’ of prisoner re-entry and addressing the mental health and substance use needs and service disruptions for people released from custody during the COVID-19 pandemic, led by Dr. Flora Matheson, a scientist at the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions
  • Disseminating and evaluating ‘best practices’ that promote healthy lifestyle behaviours and mental wellbeing to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on elementary school children in disadvantaged communities, led by Dr. Katerina Maximova, a scientist at the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions
  • Testing Resilience:  An evaluation of the health system impact of COVID-19 in Post-Ebola Sierra Leone led by Dr. Sharmistha Mishra, a scientist at the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions
  • Health equity during the pandemic recovery period: updated knowledge syntheses, policy tracking and health outcome monitoring, led by Dr. Nav Persaud, a scientist at the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions
  • Approaches For ThE pRioritization of patients in priMAry care post-COVID To reduce Health inequities (AFTERMATH), led by Dr. Andrew Pinto, a scientist at the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions
  • Understanding the effects of hospital capacity strain on quality of hospital care for patients admitted to medical and ICU wards during the pandemic and evaluating interventions to mitigate hospital capacity strain, led by Dr. Fahad Razak and Dr. Amol Verma, scientists at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute
  • What are the wider health impacts of COVID-19 on fracture patients served through Ontario’s province-wide Fracture Screening and Prevention Program? Led by Dr. Joanna Sale, scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute

Learn more about the projects on the CIHR website.

By: Ana Gajic