This summer, staff, researchers, physicians, learners and teams across Unity Health Toronto celebrated important honours, achievements and awards. Congratulations to those who have been recognized!

Dr. Amit Atrey

Dr. Amit Atrey, an orthopedic surgeon at St. Michael’s, has been appointed to the Waddell Early Career Professorship in Orthopedics at St. Michael’s Hospital.

Dr. Atrey will hold the professorship, named after former Surgeon-in-Chief and Medical Director of the Trauma Program at St. Michael’s Dr. James Waddell, for a five-year term. Dr. Atrey specializes in minimally invasive hip surgery and knee surgery. Congratulations Dr. Atrey!

Dr. Korryn Bodner

Dr. Korryn Bodner, a Research Associate at the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, has been awarded the Open Science in Practice Award at the Post-Doctoral Researcher stage by the Society for Open, Reliable, and Transparent Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, for her work on reproducibility during her PhD and her work with MAP on COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness. Congratulations!

First row: Drs. Andrew Advani, Venkat Bhat, Yvonne Bombard and Joel Ray. Second row: Drs. Fahad Razak, Carolyn Snider and Dan Werb.

Seven research teams at St. Michael’s Hospital have received over $4.8 million in research funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

The funded projects from St. Michael’s Hospital will dig into a variety of medical issues. From kidney disease treatments to the storage and distribution of COVID-19 medication and the electronic stimulation of facial muscles for depression treatment, St. Michael’s researchers have been selected for their exciting, creative, and crucial research. The funded projects are listed below, and you can read more about them on the Unity Health website here.

  • Improving health outcomes for people with diabetes and kidney disease, led by Dr. Andrew Advani, an endocrinologist and scientist at the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science at St. Michael’s Hospital
  • Treating depression with electric stimulation of facial muscles, led by Dr. Venkat Bhat, director of the Interventional Psychiatry Program, a staff psychiatrist at St. Michael’s, and a scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute
  • Investigating the marginalization of racialized and ethnic individuals in cancer genetics services, led by Dr. Yvonne Bombard, a genomics health services scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute
    • With this project, Dr. Bombard also received the Maud Menten New Principal Investigator Prize in Genetics, securing additional funding for the study. The prize is awarded annually to the top three early career investigators with the highest ranking projects that are relevant to the Institute of Genetics (IG) mandate.
  • Unlocking the relation between autism spectrum disorder and high blood sugar during pregnancy, led by Dr. Joel G. Ray, a clinician-scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute
  • Exploring how and why lifesaving COVID-19 drugs were allocated in Ontario throughout the previous waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, led by Dr. Fahad Razak, a General Internal Medicine physician and scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute
  • Increasing capacity to THRIVE and reducing repeat injury after violent injury, led by Dr. Carolyn Snider is a scientist with the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions and Chief of Emergency Medicine at St. Michael’s
  • Examining the proposed solutions to the lethal Canadian opioid overdose crisis, led by Dr. Dan Werb, a scientist at the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions
Dr. Sunit Das

Dr. Sunit Das, a neurosurgeon and scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital, was awarded a Temerty Award for excellence in professional values.

The University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine distributed the awards, which recognize those who are committed to upholding the school’s professional values of being open, collaborative and dedicated to equity and inclusion. Dr. Das was noted for his patient and encouraging demeanor as a teacher and mentor, and his commitment to transferring knowledge and skills to the next generation of neurosurgical trainees. Congratulations!

Dr. Irfan Dhalla

Dr. Irfan Dhalla, vice president, Physician Quality and director, Care Experience Institute at Unity Health, has been named to the Douglas and Ruth Grant Chair in Care Experience at St. Michael’s Hospital for an initial five-year term.

Dr. Dhalla practices general internal medicine at St. Michael’s Hospital. He is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine and the Institute for Health Policy and Management at the University of Toronto. He has been recognized with national awards, from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Society of Internal Medicine, and the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health. Congratulations Dr. Dhalla!

Logo of Temerty Faculty of Medicine - University of Toronto

The 2022 Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) Program Awards, run by Family & Community Medicine at the University of Toronto, recognized excellence in Family Medicine and Research. Congratulations to the Unity Health physicians and staff who received awards:

  • Dr. Kathryn Dorman, a family physician at St. Michael’s, who received the Excellence in Teaching (Early Career) Award
  • Dr. Naheed Dosani, a Palliative Care physician at Unity Health, who received the Excellence in Course/Program Development Award
  • Dr. Abbas Ghavam-Rassoul, a family physician at St. Michael’s, who received the Excellence in Leadership Award
  • Linda Jackson, the Senior Clinical Director of Primary and Community Care of Unity Health, who received the Staff Excellence in Collaboration Award
  • Dr. Tara Kiran, a family physician at St. Michael’s and a scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, who received the Research Excellence – Senior Investigator Award
  • Dr. Deborah Kopansky-Giles, a chiropractor at St. Michael’s, who received the Excellence in Leadership Award
  • Dr. Fok-Han Leung, a family physician at the St. Michael’s Academic Family Health Team, who received the Education Scholarship Excellence Award – Senior Education Scientist
  • Dr. Casimir Soare, a family physician at St. Joseph’s, who received the Excellence in Leadership Award
  • Dr. Karen Weyman, Chief of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at St. Michael’s Hospital, who was named Academic Family Physician of the Year
  • Dr. Sheila Wijayasinghe, a family physician at St. Michael’s, who received the Excellence in Creative Professional Activity Award
Dr. Teodor Grantcharov

