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Every month, staff, researchers, physicians, learners and teams across Unity Health Toronto celebrate important honours, achievements and awards. Congratulations to all who’ve been recognized in June!

*Please note: The Honour Roll will take a publishing break in the month of July. The Summer Honour Roll will be published at the end of August.*

Members of the Our Kids’ Health (OKH) team visited the Senate of Canada on June 11. The team was invited as distinguished guests by Sen. Sharon Burey, who recognized them in the Upper Chamber. “Innovative solutions such as Our Kids’ Health Network connects the dots, and points the way to achieving parity of esteem and equity in our healthcare systems,” Burey said. Dr. Ripudaman Minhas, pediatrician at St. Michael’s and the program lead for the OKH network, presented about the impact of OKH’s innovative, multi-linguistic social media-based health promotion platform.

The St. Joseph’s Physician Teaching Awards honoured physicians and teams at St. Joseph’s Health Centre:

  • Dr. Emily Bellicoso received the Physician Ambassador Award.
    • Dr. Shaishav Datta, Dr. Yousef Etoom and Dr. Sarah Whynot received Excellence in Clinical Teaching Awards.
    • The Division of Neurology and the Department of Family and Community Medicine received Excellence in Teaching Program Awards.

The Unity Health Education Awards honoured colleagues across Unity Health:

  • Wallace Dakwa, a student systems coordinator at Unity Health, received the Administrative Operational Award.
    • The Cardiac Catheterization Lab at St. Michael’s received the Collaborative Education Team Award.
    • Dejan Lukic, a respiratory therapist at St. Michael’s; Jennifer Comello, a registered nurse at St. Joseph’s, and Dr. Mark Feldman, a paediatrician at St. Joseph’s, received Distinguished Educator Awards.
    • Gea Panic, a pharmacist at St. Joseph’s; Les Porter a clinical educator at St. Michael’s and Dr. Lu Gao, a psychiatrist at St. Michael’s, received the Early Career Educator Awards.

Dr. Gianluigi Bislieri, minimally invasive cardiac surgeon at St. Michael’s, was awarded the Science and Culture Award – 2024 Business Excellence Award by the Italian Chamber of Commerce of Ontario.

Dr. Naheed Dosani, palliative care physician at St. Michael’s, has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the Canadian Medical Association. Dosani also won the 2024 Dr. S. Lawrence Librach Award for Palliative Medicine in the Community. He was recognized for his vast experience and dedication to advancing equitable access to health care for people experiencing structural vulnerabilities like poverty and homelessness.

Dr. Eno Hysi, scientist at the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science at St. Michael’s Hospital, has been awarded a Canada Research Chair in Quantitative Ultrasound and Photoacoustic Imaging. Hysi, a scientist at the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science, explores how advanced imaging innovations can be used to assess the quality of kidneys prior to transplantation into humans.

Aprile Royal, a registered nurse and manager of the BARLO MS Education Program, was inducted into the 2024 cohort of the Giants of Multiple Sclerosis.  The Giants of MS Awards, coordinated by NeurologyLive and the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers, honour trailblazers who’ve made outstanding contributions to MS research. Royal won in the Nursing category and attended the awards ceremony in Nashville in May. Congratulations!