We are sending a sincere farewell and thank you to Dr. Teodor Grantcharov for his contributions at St. Michael’s. Dr. Grantcharov became renowned here for his passion and work to improve patient safety and clinical team performance in operating rooms. He has joined Stanford University and we look forward to continuing to grow academic collaborations and work with Dr. Grantcharov on the two organizations’ joint commitment to creating the best care experiences possible.

As a scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute and a surgeon at St. Michael’s, Grantcharov’s first lab at St. Michael’s focused on surgical simulation and education. From there, he and his team developed the now commercialized OR Black Box concept, a modern technological platform that uses high quality data to improve hospital efficiency, clinical performance and patient safety. Learn more about his work at Unity Health Toronto. 

Dr. Stephen Hwang

Congratulations to Dr. Stephen Hwang, director of the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions and a General Internal Medicine Physician at St. Michael’s, who has received the Award of Merit from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health Alumni Association.

This award recognizes professional excellence in the field of public health as expressed by advancement of its science, improvement of its community practice, leadership of its institutions, or contributions to the growth and accomplishments of its future professionals.

Dr. Hwang has been recognized for his focus on homelessness, housing and health, and championing action on social determinants to improve the wellbeing of people experiencing marginalization. Read more here.

Dr. Veronique Miron

Dr. Veronique Miron, a researcher at St. Michael’s, has been appointed to the John David Eaton Chair in Multiple Sclerosis. Dr. Miron will hold this appointment for a five-year term. Congratulations Dr. Miron!

Dr. Michael Cusimano, Dr. Tom Schweizer and Dr. Vitor Mendes Pereira.

Congratulations to the surgeons and scientists from St. Michael’s Hospital who have been recognized by the University of Toronto’s Department of Neurosurgery:

  • Dr. Michael Cusimano, neurosurgeon and researcher at St. Michael’s, received the Ross Fleming Faculty Teaching Award. This award is conferred each year upon a Neurosurgery Faculty member at the University of Toronto in recognition of contributions to undergraduate and junior resident teaching.
  • Dr. Tom Schweizer, scientist at St. Michael’s Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science, received the 2022 Institute Medical Science (IMS) established Faculty Recognition Awards for Strong Mentorship.
  • Dr. Vitor Mendes Pereira, a researcher and neurosurgeon at St. Michael’s, received the 2022 Institute of Medical Science (IMS) established Faculty Recognition Awards for Exceptional Teaching.
Dr. Jilian Baker, Dr. Mark Feldman, Dr. Ripudaman Minhas and Dr. Shazeen Suleman.

Congratulations to the following Unity Health Pediatricians who have been recognized for their education and academic excellence this past 2021-22 year by the University of Toronto.

  • Dr. Jillian Baker, Pediatrician at St. Michael’s Hospital, awarded the Faculty Mentorship Award
  • Dr. Ripudaman Minhas, Developmental Pediatrician at St. Michael’s, awarded the Advocacy & Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Award
  • Dr. Shazeen Suleman, Pediatrician and Researcher at St. Michael’s Hospital, awarded the Robert Haslam Pre-clerkship Teaching Award

Congratulations in addition to Dr. Mark Feldman, pediatrician at St. Joseph’s Health Centre, on his promotion to Full Professor at the University of Toronto. Dr. Feldman is also the 2022-23 President of the Canadian Paediatric Society.

Dr. Andrew Pinto

A COVID-19 study led by Unity Health’s Dr. Andrew Pinto has secured $10 million in funding from the federal government.

The Canadian Adaptive Platform Trial of Treatments for COVID-19 in Community Settings (CanTreatCOVID) aims to evaluate how well current and future oral medications work for acute COVID-19 infections. The study will also examine whether any of these treatments reduce the risk of long COVID.

Congratulations to Dr. Pinto and his team. Learn more about their work here.

Dr. Andrea Tricco

Dr. Andrea Tricco, Director of the Knowledge Synthesis Team at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, has been appointed as Co-Editor-in-Chief at the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology.

As a current Associate Editor of the journal, this new role will enable Dr. Tricco to increase her contribution to the journal and focus on initiatives such as equity, diversity and inclusion, open science and enhancing the publishing experience. Congratulations Dr. Tricco! Read more about this appointment here.

Dr. Sarah Ward

Dr. Sarah Ward, an orthopedic surgeon at St. Michael’s Hospital, has been appointed to the Waddell Early Career Professorship in Orthopedic Surgery for an initial five-year term.

Dr. Ward specializes in hip and knee arthroplasty, including complex primary and revision surgeries. Congratulations Dr. Ward!

By: Ana Gajic and Olivia Lavery